1.1 Background of the Study
Children are precious gift from the almighty God. “Children are an heritage of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is His reward” (Psalms 127:3 KJV). They need to be cared for, loved, cherished, appreciated and adored in a reliable manner. In African context, children are so regarded that a family without a child is seen as incomplete institution.
According to Onuzulike (2017) generally stated that a child is an individual under the age of eighteen years. Child abuse is defined as the portion of harm done to a child who may be from human action or inaction that is proscribed or proximate and preventable. Preventable here implies that it is not accidental but intentionally inflicted on the child by perpetrator who does not care about the outcome.
Child abuse as a social problem has only recently opined recognition and attention of the Nigeria public. This was as a result of an organization known as the African Network for prevention and protection against child abuse and neglect (ANPPCAN) which was set up in (1984) by some African countries including Nigeria (Leonard, Nnaemeka, & Izuchukwu, 2015).
Their aim was to look into the area of child abuse and neglect, 25 pertains to Africa, since the Nigeria has formed its own chapter of the network which was inaugurated in (1986) and this body has held a couple of conference in an effort to defined and identify aspects of child abuse within the society. Kalu and Ede (2018), defines child abuse as denial of the basic rights and need of the child by parents, schools, government and society. According to Waboso (2016), also stated that “Neglect” implies a disorder in parent child relationship characterized by a failure of parent to provide for the child the personal values and the child suffers from lack of attention, malnutrition and lack of stimulation.
Anukam (2016) said that in emotional abuse, the parent was so depended on the child that the parent child role was reserved. The child is laid upon the burden of fending for himself and his limited capabilities; he cannot meet the demands and therefore becomes frustrated. The child may want to run away from the family environment and its hardship. Sexual abuse implies sexual harassment given to a child by parents, caregivers, teachers, and so on without the child’s consent and understanding. Kalu, et al. (2018) also stated that reflected or physically or sexually abused children performed poor in school; they receive lower states than no-maltreated children. Against this background, this work is aimed at or examines the nature, causes, and aspects of child abuse and neglect in Nigeria.
The main background of the study exposes the problems inherent in a non-computer based database system. An organization like African Network for Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect, encountered serious problems in the area of documentations which include misplacement of vital information or cases, as a result of large volume of work handled, duplicated or efforts due to inconsistency in activities, and a lot of time spent ins searching for files or reports when needed for processing.
For a system to require some modification or replacement or enhancement, there must be some existing problems associated with the old or existing system that prompted to it. This organization faces numerous problems due to the manual methods of recording which may include:
1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The main objective of the project is to fully understand the existing system and to identify the basic information requirement and then discuss now the computerization of the system can assist in eradicating the problems of non-computer based system. The purpose of this project is to design and implement a system that will solve the problem of misplacement of vital reported cases, documents and records, duplication of efforts, and time taken or needed to process files and records.
The specific objectives includes:
Child abuse and child neglect are social problem that affects a significant number of people, about which something must be done by designing a computerized child abuse and neglect database management system. When finding from this study are implemented, it will help the staff in African Network for Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect, Anambra State any other Child Protection Agency Programme, to solve the problem associated with inability to keep accurate reports and records effectively and acid loss of data or reported cases, and also the Nigeria to be aware of the rate of child trafficking. This work will also be beneficial to researcher who want to do further research of the topic. Hence, the need for computerization of child abuse database management system cannot be over emphasized.
1.5 Scope of the Study
The scope of this study is not limited to or within any agency, it is designed and developed for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect. This is to achieve the targeted area of the study. This work will only compute the child abused, complainant and offenders’ records.
1.6 Limitations of Study
In the course of carrying out this research work a number of problems were encountered.
1.7 Definition of Terms
Abuse: It is any deliberate act by a person, group of person in the society designed to inflict on a child mentally, physically sexually or emotionally.
ANPPCAN: African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect
Automation: it is the replacement of human workers by technology; a system in which a workplace or processes has been converted to one that replaced or ministries human labor with electronic or mechanical equipment.
Child Abuse: This is a child this is physically, sexually, emotionally or psychologically maltreated by the parent, caregivers, teachers or group of persons.
Child: Child is defined as the dependent person in the custody of a parent or guardian for protection of his/her life.
Complainant: A complainant is a person who lodges a complaint. It is a term used in content of criminal law to refer to person who alleges that another person committed a criminal act against him/her in a legal way. It is a person who reports a case or crime.
Data processing: it is defined as the entire process of converting or manipulating data into definite meaningful information (Adigwe, & Okoye, 2015).
Data Security: Data security prevents unauthorized users from viewing or updating the database by the use of passwords.
Data: is any collections of vital information that meant to be processed.
Database Management System (DBMS): it is software which controls the flow of data and checks and checks on how data are stored.
Database: is an organized /unique collection of related files. It is a collection of schemas, tables, queries, reports, views and other object.
Design: is the art or process of designing how something will look, work.
Documentation: material that provides official information or evidence that serves as record; written specifications and information that describes the product.
Information: is a processed data that can be read and understand.
Management: it is act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively. It includes planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization or a system to accomplish a goal.
Neglect: This usually occur when families fail to or on their own part fail to provide the necessary need for their children such as food, medical care, being deprived of essential need of life.
Offender: This is a person who commits an illegal act. He/she is a criminal and guilty of an offence.
Security: This helps to prevent unauthorized users from illegally accessing certain data within the database, it protects your data/ files.
Software: is a program or a set of programs written to carry out some task in the computer, it also perform logical related programs that works together to control the hardware.
System: It is the collection of hardware and software, data information procedure and people.
Vagrancy: it is a way of life in which someone moves a lot from place to place because they have no permanent home and have to ask for or steal things in order to live.
Violence: Behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.
WHO: World Health Organization.