Parents can be held accountable for children caught committing serious crimes such as sexual assault and rape.
While speaking at a recent Christian rally, Fiji Police Force Sexual Offences and Child Abuse officer Inspector Unaisi Mateiwai said the law would not hold back from taking parents and guardians to task if the need be.
Insp Mateiwai said children easily access illicit content on social media because parents were not monitoring them.
To illustrate this point, she said a rape case involving a five-year-old and a three-month-old girl could have been avoided if the parents were aware of what was happening around them.
“That rape happened from what they were watching,” Insp Mateiwai said.
Mobile phones and similar electronic devices were brainwashing our children, she said.
“According to the law, when a child is 18 then he or she is allowed to own a mobile phone and have a social media account without any supervision.
“If the child is below 18 and has access to a mobile phone or has a social media account, you must know their password.
“You must monitor. You must guide.”
She said when a child broke the law the parents could be held accountable.
“When they are found or caught, they are transferred to us at the Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Unit.
“If we see that the reason the child breaking that law was because their parents were not aware of what they (children) were doing then we can arrest the parent.”
