PARIS – France has a “deeply rooted” societal problem with child sexual abuse, the French official responsible for children and families acknowledged Friday while discussing new government plans to address it with tougher laws and heightened vigilance in schools.
Speaking in an interview with The Associated Press, Adrien Taquet, a secretary of state in the French Health Ministry, said “there are some urgent matters, and we have some urgent responses.” "But there are some very very deep issues so it’s only a beginning,” he added.
Proposed legal changes announced by the government this week would classify any sexual penetration of a child under age 15 by an adult as rape and expand the statute of limitations to make it easier to prosecute