KINGSTON, Jamaica – Registrar of the Office of the Children’s Registry (OCR), Greg Smith, is assuring the public that reports of child abuse are handled in a confidential manner at the OCR.

“I want to assure the public that once you make a report to the Children’s Registry that information is kept confidential,” he said.

Smith said that under section 10 of the Children’s Registry Regulations, the Registrar can only disclose the content of a report if summoned by the Court, the DPP or a Deputy Commissioner of Police. 

The Registrar’s comments come in light of information coming out of a recent baseline study conducted by the agency, through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), geared towards ascertaining the current views, knowledge, practices and behaviour towards child abuse in the country.

He said the information shows that many persons are discouraged to report on child abuse, because of the fear of the perpetrator and the lack of confidence in the reporting system.

 “We assure you and we encourage you that once you decide to break the silence of child abuse your information at the Office of the Children’s Registry is kept confidential,” he said.

Smith said the identity and other details of the person making the report cannot be divulged to the authorities at the Child Development Agency (CDA) or the police and is only known by the Registration Officer, who took the information on the phone and the person submitting the information.

 “If it is breached by the staff at the OCR, the person can be charged $500,000 or six months imprisonment or both and if they delete any information from the report submitted by you, then they can be charged $250,000.00   and/or three months imprisonment,” he explained.

“We want to make Jamaica a safe place for children and the only way we can do that is for you to report any suspected case of child abuse that is happening to our children. Let it be part of our responsibility to protect our children,” Smith added.