The increasing number of reported child abuse cases in South Korea, with many of them resulting in brutal deaths, have raised awareness of the need to tackle the problem more systematically.

While statistics vary, the Health and Welfare Ministry’s numbers show that more cases of child abuse are being reported each year. An alarming factor has been that 81 percent of the offenders are parents.

By type, 48 percent involved multiple forms of abuse, including negligence, emotional abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse.

Experts have said radical forms of child abuse are often caused hereditarily, along with such factors as the offender’s emotional state or destitution.

The increasing number of isolated families has also led to less exposure for young parents in learning how to raise their children properly through other families, neighbors and regional communities, some point out.

They note that such phenomenon has also been witnessed in many developed countries.

Wider investment in parental education and establishing social safety nets to help those in need are considered necessary, as well as a systematic infrastructure of monitoring the well-being of children, such as through a state-wide network of medical checks and school enrollments.