The Head of Foster Care unit at the Department of Social Welfare of Ghana Samuel Anaglate has explained that the recent fake kidnapping by young girls in the country is a result of poor upbringing.

This comes on the back of the St. Louis JHS student who faked her kidnapping in the Ashanti Region leading to the collapse of her father after she called the father to inform him of her supposed kidnap.

He said the act is callous and must be condemned but must be done with decorum to be able to completely get rid of such acts in the society.

“The girls are just being wayward and one thing that must be looked at if a child is going wayward is the casual factors of the child’s action, whatever the child is introduced to when the child is growing is what the child becomes.

If the child is raised right he or she does not indulge in certain acts.”
Speaking on what to do to ascertain a child action, Mr Anaglate indicated that, certain measures can be carried out.

“First of all, you have to assess why the child is doing what he or she is doing or putting up such a behaviour, another option is also where psychologists or counsellors are recommended for such children for them to be talked to because they may be influenced by friends or peers around them, telling them things that they are not suppose to hear, so the counsellor or psychologist will have to re-orient them to them think about the actions before they do it,” he said.

Mr Anaglate noted that, even though there is a provision for the rectification of the child’s action through the help psychotherapy, there are also laid down punishment for such actions if it is established that the child committed the act deliberately.

“There are two types of punishments, the positive and the negative punishment. We can think about taking away privileges as the positive punishment, for instance in the case of the girl who faked her kidnap, the parent can take away some privileges like not allowing them to go on holiday’s and other things so that she will know this is the kind of punishment for the type behaviour she put up. If the issue demands a negative punishment, and the child above 11 years it is reported to the police and the issue will be sent to the Juvenile court where the Judge gives a verdict on what to done to correct the child” he stated.