In collaboration with the agency DIALOGBILD, the child protection organisation has developed a large-format graphic illustrating the full spectrum of neglect through twelve illustrative scenes. This ranges from parents who fail to fulfil their duty of care, withhold affection from their children or allow their home to fall into disrepair, to police officers and teachers who turn a blind eye to obvious problems. “Neglect has many faces and often begins very subtly in our everyday lives,” explains Rainer Rettinger, managing director of the children’s charity. “The dialog picture is intended to help raise awareness of this form of violence against children.”

Scientists and child protection experts agree that neglect is a form of violence against children. The long-term consequences of physical violence and neglect are therefore quite comparable. In a study, researchers from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Leipzig examined the stress hormone levels of abused children. The results clearly show that, from a certain age onwards, their levels are lower than those of non-abused children. Over 500 children were included in the study; around half had experienced violence, sexual abuse or neglect during childhood – whether physical, emotional or cognitive.

“In our sample, we had a very large number of neglected children. This aspect is under-represented in public perception; we refer to this as the ‘neglect of neglect’. Yet the neglect of children can have serious consequences. In our study, the greatest effects on stress hormone levels were observed in this group,” says Dr Lars White, research fellow at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics at Leipzig University Hospital.

This is how the dialog picture unfolds in everyday situations: a mother looks at her mobile phone whilst her child gets into a dangerous situation on the playground; a child is completely ignored whilst their parent works from home; children are not dressed appropriately in cold weather; a completely filthy and neglected flat is shown. An infant is not being properly cared for; children are being locked up; police officers walk past a young person sleeping on a park bench without a second thought; at school, nobody notices that one of the children never has anything to eat. “Raising awareness of neglect is the first step we aim to achieve with this poster,” says Raphael Schmid of the Carinthian provincial government. Only then, he says, is it possible to recognise neglect and take the necessary action.