"The increased stress we're seeing in families due to the virus can increase children's risk of abuse at the hands of their loved ones," says this article from CNN.

On 7 April 2020, Religions for Peace (RfP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) joined forces to launch a global Multi-Religious Faith-in-Action COVID-19 Initiative to raise awareness of the impacts of this pandemic on the world’s youngest citizens. 

"For far too many girls and boys, strict confinement in times of the COVID-19 risks increasing their vulnerability to violence, including sexual abuse and exploitation," says this press release from the Council of Europe.

crisis, including visits by most family members," says this article from the Irish Times.

This article from PBS News Hours describes the concerns of child welfare experts that the COVID-19 crisis will lead to higher rates of child abuse in the US.

"The Moroccan Ministry of Solidarity, Social Development, Equality, and Family has launched an action plan to protect children in vulnerable situations, in light of the special circumstances of the novel coronavirus crisis," says this article from Morocco World News.

This article from ABC News describes the impacts the COVID-19 crisis has had on families in the US whose children are in foster care, including the halting of family reunifications.

This article from the New York Times reviews how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting surrogacy, foster care, and adoption in the United States.

In this piece for the Chronicle of Social Change, Fred Wulczyn - a senior research fellow at Chapin Hall and the director of its Center for State Child Welfare Data - discusses the potential long-term impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on the U.S. child welfare system.

The Saskatchewan Youth In Care and Custody Network (SYICCN) is calling for assistance for children in government care to be kept in place until services return to pre-coronavirus levels, even if young people "age out" of those services, according to this article from CBC News.