健康英语新闻:Nearly one in four children suffers hunger in U.S.: report

BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Many children in the U.S. live in poverty and their physical and mental health is not ensured as nearly one in four children struggles with hunger, according to a report on the U.S. human rights record released by China on Sunday.

The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2010 was released by the Information Office of China's State Council in response to the country reports on Human Rights Practices for 2010 issued by the U.S. Department of State.

The poverty rate increased for children younger than 18 to 20.7 percent in 2009, up 1.7 percentage points from that in 2008, the report quoted figures from the U.S. Census Bureau as saying.

The report pointed out that violence against children is very severe in the country, citing figures from the official website of Love Our Children USA that every year over three million children are victims of violence reportedly and the actual number is three times greater.

More than 93,000 children are currently incarcerated in the United States, and between 75 and 93 percent of children have experienced at least one traumatic experience, including sexual abuse and neglect, the report said.

According to the report, pornographic content is rampant on the Internet and severely harms American children as seven in 10 children have accidentally accessed pornography on the Internet and one in three has done so intentionally.