However, "the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of primary care interventions to prevent child maltreatment, " the task force said Monday.

CNN: The question your doctor may start asking

The NSPCC said that while child deaths as a result of maltreatment had fallen, more needed to be invested in services to tackle abuse.

BBC: NI child abuse levels 'disturbing' says NSPCC report

Its first elected mayor, a popular local sportsman, stood down in 2009 following criticism of local social services for failing to stop the maltreatment and murder of a child.

ECONOMIST: Reshaping local government

The report, How Safe are our Children, found that for every child in the UK subject to a protection plan or on child protection registers, eight more have suffered maltreatment.

BBC: NI child abuse levels 'disturbing' says NSPCC report

That's the message of a trio of pediatricians, who write this week in the journal Pediatrics with a clarion call to other family doctors and child specialists: stay alert to the signs of psychological maltreatment.

CNN: Belittling kids as harmful as beating, study finds

Psychological maltreatment can include terrorizing, belittling or neglecting a child, the pediatrician authors say.

CNN: Belittling kids as harmful as beating, study finds