25 [58] It must be remembered that the State is both constitutionally and internationally obliged to protect its children from all forms of abuse. Section 28(1)(d) of the Constitution guarantees the right of every child ‘to be protected from maltreatment, neglect, abuse or degradation,’ while s 28(2) provides that ‘a child’s best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child’. [59] In relation to sexual exploitation and abuse of children, article 34 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), which South Africa ratified on 16 June 1995, is of particular importance. It reads as follows: ‘States Parties undertake to protect the child from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. For these purposes, States Parties shall in particular take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent; (a) The inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful sexual activity; (b) The exploitative of use of children in prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices; (c) The exploitive use of children in pornographic performances and materials.’ The content of this prohibition on the sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children is substantially duplicated in article 17 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990), ratified by South Africa on 7 January 2000. [60] These constitutional and international obligations have been incorporated in the Children’s Act 38 of 2005, certain sections of which came into operation on 1 July 2007. Two of the sections already in operation echo the abovementioned provisions of the Constitution and of the international instruments referred to. So, s 9 of the Children’s Act provides that ‘in all matters concerning the care, protection and wellbeing of a child the standard that the child’s best interest is of paramount importance must be applied.’ Section 7 of the Act gives further content and scope to the ‘best interests of the child standard’. Particularly important in the present context are paragraphs (h) and (l) of s 7(1) in terms of which – ‘(1) Whenever a provision of this Act requires the best interest of the child’s standard to be applied, the following factors must be taken into consideration where relevant, namely – ... (h) the child’s physical and emotional security and his or her intellectual, emotional, social and cultural development; (l) the need to protect the child from any physical or psychological harm that may be caused by – (i) subjecting the child to maltreatment, abuse, neglect, exploitation or degradation or exposing the child to violence or exploitation or other harmful behaviour; or