Bitola has been shaken by a case that touches every parent's darkest fear. The public prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into a 36-year-old man, suspected of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl for months. Prosecutors are urgently seeking pre-trial detention over the risk of flight and pressure on witnesses.

According to the available information, the suspect contacted the victim through social media and showed her pornographic material. That is the detail that makes the whole story even harder - the predator did not come down some dark alley, but through the screen every child today holds in their hands. The place where parents assume a child is safe - at home, in their own room - turned out to be an open door.

The case reopens a question society keeps putting off: how much do we really know about what children do online and who is messaging them? Parental oversight, online safety education, the speed of the police once suspicion arises - all of it is now under examination. Prosecutors took a step by requesting detention, but the real test comes later, in the courtroom.

And while the proceedings run, it is worth saying what rarely gets said out loud: cases like this are not an "incident" that happens to someone else, somewhere far away. They happen in our cities, through the platforms we all use. Protecting a child does not begin with a verdict - it begins much earlier, with an attention we surrender to the screen far too easily today.