It's not less taboo. It's illegal in almost all cultures.
Psychologists and social workers in the 1980s believed the numbers were 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 10 boys were molested or raped by a member of their family, usually a father, step-father, uncle, or grandfather. 1% of perpetrators are women, usually single mothers. 99% are male and currently married. Ages of victims range from newborns to 15 years, but grooming most frequently starts between 4 and 6 years old, and the abuse continues until the child gets old enough to start acting out -- with a wide range of responses: withdrawal, depression, suicides, drug addiction, running away from home, delinquency, crimes.
In Japan, the ratios are reversed. Mothers whose husbands spend long hours away at work are the most likely to offer sex to their teenage sons. They try to jusitfy that it is "to keep them at home and focused on their schoolwork". The psychological damage to these boys is just as bad.
There are practical reasons why incest is psychologically damaging to the child, no matter whether the grooming is manipulative or coercive. It is rape because children do not experience adult desires and because they're not mature enough to know how to defend themselves.It predisposes the victim to a lifetime of low self-esteem, depression, and very often addiction and worse. On the physical level, male on female, there are the risks of pregnancy and babies with subnormal intelligence and genetic deformities.
The only difference now is that we do and should talk about it.
Perpetrators need to understand the serious and long-term damage they do.
Victims are learning that it is important to report their perpetrator to a responsible adult who will believe, support and help them.
Adult survivors are learning the value of talking about it to their therapists, if they can afford one.
The media are talking about it because of the terrible toll. There is no justification for harming a child in any way.
