‘Child protection’ makes criminals of us all
Philip Johnston writes in The Daily Telegraph about the new Independent Safeguarding Authority, arguing that it reflects an official mindset that everyone is a potential criminal:
Child protection has become a vast, self-perpetuating industry whose very existence depends upon maintaining the fiction that all adults are potentially harmful to children. Perversely, even though most abusers are known to the abused, and children are most at risk from relatives or their friends, the new ISA scheme excludes family or private arrangements. What sort of society is it where adults suspect other adults, and children are taught to suspect anyone other than their parents, who are often the people who cause them greatest harm?
Adults who volunteer their time to coach children in sports, or run Scout and Guide organisations, or adventure outings are being put off doing so in their thousands. There are stories of people who have a conviction from childhood for stealing sweets from the village shop being told they cannot enter a scout hut to collect their own child. For those who have never been in trouble with the police and never will be, there is the ignominy of being subjected to a criminal check, the assumption being that they might offend one day. The hoary old justification that “if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear” just does not wash. Why should everyone be placed on a government database in the belief that they might turn out to be an offender? The same mentality seeks to justify retaining the DNA of innocent people on a database that now contains the profiles of 10 per cent of the population and seeks to make everyone possess an ID card.
October 28th, 2009 at 09:26
Great article.
From 2003-2008, I coached u13s and later u16s cricket for my local village club. To qualify to join a league etc, the club has to comply with ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) rules. We spent 90% of the coaches meetings talking about child welfare as we tried to come to terms with the regulations coming from the ECB. The ECB for their part, gold-plated the regulations in the hopes that they could set up systems to cover every eventuality, and thereby cover their arse’s in the event of any allegation. Now, presumably, work has started to bring the systems into line with the new ISA rules.
I can tell you, as a coach, you are permanently self-checking to make sure you have not broken any of the petty and inconvenient rules. Because, if you do, you become suspect for not complying! So we have a situation where an adult who is no threat to children (in fact, a protector) becomes a suspect.
Now I’ve given up and wonder whether people thought I gave up because I had something to hide!
PS I haven’t…I feel obliged to let you know.
October 28th, 2009 at 13:28
All the checks in the world won’t predict what someone is going to do in the future. People sometimes do unexpected and irrational things, sometimes they lose their self control. All these checks do is, as someone posted elsewhere, stop those who ‘have been there and done that’ from talking about their experiences to kids. There was a time when employers couldn’t discriminate against people who have served time in prison for many offences, but with these checks insinuating themselves into other professions (once one company advertises CRB compliance, they all feel they need to), ex-criminals will be quickly out of a job and likely to go back to their old ways.
October 29th, 2009 at 08:21
PS For anyone over 35 reading this thread, you will be surprised to know that most clubs now have a policy of not providing any transport for colts for away games. Because of the rules, no adult is allowed to be alone with one child who is not their own son or daughter. So if you are not a parent, you can not drive kids anywhere, because of the problem of dropping off the last child. So now, there will often be 8 or 10 cars turning up with the away team (a few parents will take an extra child).
It does wonders for our environmental footprint.