Adults 'scared to go near kids'

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Adults 'scared to go near kids'

 

The report says adults are scared to volunteer as school sports coaches

 

Many adults are afraid to interact with children for fear of being labelled as paedophiles, a report has claimed.

 

Think-tank Civitas said the "escalation of child protection measures" had made everyone from sports coaches to Santas seem like "potential child abusers".

 

The Home Office said there was no evidence that vetting had deterred volunteers or eroded trust.

 

It plans to tighten the rules further, so all parents hosting foreign exchange students will face background checks.

 

In its report, Licensed to Hug, Civitas said that child protection regulations had "succeeded in poisoning the relationship between the generations".

 

While in the past, adults would have helped children in distress or rebuked those misbehaving, there was now "a feeling that it is best not to become involved", it said.

Report author Prof Frank Furedi, of Kent University, said: "From Girl Guiders to football coaches, from Christmas-time Santas to parents helping out in schools, volunteers - once regarded as pillars of the community - have been transformed in the regulatory and public imagination into potential child abusers, barred from any contact with children until the database gives them the green light."

 

Instead of relying on Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks, adults should be allowed to use their "discretion and professional judgment" to decide who should work with children.

 

Foreign exchange

 

A Home Office spokesman said the number of CRB checks on volunteers had grown year-on-year and in 2007, they stopped 20,000 unsuitable people from "gaining work with vulnerable individuals".

 

"There has to be a way to identify and weed out unsuitable people, but such checks do not mean an end to common sense," he said.

 

Civitas called for child protection regulations to be relaxed, but the Home Office said that from October 2009, a new Independent Safeguarding Authority would be created to tighten the rules even further.

 

Beverley Hughes, minister for Children, Schools and Families, said it would become a criminal offence for a parent to let a child stay at their home on a foreign exchange visit without having a CRB check.

 

"We also recommend that host families are given basic awareness of child protection issues and the contact details of the designated senior person within the school with responsibility for safeguarding issues," she said.

 

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, ChildLine founder Esther Rantzen said there were some examples of child protection legislation descending into "politically correct madness".

 

But she said the correct response was to take a more "sensible" approach rather than change the law.

 

"I am a volunteer counsellor for ChildLine - I want checks," she said. "I was delighted to be checked. There is nothing wrong with it.

 

"It doesn't affect my approach to children, my feeling of empathy for children."

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7474692.stm

 

 

 

 

I must admit I understand why those builders didn't dare go near that toddler that ended up dying in the river.

 

Soon you'll need an official "not a paedophile" tattoo on your forehead or else you'll be automatically classed as one..... in fact I think maybe it's not even "soon" in many respects.

[Sima 0]

Fuck off Rantzen with your "Paedo until proven otherwise" bullshit.

[Tom 14013]

Can't complain about CRB's like but I think the public's imagination will be probably do the most damage and give the chav's a few extra houses to throw bricks at.

[Ayatollah Hermione 14060]

Thou shalt not think that anyone over 30 that plays with kids is a paedophile; some people are just nice.

[Sima 0]

Thou shalt not think that anyone over 30 that plays with kids is a paedophile; some people are just nice.

 

Dan Le Sac v Scroobius Pip

[trophyshy 7084]

Thou shalt not think that anyone over 30 that plays with kids is a paedophile; some people are just nice.

 

Dan Le Sac v Scroobius Pip

 

choon!

[Meenzer 15731]

Makes sense. I wouldn't risk having a mob of Portsmouth chavmothers descend on my doorstep brandishing "PEODOPHILS OUT" placards just for kicking a ball back in the park or something.

[Jimbo 175]

Baby's bottom censored by store

 

 

A mother who wanted to give a birthday cake to her son featuring a photo of him as a baby was forced to have it censored because it showed his bottom.

 

Gail Jordan, 41, had gone to Asda in Liscard, Wirral, on 13 June with the photo of her 21-year-old son David taken when he was five months old.

 

Staff at the supermarket refused to scan the picture onto a cake as it featured nudity.

 

They eventually printed the image onto the icing with a star over the bottom.

 

Mrs Jordan, of Rock Ferry, said: "I took the photo of my son to the store in Liscard and they said we can't do that - it's nudity.

 

"It was a photo of my son at five-months-old. I could not believe it.

 

'Not pornographic'

 

"Eventually another member of staff cut a star out and put it on his bottom on the cake.

 

"I just wanted a picture on his cake. Staff said it was deemed as pornographic.

 

"I don't normally shop there, but it would not stop me going back."

 

She added that her son was embarassed by the debacle but liked his cake.

 

A spokesman for Asda said: "We did not say it was pornographic. It is policy across the board that we don't do nudity of any sort at any age. It is nothing new.

 

"They (the staff) made a couple of suggestions - enlarge it so you take the bottom out of it, make the border different and another suggestion was putting a star on the offending area."

[Guest alex]

If that happened to me the first thing I would do is go to the local press about it

Edited June 26, 2008 by alex

[Meenzer 15731]

That seems reasonable enough to me really. If they have a "no nudity" policy then you're not going to risk your job by going against that, no matter how innocent the request. Other Cake Shops May Exist...