Support This Site!
If you find this site useful, would you make a donation?
Donate with Paypal

BitcoinDonate Bitcoins!
New Bitcoin address - 30 Nov 2020
1Ee7g7zAUReViPRWtLPBEgnPDRP62qxq3J



Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
New Bitcoin Cash address - 30 Nov 2020
qpwgdhkgfvmgfeun6m36gq0uk4zdvu5vtyzcmn8pfz



Bitcoin SV (BSV)
Now accepting BSV - 30 Nov 2020
1GWYTG1ny65gt3CcRKdsuvtoGnXz5XduBg


Ayn Rand: The Woman


News and commentary round-up on Ayn Rand
04 Jan 2013
Wendy McElroy
News and commentary round-up on Ayn Rand
01 Dec 2012
Wendy McElroy
Alert! Atlas Shrugged Part 2 is opening Friday
10 Oct 2012
Wendy McElroy
Atlas Shrugged Part 2 is opening in 900+ theaters across the nation this Friday.
News and commentary round-up on Ayn Rand
06 Jul 2012
Wendy McElroy
Recent news and commentary about Rand
29 May 2012
Wendy McElroy
Recent news and commentary about Rand
01 May 2012
Wendy McElroy
News and commentary round-up on Ayn Rand
31 Mar 2012
Wendy McElroy
Heads Up! Premier of the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged
11 Jan 2012
Wendy McElroy
Recent news and commentary about Rand
15 Dec 2011
Wendy McElroy
Recent news and commentary about Rand
16 Nov 2011
Wendy McElroy

Shop the Ifeminists Store!
Proclaim your ifeminism! Shop the ifeminists store at CafePress. T-shirts, tote bags, and more!

Main Menu
» News
· Home
» FAQ
» Forum
· Search

Welcome
Username:

Password:


Remember me

[ ]

 
The Guise of Protecting Children
on Monday 27 July 2009
by Wendy McElroy

A headline from the newspaper the Independent (UK): "Tears of a clown who will have to pay to entertain children." The article picks up on the theme about which I blogged under the title "Why We Should Support This Writers' Revolt." the post springboarded off an excellent article by Josie Appleton in Spiked Online, which opened, The children’s author Philip Pullman [author of "The Golden Compass"] has said that he will give up talks in schools rather than submit to ‘insulting’ criminal records vetting under the UK’s new Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). Children's authors in England are staging what appears to be an informal and spontaneous strike by which they refuse to speak at schools or other gatherings with children as long as they are required to undergo a demeaning police screening and be placed in a permanent database as a prerequisite for "volunteering" their time.

The Independent article focuses on the impact of this new legal requirement on other adults who volunteer to bring entertainment, information and joy into childrens' lives. The article opens, Clowns, magicians and puppeteers, who have spent their lives entertaining children, will have to pay to register on a new government child protection database, despite already proving they do not pose a threat. Entertainers who have regular contact with children currently have to undergo Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks, costing up to £60, to prove to employers that they do not pose a danger. Under the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS), which launches in October, they will have to pay another £64 to add their names to a separate database.

One of comments appended to the article speaks to the financial costs being imposed on volunteers or those who casually work with chidlren. As a freelance musician, I am employed throughout the country as a workshop leader and conductor of orchestras, choirs, and bands in education. Not only must I now be CRB checked even though I never work individually with children, but now each employer is requiring their own individual CRB check, meaning that I currently have 4 current CRB certificates with more on the way. Surely this system is totally out-of-control and a windfall for the companies that provide the service for authorities and organizations. My redundant checks have already wasted hundreds of pounds of money that is desperately needed elsewhere.

But the deeper 'costs' continue to be the expansion of police powers, the construction of databases on average people and the pitting of 'civil society' against the safety of children -- that is, the idea that average people going about their business constitute a danger to children and, so, must be vetted by the State. The State is redefining society in a manner that views virtually all adults -- especially of the male persuasion -- as a priori threats to children.

The opposite is true. It is the presence of civil society and of the "average adult" -- you know, the majority of people -- that provides children with the surest protection against harm.

In short, the current hysteria over sex offenders is endangering children. Decent and kind men know to stay away from children. They know how vulnerable 'strangers' (and especially men) are to false or mistaken charges that could ruin their lives merely by being spoken aloud. I have made my husband promise NEVER to volunteer for any event where he will be in contact with children; and this has been a hardship for him because volunteering in the community in one of his passions. But what if a child at the Special Olympics (held in a near-by town) falls and Brad -- in an effort to assist -- picks the child up in what someone thinks is an inappropriate manner? The fact that Brad would be absolutely innocent will help him no more than it did Anthony J. Tripoli, who is now sentenced to life imprisonment on the basis of an 8-year-old's shifting testimony and in the absence of any evidence whatsoever. Indeed, all logic and evidence points to his innocence. No matter. The kid says so...and a decent man's life is forfeit.

What do parents and authorities expect will happen to a child when decent men literally avert their eyes in self-defense when they see him or her approaching? Do they think people will rush to assist that child when he or she is lost, hurt or otherwise in danger? Paranoia is destroying the social network of decent human beings whose natural instinct is to help a child in need; this network is one of the surest protections that children and all vulnerable people have -- again, it is called 'civil society' and it cannot co-exist with the police state being constructed in the name of "protect our children!"

And this, of course, is a driving motivation behind the hysteria -- and a calculated one, IMO. Authorities wish to construct a self-serving police state through which they can better impose social control. If the whipped-up fear and rage of parents can be tapped into, then it becomes far easier for those authorities to build huge databases of highly personal information on all people, whether or not they have committed a crime. Indeed, treating all people as though they were a priori criminals who need to prove their innocence in the eyes of the State becomes the default position. Why wouldn't it? That's a lotta power... And when did government ever say 'no' to more power?

 
    ifeminists.com is edited by Wendy McElroy; it is made possible by support from members like you. For information or to report problems contact admin(at)ifeminists.net.