The U.K. has another scheme for protecting children:

“The system of vetting adults who work with children was introduced in 2002 in the aftermath of the horrific abduction and murder of two schoolgirls in Soham. But most parents still don’t realise that it has since expanded arbitrarily and can encompass virtually any adult who wishes to come in to contact with children.

So if you are not licensed by the CRB, don’t be surprised if you are discouraged from attending your child’s activities. What astonished Alka was that so many parents have come to accept such intrusive vetting as a fact of life.”

The result of all this is that some schools will not allow parents as chaperons at any school activities unless they have been vetted , or approved by the CRB (Criminal Records Bureau). This means that parents can’t be in classrooms for parties or continue to tutor students, among other things.

Now all adults think twice before helping any child in distress-whether that child is drowning in water, is distressed and crying or took a tumble. One nursery worker quit:

“I no longer feel comfortable about acting on my gut feelings and cuddling and reassuring a distressed infant,” she says. As far as she was concerned, if she could no longer cuddle the children in her charge and was forced to minimise physical contact with them, then her job had become “weird”.

I don’t blame her. One church program even wants people vetted who come in the morning to make sandwiches for the children. That’s all they do-make sandwiches and then leave, but they need to be vetted.

“In one example, a woman could not kiss her daughter goodbye on a school trip because she had not been vetted.”

Another woman did go through the process and was licensed (vetted, approved) and then was asked to go through the process a second time. She had enough and quit.

And as we all know, this vetting is not a predictor of future behavior-it only shows what a person has done in the past. It is a great way of preventing people from volunteering and also a good way to harass someone out of a job or position.

It is also setting the precedent for people to have to be approved, or have a license to have children. And the public will be so used to it that they will accept it. Make no mistake, this will also be coming to your country sooner rather than later.

Guess which other country makes you have a license before you can have a child-…I’ll give you time to guess…

That’s right, the same country that for reasons I can not fathom, has this years 2008 Summer Olympics.

Technorati Tags: parenting, children, licensing, vetting, criminal checks, volunteering

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