The Protection of Children....how important is it?

Damned good question, Eorl, and truly a can of worms. There was an example of someone in an English town who was accused of being a pederast a few years ago, and who was abused by a mob (i don't recall if he were assaulted, but i believe they did some property damage), before it was revealed that he had not in fact ever been convicted of pederasty. I'll see if i can find a link to the story.

While searching for that, i came across this story, which i had recently encountered, but which i had forgotten:

Global child porn probe lead to false accusations

Still not finding it, but interesting things keep popping up. This is from Religious Tolerance-dot-org:

Recovered Memories

This is from Hansard, the record of the Proceedings of the House of Commons:



http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm060523/debtext/60523-0301.htm

The big problem, as I see it, is that an overwelming majority of those hurting and endangering the safety of children are parents or in regular established positions of influence in the kids life .

Most kids aren't hurt by strangers. They're hurt by family and 'friends', teachers, authority figures.

People start looking for a scapegoat instead of dealing with their own friggin issues. It's too messy for people to bear full responsibility for their children.

Perhaps with the rise of technology and access to children, this is changing. It would be easy for anyone to gain info for any number of children via chat, internet, cam.

How far is too far? In my opinion, any action taken to take another human beings rights away without examining and correcting one owns part first.
It'll never be perfect. People will always commit crimes of passion for their kids.
And they will always be willing to turn their faces away from the realperpetrators - it's just too much to bear.

The day there are 'perfect' parents is the day this will be resolved.

I've been allied in a familial way with a guy being accused by prompting from others to the not very smart accuser, and have seen lives decimated.

Wrenching.

My accusation is to the services system, and past that, to the legislature, and past that to ... all of us who even bother to vote, ultimately to smarter funding.

We spend billions, even trillions, on bombs.
We are surely befuddled.

while i don't think that harm should come to anyone, i've never really got the whole concept of "we must protect the children, they are our future", to be honest they are their own future, it's the same concept of having children to advance the family line, what good does that do me when i'm dead

Yeah djjd62, I've never liked that phrase either.

Children need to be protected, and should, because they can't do it themselves. And we are the ones who can do it, and choose to pop them out.

I am for protecting the children. But sometimes the whom to protect them from is intricate.

The head psychiatrist to the court received my call and said he understood now, given what I'd said at the beginning of the call, that explained x's non recognition of this and that. And further explained this and that. But basically, once an accusation was out there, it was hard to disprove.

A decade later, my young relative told me about her being prompted, with no push by me.

The psychiatrist had in the meantime gone and died. The mother apologized to me that she didn't mean all that to happen, she being drunk on the phone, one night. She has since died.

So, my view is that I'd like a higher level of interest in all these cases.

I am very much for child protection, but not for desolation for child protected children.

having spent a career in child protection services, I find this an interesting topic but I suspect no one will find any simple answers. The vast majority of referals I have seen in my lifetime have come from ex or near ex spouses, angry relatives and/or nasty neighbors. On the other hand, I have seen some of the most horrendous events of significant abuses imaginable.

Dys, it was your job to advocate for the children, but did you often see situations of mob mentality that gave you sympathy for the perpetrators?

I'm all for child protection, but at what cost? Some would say at any cost. What rights should convicted child molesters have after release from prison? All normal rights? Some restrictions? Never released?