Increasing numbers of us are concerned that children are treated as an endangered species and no longer allowed to roam free. Many worry that kids are so wrapped up in cotton wool, they miss their childhood. But few commentators have gone far enough to suggest any solutions, probably because many of today's restrictions are presented as necessary for the safety of children.
As school and the parliamentary term get into full swing, one thing we could do is scrap the host of policies and codes around child protection. I don't just mean the overreaction by child protection officers to the gesture of a slap by Cherie Blair. Let's scrap them all and start again.
Child protection policies are harming children. Apart from the burden caused by the bureaucracy, these codes are propagating mistrust and corroding the relationship between adults and young people. Take Disclosure Scotland. The service was launched at the end of April
2002 and developed under the guidance of the Scottish Executive. It is an open secret that it is preventing people from taking care of children. Many are afraid to say this in public, as anyone who criticises the mantra of "better safe than sorry" is treated as an abuser.
The service checks every single person who will be working with kids. It reportedly vetted 540,000 people last year. Is this really a useful exercise of time and money?
The policy isn't unique, unfortunately. There is an expansion of this kind of criminal-records vetting across the country, for all adults who have any contact with children; including parents volunteering on a school trip to piano teachers, and it is corrosive. It sends the message
that taking care of children is a procedure for which you require official clearance, rather than a normal part of being a grown-up.
Many schools operate a policy of no "touch" and try to avoid placing one finger on any child. Forget the comforting hugs or the helping hand. There are now guidelines against teachers putting plasters on children's
knees and applying suncream; parents are advised against, or forbidden from, videoing their kids at the play and at the gym; if they can get approval to attend.
Research by Heather Piper, at Manchester Metropolitan University, has shown that many adults working with children already carry with them a "burden of abuse - a crippling sense of fear regarding how we touch children who have injured themselves or want comforting". These are caring professionals who have been treated with such suspicion they find it hard to do their job. Competent people end up watching each other and themselves for signs of dubious behaviour, truly losing touch with what
is sensible.
Ms Piper found that this hampered their ability to help and care for children. Relating to the breakdown of trust between adults, she says that "we have learned how not to trust ourselves, and to call that safety".
As a result of these codes, kids are abandoned when they need assistance. At one school, staff go to the nurse if a child needs to be touched, say if a pupil has a sore arm, rather than deal with it themselves. Stories such as this are increasingly common. Many teachers, carers, nurses and helpers realise that they are poisoning their
relationship with children, but feel unable to stop the process.
These policies treat every adult as a potential paedophile and fracture any bond they may develop. A society that does this cannot bring up the next generation properly. We are teaching children that they cannot rely on those who should be looking after them and that they cannot ask for help. Nor does this climate of generalised paranoia help identify the handful of sick individuals who do great harm. In trying to challenge the mania for vetting and protection, critics have said that it's the home we should worry about, rather than the school or the playground. But this shifts the risk instead of
challenging it, and feeds the climate of fear. It is statistically true that child abuse is more likely to occur in the home, but this does not mean that it is common; it is not.
We need a more confident approach to relations between all adults and children. It is time for us to show ourselves, and each other, some respect. The extreme vetting must end and the codes should be torn up. Professionals have to start judging for themselves how to relate to kids; adults need to develop more self-belief in their and their
colleagues' judgments, and we need to trust them. This really would be in the interests of children.