Protecting Children

The state is increasingly experienced as both intrusive and neglectful, particularly by those living in poverty, leading to loss of trust and widespread feelings of alienation and disconnection. Against this tense background, this innovative book argues that child protection policies and practices have become part of the problem, rather than ensuring children’s well-being and safety. Building on the ideas in the best-selling Re-imagining child protection and drawing together a wide range of social theorists and disciplines, the book: • Challenges existing notions of child protection, revealing their limits; • Ensures that the harms children and families experience are explored in a way that acknowledges the social and economic contexts in which they live; • Explains how the protective capacities within families and communities can be mobilised and practices of co-production adopted; • Places ethics and human rights at the centre of everyday conversations and practices.

Since the 1980s, bands and tribal councils have developed unique community-based child welfare services to better protect Aboriginal children. Protecting Aboriginal Children explores contemporary approaches to the protection of Aboriginal children through interviews with practising social workers employed at Aboriginal child welfare organizations and the child protection service in British Columbia. It places current practice in a sociohistorical context, describes emerging practice in decolonizing communities, and identifies the effects of political and media controversy on social workers. This is the first book to document emerging practice in Aboriginal communities and describe child protection practice simultaneously from the point of view of the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal social worker.

Safety skills for children outside the home Warning signs of sexual abuse How to screen baby-sitters and choose schools Strategies for keeping teenagers safe from violence All parents face the same challenges when it comes to their children's safety: whom to trust, whom to distrust, what to believe, what to doubt, what to fear, and what not to fear. In this empowering book, Gavin de Becker, the nation's leading expert on predicting violent behavior and author of the monumental bestseller The Gift of Fear, offers practical new steps to enhance children's safety at every age level, giving you the tools you need to allow your kids freedom without losing sleep yourself. With daring and compassion, he shatters the widely held myths about danger and safety and helps parents find some certainty about life's highest-stakes questions: How can I know a baby-sitter won't turn out to be someone who harms my child? (see page 103) What should I ask child-care professionals when I interview them? (see page 137) What's the best way to prepare my child for walking to school alone? (see page 91) How can my child be safer at school? (see page 175) How can I spot sexual predators? (see page 148) What should I do if my child is lost in public? (see page 86) How can I teach my child about risk without causing too much fear? (see page 98) What must my teenage daughter know in order to be safe? (see page 191) What must my teenage son know in order to be safe? (see page 218) And finally, in the face of all these questions, how can I reduce the worrying? (see page 56)

A critical examination of efforts by social media companies—including Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram—to rein in cyberbullying by young users. High-profile cyberbullying cases often trigger exaggerated public concern about children's use of social media. Large companies like Facebook respond by pointing to their existing anti-bullying mechanisms or coordinate with nongovernmental organizations to organize anti-cyberbullying efforts. Do these attempts at self-regulation work? In this book, Tijana Milosevic examines the effectiveness of efforts by social media companies—including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram—to rein in cyberbullying by young users. Milosevic analyzes the anti-bullying policies of fourteen major social media companies, as recorded in companies' corporate documents, draws on interviews with company representatives and e-safety experts, and details the roles of nongovernmental organizations examining their ability to provide critical independent advice. She draws attention to lack of transparency in how companies handle bullying cases, emphasizing the need for a continuous independent evaluation of effectiveness of companies' mechanisms, especially from children's perspective. Milosevic argues that cyberbullying should be viewed in the context of children's rights and as part of the larger social problem of the culture of humiliation. Milosevic looks into five digital bullying cases related to suicides, examining the pressures on the social media companies involved, the nature of the public discussion, and subsequent government regulation that did not necessarily address the problem in a way that benefits children. She emphasizes the need not only for protection but also for participation and empowerment—for finding a way to protect the vulnerable while ensuring the child's right to participate in digital spaces.

Focusing on children who are subject to welfare intervention, Protecting Children addresses the challenges and issues of the child welfare system and provides foundational knowledge on the theoretical and practical aspects of the field. This edited collection begins with a review of key concepts, including child development, attachment, and resilience theories; social policies; family law; and ethics. Highlighting the translation of theory into practice, the contributors discuss current services and the search for best practice internationally, as well as explore Indigenous child welfare and offer conclusions and recommendations to promote positive outcomes for children and families involved in the system. Scholars, researchers, and practitioners from across the globe provide insight on a wide range of timely issues, such as the risk of reductionism, limits to predictability, pragmatic issues, as well as the disproportional presence in the care system of minority groups, including Indigenous children, children of new immigrants and refugees, children in LGBTQ communities, and children of the poor. This foundational volume is an important resource for courses in social work and child welfare. FEATURES - includes contributions from researchers, practitioners, and scholars from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States - highlights Indigenous authors and personal stories of service users, and includes figures and tables throughout the text, as well as section introductions and conclusions to situate main theories and concepts for students

This book provides a comprehensive guide to safeguarding and child protection in the early years. Aimed at students and practitioners it offers insight into contemporary developments in early years and safeguarding practice and sets out the legal and policy foundations for effective practice before exploring areas of contemporary concern. Drawing on the everyday dilemmas and experiences of early years professionals, the book focuses on helping you to seek solutions to both practical and moral issues in a context of legal duties and responsibilities. Covering a broad range of issues, chapters consider: how to identify physical and/or emotional neglect consequential abuse that can occur as a result of parental behaviours safeguarding children’s health & well-being safeguarding against the misuse of technology communication with parents, carers and the ‘team around the child’ alongside examples of real-life issues and consequences that have arisen when communication has broken down safeguarding as a member of a team safeguarding through inter-professional / multidisciplinary work Written by a multi-disciplinary team who have a wealth of experience in safeguarding and child protection, the early years foundation stage, health visiting, social work, the police, and in leading and managing services, this timely new text is essential reading for all those working with young children.

Protecting Children in Time provides a highly original analysis of the origins and development of the taken-for-granted notion that it is possible through social intervention to protect children from avoidable harm and even death, to protect children in time . By using case-studies which span the past 120 years of 'modern' practices and drawing on the work of leading social theorists of modernity and risk society it provides a new way of thinking about constructions of child abuse as a social problem and child protection as a late-modern expert system and experience. It proposes new ways of conceptualizing relationships between professionals, children at risk and families and deepens our understanding of what effective interventions have to involve.

Unprecedented numbers of children are crossing international borders seeking safety. Framed around compelling case studies explaining why children are on the move in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Oceania, this book explores the jurisprudence and processes used by nations to adjudicate children’s protection claims. The book includes contributions from leading scholars in immigration, refugee law, children’s rights and human trafficking which critically examine the strengths and weaknesses of international and domestic laws with the aim of identifying best practice for migrant children.