Wing & a Prayer Productions

Last Monday I took our dog on a leisurely walk by the Thames. It was a delightful Bank Holiday Spring morning. Several people were out enjoying the sunshine.

Two of these people were a pair of girls, probably around the eleven-year-old mark. They were ‘oohing’ and aahing’ over the baby ducklings, paddling to keep up with their feathered parents. When they (the girls) saw our dog they immediately turned their attention to her, falling on her without invitation (which the dog loved). They proceeded to tell me about their own dogs and about how they were out enjoying the day. Their joy in life and nature was really a beautiful thing to see and I appreciated my brief conversation with them.

And yet the experience was marred by a little voice in my head: the voice of youth work training, the voice of Safe to Grow guidelines and Safeguarding Courses-the voice, in short, which said: ‘man on his own with a puppy talking to two minors-get out of here, you fool, get out!’ There’s even part of me right now that’s thinking ‘Should I even be writing about this incident on my blog?’

I have nothing to hide. I had not the slightest malicious or improper intention towards those two girls. I was in a public place with people passing by. But I’ve been so conditioned now never to be alone with young people, seen too many cases where people have been ruined by false accusations, that I didn’t feel I could enjoy an innocent chat with these two girls.

I believe that young people should be protected. There are some very disturbed individuals out there who want to do some very sick things to young people. It’s right to be sensible and careful.

But it’s not right to be ruled by fear, which is what Twentieth Century Britain is rapidly giving itself over to. In my opinion much of the safeguarding guidelines are not about protecting young people but about protecting adults from false accusation. Something has gone badly wrong. In protecting ourselves, what are we denying children?

To take one example, the official advice I’ve received when I do voluntary youth is to never touch a child, even when there are other youth workers with me. In other words, if a child falls over and cries, I shouldn’t comfort them by putting an arm around their shoulder-not if I want to be safe.

I’m sure there’s room for these things to be abused and we need to be sensible-but where is common sense in the midst of governmental guidelines? What have we sacrificed while trying to protect ourselves?

Because my fear is that, in all this, the key thing we’re communicating to young people is just that: fear.