What could possibly go wrong!

How will the porn servers cope with the 65 trillion downloads an hour from every teenage boys bedroom?  :scratch:

Took my 10-year-old to the local library today as they were doing a “DigiDabble”.  She got hands-on with makey makey, a 3D Printer and other educational software toys including the Rasberry Pi.  It’s part of a program to encourage kids to get into IT/coding/programming.  Since she got home she’s been busy googling about the Pi and telling me all the things it can do, so I guess we’re getting one soon! According to the lady running the whole thing by the end of the year, libraries will have a dedicated IT Librarian and be running all sorts of coding clubs as a way of promoting the subject. I asked her why this wasn’t being done in schools and apparently it will be but first, they have to pass legislation to allow the IT curriculum to be changed enough to allow this sort of stuff to be included!!  No wonder this country is so far behind we’re going backward.

Last time we had one done, about 5 years ago when we volunteered for Mencap as part of our training for working with adults with learning disabilities, we had one done. Then later on we needed another one done by Kent County Council when we qualified. They were about £80 a pop back then. Crazy. I mentioned this at the time and was told that even if a volunteer takes time out of over a year, they need another one done. As Ed says, bureaucracy gone mad!!

A friend of mine who is a current service police officer has also got to be CRB checked.

The problem with CRB checks is that if adding another activity with another different group is that they know that their CRB check is up to date – which is probably why it is needed.

That said, unless you’ve been discovered/convicted, CRB means nothing – it requires a conviction to be of use.

When my youngest gdaughter was at Primary, SWMBO and I used to attend her school open days and evenings, as we have done for all of them. I spoke to our girl and was approached by her teacher “Are you *****’s granddad, who knows everything?” I was embarrassed when the teacher explained that is what our gd had told her after a ‘Show & Tell’ session, using facts and materials supplied by the guilty granddad. This led to a conversation with the Head and an invitation to volunteer as a Reader to the children. I was checked and rechecked, by the school, the LEA and the police. Like you, Robin, I have a (very old) assault charge, no longer on file I thought, but I volunteered it. It was no barrier and I entered upon one of the most rewarding periods of my life. I read to all ages up to 10 years old, but the real pleasure was in reading to the small ones. I could choose my own books, checked first by the head, and I didn’t just use very junior stories. I have never in my life had a more appreciative audience, sessions ended with me walking out of there always with a smile on my face. As a bonus, my gd was a very popular girl at school. I still occasionally see some of those children I read to, they will shout to me across the road in town and it just makes me so happy to have had even a small part in their educational life. Nothing beats the appreciation of young children. I believe that I must know more kids than adults around here!

I just wish I could command similar attention at home, but you can’t have everything….. :negative:  🙂

CRB or Criminal Record Office also hold all convictions against any person so convicted – although they might be spent – they are still on record as the ‘owner’ has been convicted.  I am not certain if CRB checks actually disclose all convictions, current or spent.  Seems rather pointless if not.

As already said – if you ain’t been convicted yet, you ain’t been caught yet – CRB is worthless. So many sex offences against children is somewhere within the family confines in so many cases.

Ed P wrote:

As you say, such a check is only of value in the case of KNOWN perverts. It is my understanding that the vast majority of the worst cases of abuse are carried out by close relations such as uncles and step-fathers where such checks are rarely of any value. Your comment amplified why I think much of this is just bureaucracy and ‘well-meaning’ law makers gone mad.

The recent sequence of new systems was triggered by a string of events when processes were not followed correctly, e.g. the Soham murders. Should it really have needed a neon warning sign over Hinkley’s head? Social workers persuaded people not to report, the police did not follow up, etc.

Already the new system is reporting false positives and false negatives for much the same reason, people not doing their jobs. You are right, add in the close connection abuse, an often hidden dimension to an already muddy pool. I thought that the recent (hopefully fictional) drama ‘Unforgotten’  captured how such events can develop and then corrode lives. Until we can fix human nature and repair human failures, shocking events will continue. Sadly, all the new processes in the world will not stop such things until events take a turn when it is already too late. I often feel that too often the wrong ones are caught and shamed while worse cases shuffle on. It has to be understood that it is an all classes all races and all religions issue and that hiding even apparently small issues can and will have devastating effects.

Bob, sad as it may sound, I think that dealing with such cases in those ways may still have benefits for the victim who does not have to face a court where some hot shot will say that their client was a pillar of the community and the 9,10,11, etc. year old little hussy went round being everyone’s gift. Perhaps some social workers have a point when aiming to shield them from that? Too often at the sharp end we have replaced one bad with an equally bad or worse.

Correction to what I wrote above, it was Huntley not Hinkley.

I was very unable to be sad that some of the lot involved in the child abuse ring were striped of citizenship recently, even though they tried to play the race card.

This is no word of a lie, at about age 5-7 (infant school age) I was taken from our School cloak room, I only remember fragments. The lady took me out of the clock room at I assume 9am, and we walked the streets and she dropped me off at my ants house.

It turned out the women, long dark hair is all I can remember, had not lost her son that was my age, and blond hair, and she was having a breakdown.

She didn’t do anything bad to be me, we went the shop, or so my mum said, no one knew I was missing, until I arrived at my ants, and she called my mum followed by the school.

The lady, as she was known in the area, nothing happens to here, no one made a fuss because of her situation.

I know it upset my mum for a while, not that I was aware at the time, but we have spoke about it over the years. I don’t know what happened to the women I don’t recall ever seeing her again

What worried my mum was the what if! I don’t recall being treated by her diffently after the fact, but when I was 16 (joined the marines), she decided then was a good time to get me a brother! (mental session I told her at the time), however she was very protective over him, going as far as getting a job as a dinner lady, somthing she did when I was in infant/Jr school, blaming the time I was taken.

He grew up spoilt. But I think I was too, but I put it down to being an only child.

Given I’d moved out before his birth, my mum manages to have two only children. Quite an achievement. A stupid one, but an achievement non the less.