"Several high-profile authors are to stop visiting schools in protest at new laws requiring them to be vetted to work with youngsters.
Philip Pullman, author of fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, said the idea was "ludicrous and insulting".
Former children's laureates Anne Fine and Michael Morpurgo have hit out at the scheme which costs £64 per person.
...
Mr Pullman told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's actually rather dispiriting and sinister.
"Why should I pay £64 to a government agency to give me a little certificate to say I'm not a paedophile.
"Children are abused in the home, not in classes of 30 or groups of 200 in the assembly hall with teachers looking on."
Anthony Horowitz - author of the popular Alex Rider series - wrote in a comment article for the Independent: "In essence, I'm being asked to pay £64 to prove that I am not a paedophile.
"After 30 years writing books, visiting schools, hospitals, prisons, spreading an enthusiasm for culture and literacy, I find this incredibly insulting."
He added that the database "poisons the special relationship that exists between children and authors they admire"."
So if I decide to go back to my old school to impart my experience of the world of blogging, do I need to be checked out? What if I only talk to sixth formers? What if I only talk over a web link?
Isn't great to live in a country where every adult is under suspicion of being a paedophile if they visit a school, take photos in a park, smile at a child walking past...
In a totalitarian state all are guilty of something, it is just up to the state to decide who to arrest and when.
1 comment:
Its not only authors. A nearby secondary school used to get retired local professionals to talk about their profession or work to try to broaden the children's horizons as to possible careers. They were never unaccompanied at any time, so it is hard to see that they could do anything untoward with a teacher and maybe 30-60 children present.
Now the only people willing to talk to the children are from occupations where it was necessary to have clearance, which cuts out a wide range of possible occupations.
I even read a report the other day in one newspaper that a school couldn't get a broken lock repaired because the locksmith had not been cleared. How ridiculous can you get?
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