Monday, June 26, 2006

Children: Over Surveilled, Under Protected

Later. The conference has now taken place, and there is a full record of the proceedings on its website.

The Daily Telegraph's lead story today is one long plug for tomorrow's "Children: Over Surveilled, Under Protected" conference at the London School of Economics:

Dr Eileen Munro, of the LSE, said that if a child caused concern by failing to make progress towards state targets, detailed information would be gathered. That would include subjective judgments such as "Is the parent providing a positive role model?", as well as sensitive information such as a parent's mental health.

"They include consuming five portions of fruit and veg a day, which I am baffled how they will measure," she said. "The country is moving from 'parents are free to bring children up as they think best as long as they are not abusive or neglectful' to a more coercive 'parents must bring children up to conform to the state's views of what is best'."

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