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THE EXTENSIVE COVERAGE and analysis of the Independent Child Death Review Group report into the deaths of 196 children involved in the care system reflects our collective horror in the face of yet more evidence that we continue to fail children in Ireland.
The report does not allow us denial that this is Ireland of a different era or the comfort of believing that our cultural attitudes have changed substantially since the tragic events it covers. This report sets out hard evidence of our ongoing failure to place the proper priority on children, particularly those made vulnerable by a variety of experiences none of us could cope with alone.
At its heart, the report of the Independent Child Death Review Group is about the consequences of not listening to children. It is about our failure to see past the behaviours that children are engaged in; our failure to stop and really hear their voices when they ask for our help. We have all failed to listen when children and young people have most needed the adults around them because we have not built a system that allows us to work together effectively to respond to the urgency of giving them the help they need, when they need it.
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Our child welfare and protection system has failed to meet the needs of children because it has reflected our inability to prioritise the protection of vulnerable members of our society. In particular, it reflects our attempts to deny and sweep under the carpet the difficult issues that arise from inequality in Ireland. Our cultural attitude towards children who are marginalised, those who are disadvantaged and those who have mental health difficulties has influenced the priority we place on the support we offer to them.
‘Our cultural attitudes continued to fail children’
The child welfare and protection system is a sad indictment of just how far down the list of priorities they come. During the Celtic tiger we invested significantly in roads and infrastructure but did not put the necessary investment of time, energy and resources into reform of child welfare and protection or mental health services. We did not use our unprecedented wealth to create a more level playing field for marginalised and vulnerable children. Instead, our cultural attitudes continued to fail children and young people because of our inability or unwillingness to properly acknowledge their need. The attitudes reflected in some of the cases dealt with in the report highlight our inclination to blame young people, to demonise and criminalise them, view them as trouble rather than look behind the behaviour and listen to their cries for help.
As a society we have failed to recognise and prioritise children’s right to welfare, their right to protection. Yesterday’s report is another marker in the road to the change that is already underway and the Minister for Children and Youth Affair’s commitment to implementing its recommendations is very welcome. Sustained and ongoing political will, influenced and supported by our collective will as a society to see this change through is what we now need. We must build a child welfare and protection system that is holistic, focused on prevention and early intervention and offers a wide range of supports that meets the needs of children and families. We have begun this process of change and we must strive to keep the momentum going until we have a child welfare and protection system we can all stand behind.
The lives and deaths of the children and young people within the report must not be lost in fallout from its publication. We must keep them at the centre of the change we are undertaking, look to their experiences to continue to learn the lessons from our failure to protect them. At the core of this is our responsibility to put children first, to respect their rights and hear their voices. There is no better way to make good on this commitment than changing our Constitution to reflect a new era in Ireland where all children are our collective priority.
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@Jimmy Savage: Agreed, but when it happens to Martin, who in fairness went to the high court, he was derided.
And Google, etc, aren’t doing anything to prevent this, I’ve seen Anne Doyle, The girl from TV3 ,I’ve reported each one, the last one was ” Google couldn’t find the ad that I reported ” eventhough it still appears .
@Jimmy Savage: It is though. The Online Safety Act now makes it a criminal offence to share, or threaten to share, a manufactured or ‘deepfake’ intimate image or video of another person without his or her consent.
@Jimmy Savage: Sure, but over and over we see those social media companies not care a single whit once they make their profits. Any fines are are a rounding error.
I’m fine with labelled satire or parody or some stuff that is actually fun (things like Sassy Justice or ‘if My name is.. was written in 2021′.
There’s so much more that is just not okay at all that propagates on those platforms… faked political or Hollywood starlets…
Then you have the circular activity of bots responding to each other driving up engagement on those platforms, which is profit that they seem value more that any form of ethics.
@ben wu: Absolutely and they don’t care . They have enabled suicide, self harm , allowed lies to seem acceptable they really are what the world needs to be angry at…..
@Paul O’Mahoney: There was more press coverage over here about something odd looking about a photo of Kate Middleton’s wrist in a family photo, than there has been about those issues…
Soon the default belief will be if it’s on the Internet it’s fake, hallucination, or just plain lies and propaganda.
Aka “I gave them all the tools but they could not use them.”
@smatrix mantra: I disagree with that , the Internet was launched for good intentions, and a reasonable return by investing is fine, but the way a minority has essentially monopolised its content is the problem.
All those software engineers, etc, could have equally written code that was of use to the world’s problems, but that didn’t happen .
@Paul O’Mahoney: Every leap in technology can be used as a tool or a weapon, unfortunately most of the time it’s both but weapons seem to have more impact globally.
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