NCH, a UK children’s charity, is desperate for volunteers to become mentors for boys aged five to 11 who are in need of positive male role models. Sadly, the organization kicked off National Volunteer Week with poll results that found that 13% of the men they questioned who do not currently volunteer to work with children avoid this type of service because of fears of being suspected of pedophilia.

In fact, all of NCH’s volunteers, and all who work with children in the UK, undergo background checks. NCH’s volunteers are, according to their site, thoroughly trained and monitored. While background checks and training are not a perfect device for catching folks with nefarious intentions toward children who would be in their care, they certainly act as a safeguard and should help both the volunteer and all who are concerned about children feel more secure.

But over at Spiked, Josie Appleton levels some blame at the very child protection advocates who have put the safeguarding procedures in place for the anti-volunteerism trend:

Only the joyless bureaucrats, who have their child protection handbooks in their back pocket and know the ‘correct manner of comforting a child’, are deemed okay to allow near tender young people. They are beyond suspicion because they have effectively placed themselves under perpetual monitoring. Working with children becomes less a source of enjoyment, because an adult is driven to develop young talent or has passion for a sport or art, and instead becomes a procedure that must be carried out correctly.

Is Ms. Appleton correct? In the wake of our recent (correct) position that child sexual abuse should be thoroughly exposed and prosecuted, and, of course, that it needs to be prevented, have we swung the pendulum too far and taken a much too proscriptive approach to how adults and children should interact? Do we put men in particular on the defensive, treating them as potential liabilities, and suck all the joy out of working with young people?

I think Ms. Appleton may have a point. If 13% of the male respondents really believe they’ll be seen in a suspicious light simply for volunteering to work with young people, the problem isn’t that there aren’t enough checks in the system, but that something deeper is out of whack. I’ve read quite a bit of criticism lately about how we’re reshaping childhood - for the worse - by standardizing playgrounds and banning tag and tree climbing, and as parents by lawyering for our kids when they bring home D’s or reports of misbehavior. In our zeal to protect kids, we’re actually limiting their learning opportunities.

Are we also sending out signals that when it comes to working with kids, men need not apply? If so, thank God not all men get the message.

Posted by MommaSteph.