OMG! They are taking the peadophile thing a bit too far me thinks!

[mamadiva]

I don't know if this has already been done.

The Wright Stuff is on and apparently, men who are in parks are to be quizzed by passing wardens as to why they are there if they don't have a good enough reason they could be sent away or arrested if acting suspiciously!

Is it just me or is this just taking it too far?

Yet again it's men who get targetted, so if a woman is sitting in a park alone it's fine? I don't understand this!

More deranged crap that can be put down to the New Labour desire to make everyone frightened and suspicious of everyone except the Governemnt Who Know Best. Most child abuse happens in the home and is down to family members not random strangers: peedo-panic is being used by the Government to frighten people into accepting even more extensions of Government power to pry.

Hedge Witch - did you see Alan Carr on one of these panel shows?

Presenter: "What do you find at the end of the earth?"

Alan Carr: "Telford Town Centre"

This is utterly ridiculous! Parks are a public space, now they're saying that only people with children can use them, in essence. What is suspicious about adults without children going to a park. When I lived in Hackney I used to sometimes just take a book and sit in Victoria park reading and people watching. That probably wouldn't be an 'adequate explanation of my presence' in the park. Adequate explanation - it's a public space, that people can use to relax in any way they see fit so long as they're not breaking the law!

I don't really understand why the powers that be think it is a good use of time to tackle men in parks. Paedophilia is more of a problem behind closed doors surely? ie people looking at child porn on the net or enticing kids back to their house to look at puppies (or under more believeable pretexts)?

if there are people roaming around in parks "looking" at children, they are not actually doing any harm. Not putting this very well, I don't mean that it's a good thing that paedophiles could wander round a park and get off on looking at kids, but really how many men do you see standing in the park taking pics of fully clothed kids who are obviously not their own children, or masturbating as they watch the playground???

yes, keep an eye on anyone dodgy who's hanging around too much and trying to befriend children - but I bet lots of people get very innocent pleasure from seeing children playing in the park - fathers who don't get to see their kids, or grandparents who live a long way from their dgcs for example.

I have to say that I always report single solitary men who sit in the children's playground watching the children - too weird and freaky for my liking.

But in a public park, that's taking things way too far - everyone is entitled to be in a public park.

tackle men in parks yet allow kids on social networking sites

bizarre

Why do people keep saying men? Do women not do these kinds of things?

Men and women are often responsible for abducting children as far I know so what about a couple who are laying about nearby ould you be suspicious then?

they do mama but rarely

One of my colleagues took his lunch to the park on one of our rare summer days. It was school hols and park was full of kids. He said he felt uncomfortable to be "watching" the kids on his own and returned to the office with his lunch. I thought he was being silly, but obviously not

Haven't read whole thread so not sure if it's been said but this is my local park, and there's a nature trail and gardens there, there is also an ice rink right outside the lake and the patk leads into a shopping centre - so you can't enjoy any of these things if you don't have children with you? Or you will have to walk pretty quick.
Sometimes I meet DH there, does this mean both of us has to have at least one DC each?

It is ridiclulous

BUT as a seperare issue, men are targeted because 99.9% of paedos are male.

Oh, FFS. The Wright Stuff and the DM? Not exactly known for their level-headed reporting of the news are they? I'd take it with a pinch of salt.

And will people please issue a warning before posting links to the DM. I refer to my thread last week. My Guardian halo is slipping.

well the article seemed to say ADULTS - it's not specifically targeting men, just adults with no children with them. Two people were kicked out for handing out leaflets - a man and a woman.

Oh good. Another step forward in becoming a police state.

Perish the thought that anyone other than a child and their carer might want to enjoy a bit of fresh air in a public space.

How unutterably depressing

nickytwotimes

but the council are the onez who made the rules NOT DM or Wright stuff

I don't read papers but i am fan of wright stuff

Surely yur argurment should be with council rather than the ones who report them

It's mad. A friend and I took our dds swimming, and she was told that she mustn't strip her baby to shower her afterwards because of who might be watching.

NickyTwoTimes - then i wait with an open mind fo the rebuttal by the council - and a defamation case by the councillor quoted ! Who knows....

My organisation rund highly effective intensive programmes with young people who are, to be blunt, a public menace. They are referred by the Youth Offending Team, they work intensively with us, and at the end 86% go into full time education, training or work. OF COURSE all our freelance tutors and staff have Enhanced CRB disclosure. But now the council have informed us that 'portability' of CRB checks is not acceptable. So, if a tutor is ill, we cannot employ at short notice a tutor who is, say, a teacher in the same borough and accept thier CRB certificate, eve if it has been done through the same route, and in the last week. So, we have to wait 6 or 8 weeks to get a copy of the exact same bit of paper from the exact same source.

When I pointed this out to tthe council official doing the CRB audit, she said 'ys, but it's because of ian Huntly' - but 'Ian Huntly' was before records were shared centrally - the issue there was that cambridge police had no access to Yorks police records, or something. That is all now sorted. They rea making provision fo a problem that no longer exists.

When I asked what we should do if we could not find a tutor available at short notice CRB checked by us, she said 'cancel the session'.

SO if you live in S London, there will occasionally be young people out on the streets, who are almost certainly a rik to all and sundry, because they are not alowed to be in our building wih CRB checked tutors who are are almost certainly a risk to no-one.

And it's all nonsense anyway. You can be found guilty of a serious drugs offence outside this country, serve a prison senstence outside this country....and it will not show up on your CRB check.

Panic and officiousness without purpose.

Kanga, I was making the point that these types of stories are reported in a rather sensationalist manner by certain sections of the media. I would want to read more about the issue from less reactionary sources before deciding what I think about it.

Remeber 'Festivist' as reported by the DM? It never existed.

On the issue of stranger danger, I do think people are overly suspicious and that is very very sad. However, it is newspapers like the DM who publish sensationalist stories about peadophiles which contribute to this.

as a female adult if i was on my own, I would be more likely to want to eat my lunch in the play park bit as I would feel safer than sitting by myself on a bench, where some people think the act of sitting on a park bench by yourself is an invitation to come over and letch at you/chat you up/talk to you about their friend Jesus etc etc

That is dead depressing, blu, though not surprising. On bad days I honestly feel like I spend half my working life being thwarted by other people's incompetent and untimely administration of compulsory but unnecessary bureaucratic hoops.