There has been a lot of talk in the news recently about safeguarding children and meeting additional needs. This comes as the government plans to reform the current education system, with a £1.6 billion inclusive mainstream fund to channel money to nurseries, schools and colleges to support children as soon as a need is identified.
Currently, safeguarding concerns receive near-daily airtime in the news. However, this coverage often pushes the responsibility away from those responsible for the risks, and onto those who are most likely to be harmed by them.
For example, Meta (which owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook) have recently stated that parents will receive alerts if their children repeatedly search for content related to suicide or self-harming on Instagram - seemingly without acknowledging their own responsibility to address the risks that their algorithms pose to vulnerable young people. Just imagine how you would feel as a parent receiving one of those alerts.
A digital world that thrives on disconnection
We seem to be caught in a downward spiral where the more children connect with the digital world, the greater the disconnect with the real world of family and face-to-face relationships.
I read an article at the weekend where X’s algorithm was explained; it rewards ‘replies’ over ‘likes’, thus maximising conflict, bullying and argument. It would appear therefore that it takes certain aspects of human nature – and stimulates them to the point where the individual identity of the child or young person (or adult!) is distorted and their capacity for sociable interpersonal relations diminished. Or am I exaggerating?
What I take from my reading is that an algorithm that generates bigotry and outrage will be successful because they are usually stimuli to which we respond. But if this is indeed part of human nature, then that primitive need to be in with the in-crowd comes with the corollary that there needs to be an ‘out’ crowd – hence the push towards conflict that is dominating world politics and, at the other end of the spectrum, quite a lot of family homes.
The importance of grounded relationships
The antidote to all of this must be the balance that secure attachments in a grounded family setting with emotionally literate parents provide for a child growing up in such a potentially toxic environment.
My concern is that there is an increasing tendency to see the safeguarding of children as primarily the responsibility of institutions and professionals, with the focus on safer recruitment, supervision and boundaries, and reporting - rather than of parents.
Where the latter abdicate responsibility for their children’s safety and wellbeing to schools and clubs that is when children are at their most vulnerable. Left to their own devices – and their smartphones – girls, for example, pick up a narrative that if they are not like the typical teens they see online then there is something wrong with them. And this may be the catalyst for a journey down the mental health tunnel.
It takes a village
I lived in Nigeria for ten years and there is a Yoruba saying: ‘It takes a village to raise a child’. That probably includes safeguarding! As a parent and grandparent I accept I have responsibility to be that person who encourages young family members to grow up differently, making their own unique journey and letting them make discoveries at their own pace. And I have to be proactive in protecting their right to do that. Relationships build resilience, don’t they? So the quality of my relationship with a child is the key factor in keeping them safe – whether I am their parent or their teacher or their Grannyma.
Creating the right environment
Only by prioritising face-to-face relationships in schools and in the home can we create that nurturing environment that helps to provide children with a sense of meaning and community, enabling them to better navigate the world.
