Australian PM launches royal commission into child abuse

[smallguy]

What do you think of this initiative to investigate all child abuses that taken place in institutions including the church?

The Prime Minister said the commission would look at all religious organisations, state care providers, not-for-profit bodies as well as the responses of child service agencies and the police.

Would you country take or has taken similar initiatives The UK is unravelling one of its worst cases in the Saville saga.

[Lommelun]

The aussie initiative will not reveal any new information. It may be a nice research project correlating allready public information from different sources, but nothing new will come of it. It will be yet another way to discredit any initiative from "non-government" though, even if unintenionally. And the end result is suspect will be the opposite of what they try to achieve.

By focusing on child abuse in organized activities you will inevitably push away, at leat to a tiny small degre, the normal people who do not want to be associated with child abuse. Not consciously, but on a deeper more subtle level - any organization branded with a "pedo" tag will have more trouble getting more voluntary help simply because it got that slight stigma to the name. While the people you do not want will not be deterred and be drawn to the same organization.

Not in big numders, but enough to make it a problem.

Then the cycle repeats, and it gets even worse.

Next you know you will have to provide police reports on all voluntary helpers, and that will be the death of voluntary work. People will stop applying to positions in afflicted organizations because of the stigma and only the real predators are left.

It is a horrible cycle. Because you can't NOT do anthing about the root problem either.

[smallguy]

Thanks for your comment but a Royal Commission has authority invested does provide the government to remove cover ups in many areas of previously untouched institutions. Whether this authority will clash with external powers of the church for instance is to be seen