Alderson, Priscilla; (2004) Babes in the wood: lost in the prevention services. In: Invisible children: For Children, families and social inclusion. University of Birmingham: Birmingham, UK.

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Abstract

This short paper aims to promote debate through the on-line conference by giving views about prevention and children that are perhaps less often heard. Young children are vulnerable because of their limited size and strength, and all children are vulnerable because of their economic and political dependence on others. As Gerison Lansdown warned (1994), we must be careful not to confuse children’s inevitable vulnerabilities with ones that are mistakenly ascribed to them or imposed on to them. When children are highly protected, it is easy to assume that they all lack competence, good sense and judgement, experience, and the abilities to protect themselves and to act independently. However, growing numbers of studies around the world show, for example, that street children aged from around 8 years and younger can be very capable and independent (Ennew 1995; Alderson 2000; John 2003). This point is certainly not made to recommend life on the street, or to suggest that street children are happier than the average child in Britain. And yet we have to ask why British children are now seen as so vulnerable and helpless in comparison with many children in other continents, and when compared with young British children 50 years ago who could roam freely round their communities and do paid work such as helping the milkman.

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