Protection of Children’s and Young People’s Rights - (Preventive) Protection of Children and Young People
The best way of protecting victims is to take precautions against and prevent crime. Crime prevention is therefore recognised as a necessary task, numerous projects and programmes have been and are being initiated, new approaches are being explored, and co-operation between child and youth service organisations, the police and the judiciary has been intensified with a view to threats to children and young people.
The Act on the Further Development of Child and Youth Services (Gesetz zur Weiterentwicklung der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe, KICK), which entered into force on 1 October 2005, enhanced the protection of children and young people in the field of child and youth services pursuant to Book VIII of the Social Code. The legislature specified and clearly defined the protective role of child and youth service organisations in case of a risk to a child’s well-being in the newly formulated section 8a of Book VIII of the Social Code. Stricter requirements for personal qualifications of persons working in child and youth service organisations as set out in section 72a of Book VIII of the Social Code considerably improved preventive protection of children and young people in this sector.
In this context, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth sponsored the development of a manual entitled “Threat to a Child’s Well-being Pursuant to section 1666 of the Civil Code and General Social Service” (Kindeswohlgefährdung nach § 1666 BGB und Allgemeiner Sozialer Dienst, ASD) that serves as a reference and support to specialists who address issues related to threats to children’s well-being pursuant to section 1666 of the Civil Code. For this purpose, research findings available had to be reprocessed.
The manual focuses on specific recommendations for assessing situations and being able to take action with greater certainty. Renowned experts, both men and women, address some 130 frequently asked questions on more than 800 pages. The manual represents a supplement – more recent information on developments in this sector are addressed and published at regular intervals at www.dji.de/asd.
Moreover, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth continued to sponsor the federal model programme entitled Further Development of the Services Planning Process (Fortentwicklung des Hilfeplanverfahrens) which four institutes have been implementing since 2002 under the auspices of a department of the German Youth Institute. It developed recommendations, ideas and materials on how to efficiently plan and implement services. During its implementation, several expert opinions were prepared on the following priority areas: Service planning in an interdisciplinary context, service planning and software application, service planning and the gender issue, service planning from an intercultural perspective, service planning in a European comparison. These expert opinions have been published on a CD which can be obtained from the German Youth Institute.
The national prevention campaign Look.Act.Help (Hinsehen.Handeln.Helfen) launched by the Federal Ministry in 2004 attracted considerable attention and contributed to greater awareness and education on the problem of sexual abuse of children. The website designed in this context at www.hinsehen-handeln-helfen.de contains important information on prevention possibilities to protect children, and a user-friendly data base with details on counselling centres all over Germany listing them by proximity.
By providing seed financing, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth helped establish central counselling for young people and parents on the Internet which is sponsored by the Federal Conference for Educational Counselling Services and Child Guidance (Bundeskonferenz für Erziehungsberatung) as a virtual counselling centre. This central Internet platform complements the existing structure of family and education counselling and provides counselling to young people in crises and strengthens the educational role of the family by using the new means of communication available through the Internet. The forum www.bke-elternberatung.de addresses parents in need of support on matters of education of their children who suffer from problems. At www.bke-jugendberatung.de, young people and adolescents may receive qualified counselling on problems they have with themselves, parents, friends, at school or with romance.
The Federal Ministry’s action programme entitled “Early Assistance for Parents and Children and Social Early Warning Systems” (Frühe Hilfen für Eltern und Kinder und soziale Frühwarnsysteme) makes an important contribution towards improved protection of children and their parents. The focus is explicitly on children up to three as a target group whose families are in a difficult situation. In order to bring about changes in their situation, the measures of child and youth services are systematically linked to the structures of our health care system.
Certain regions in Germany are already implementing projects and models that support pa-rents through child care to protect these children against abuse and neglect. Based on this valuable experience, many regions are building a network of early assistance measures with funding from the Land or municipalities. The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth is promoting more of this kind of targeted model project in all the Länder.
The multiprofessional National Centre for Early Assistance (Nationales Zentrum Frühe Hilfen, www.fruehehilfen.de) which is jointly funded by the Federal Centre for Health Education (Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung, BZgA) and the German Youth Institute (Deutsches Jugendinstitut, DJI) started its work in April 2007. The centre is in charge of the projects sponsored in the context of the programme and serves as a hub that provides all relevant information on early assistance. All regions are able to profit from the establishment of early warning systems.
The Federal Ministry sponsors the Information Centre Child Abuse and Neglect (Informationszentrum Kindesmisshandlung/ Kindesvernachlässigung, IzKK) under the auspices of the German Youth Institute as a national interface for interdisciplinary networking and information processing between research, practice and politics. The objective of the institute is to pool specialist information on the emergence, prevention, therapy and intervention in cases of violence against children, analyse this information and foster closer co-operation between the different lines of work. Its offerings include a comprehensive data base on specialist literature, reference to research projects and practical developments as well as a calendar of events and training courses on the subject.
In line with the Ministry’s encouraging role, it sponsors a number of models that promote crime prevention among children and young people:
- The various measures and initiatives in the context of the project Neighbourhood-Centered Prevention of Violence and Crime (Kiezorientierte Gewalt- und Kriminalitätsprävention) which is implemented and scientifically supported by Camino, Werkstatt für Fortbildung, Praxisbegleitung und Forschung in Berlin (www.camino-werkstatt.de) addressed children, young people and adolescents in city neighbourhoods. Instead of creating new institutions, the project pooled existing resources. It was based on people’s enhanced identification with their surroundings that helped develop more effective social controls and preventive effects in the fields of violence and crime.
- The youth support model programme AIB – Mobile Intensive Support (AIB – Ambulante Intensive Begleitung) carried out by the Institute for Social Practice of the Rauhes Haus in Hamburg (ISP) with scientific support from the German Youth Institute reaches out to children and young people at risk due to difficult circumstances or acute crises. A pragmatically oriented (re)integration fostered by individual (manpower-)intensive outpatient care for a period of three months gave young people an opportunity to integrate into a stable social environment (www.soziale-praxis.de).
- The model project entitled “We’ll take care of it ourselves” (Wir kümmern uns selbst, www.wir-kuemmern-uns-selbst.de), which is conducted by the Institute for Development Planning and Structural Research (Institut für Entwicklungsplanung und Strukturforschung GmbH – IES) with scientific support by the German Youth Institute, aims at promoting non-professional skills of conflict resolution on the ground, so that “normal” conflicts do not escalate for children and young people in their social environment. The project is intended to prevent police or judiciary involvement at a time when they are not really necessary. It is to avoid inappropriately criminalisng young people and to foster neighbourhood conflict resolution.
The Centre for Juvenile Crime Prevention (Arbeitsstelle Kinder und Jugendkriminalitätsprävention) under the auspices of the German Youth Institute (www.dji.de/jugendkriminalitaet) which is sponsored by the Federal Ministry plays a particularly important role in crime prevention among children and young people. It provides information on concepts, strategies for corrective action and working methods in crime prevention from other countries to practitioners, politicians, researchers and providers of further education and training. It promotes and develops tried and tested as much as innovative approaches to crime prevention, defines quality standards and supports co-operation.
The Centre supports approaches that are tailored to specific target groups, e. g. underage children or boys, and has considerable experience with so-called repeat or intensive offenders (monster kids). The Centre’s efforts focused not so much on the “negative” personality, but on the accompanying processes in institutions and organisations.
The Centre for Juvenile Crime Preventionrecently published an extensive report on crime prevention strategies for children and young people. Following the 1990 expert opinion of the Federal Government’s Anti-Violence Commission, this extensive report illustrates the changes and developments which have occurred in the field of preventing violence by and to children and young people over a period of almost 20 years. The report focuses on the most important places of socialisation and the institutions responsible in cases of crime such as families, day-care centres for children, extra-curricular youth support measures, schools, police and the judiciary. The report highlights political and professional challenges in a future-oriented format, and calls upon those responsible in the various practical sectors to consistently continue on the path on which they have embarked (http://cgi.dji.de/bibs/_Band11_ Gewaltpraevention.pfd).
Governments need to see to it that children and young people are protected from dangers and negative influences in the public or media, and to make them fit for a life in a complex world. Child and youth services must foster and contribute to young people’s development and education so that they become responsible and sociable personalities. In the context of educational child and youth services (section 14 of Book VIII of the Social Code), there should be special campaigns for young people and legal guardians that teach them how to protect themselves from dangerous influences.
The Federal Government’s Youth Protection Act (Jugendschutzgesetz – JuSchG) and the State Treaty on the Protection of Youth from Harmful Media of the Länder (Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag der Länder) which both entered into force on 1 April 2003 were designed to improve protection of children and young people when using new media.
Both the Federal Government and the Länder agreed on an external evaluation of the Youth Protection Act and the State Treaty on the Protection of Youth from Harmful Media – results have been available since late October 2007, and first results on computer games since June 2007.
In February 2007, the Federal Ministry and the Youth Ministry of Northrhine-Westphalia launched an emergency programme on effective protection of children and young people from violent computer games which is based on four pillars:
In November 2007, the Federal Ministry convened a round table on “The Act on the Protection of Children and Young People – improving its enforcement” (Jugendschutzgesetz – Verbesserung des gesetzlichen Vollzugs) which aimed at establishing the overall conditions which are required for effective enforcement by the responsible supervisory authorities.
Still, child and youth protection is not limited to laws and their enforcement. Promoting projects of independent organisations of child and youth services also contributes towards the effective protection of children and young people; these include in particular the Federal Association for the Protection of Children and Young People (Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Kinder- und Jugendschutz, BAJ) and the German Society for the Protection of Children (Deutscher Kinderschutzbund, DKSB).
Laws for the protection of children and young people need to be drafted through permanent contact with other Federal Ministries, in particular the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Federal Ministry of the Interior as well as the Federal Ministries for Economic Affairs and Labour since the protection of children and young people has to be harmonised across departments. Moreover, close contact with the authorities responsible for implementing the youth protection laws in the Länder is necessary to ensure an exchange of information and harmonised implementation of and compliance with regulations.
Another priority is the promotion of children’s and young people’s media competence, which aside from the laws, regulations and measures of voluntary self-regulation, is an important prerequisite for ensuring the effectiveness of youth protection from harmful media. This implies campaigns addressed to children and young people, parents and multipliers, both men and women, which aim to empower young people so that they become responsible media users and keep a critical distance to ambiguous contents.
