Roger McClay Commissioner for Children

If one adult per seven students is required to safely supervise school outings how many little children might a 14 year old be able to keep safe?

In a house, so much potential tragedy lurks in every room. Boiling jugs… hot water in baths… lit candles… fire… electricity… poisons in cupboards… sparks from the fire. Then there is the possibility of burglary and home invasions.

Children have an absolute right to be kept safe.

Perhaps it is time to examine the concept which in law says a 14 year old boy or girl can legally be left in charge of the safety and welfare of other younger children.

The law says they are not old enough to be in charge of a motor vehicle. How come they can be in charge of human lives?

Our children are our future. Let’s keep our future safe.

Ends

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>