Well, here in Germany we believe that if parents are not able to protect their kids, then the state must do it.
But there are terrible failings, too.
We have a "Jugendamt", kind of a "lesser ministry" which is about Youth, Social things and Families. Kind of social workers. They are there as a public place for families with financial and otherwise difficulties. And their "order" or "principle" is to protect the children from harm.
But recently, we hd several very, very sad and difficult events (in the press) whwere they just failed. Grossly. There had been families, where the Jugendamt had already intervened with them because they were "known" to be mistreat their children - in almost all cases they had been families with social difficulties, too.
In these sad cases, some Jugendamt workers sometimes even visited these families - but they didn't notice the injuries these children already had from mistreating. Plus, families abusing children are already known to often say "this child fell down the stairs" to explain the bruises and injuries.
In these few sad cases, the workers visited them, didn't see the injuries or/and get themselves talked away - and a few days or weeks later the child was dead. From injuries, from misuse. And THEN the press and the shocked public says : "Why on earth didn't they see it ??? If the had been able to see it, this child could have been saved !!!"
These are families where no helping hand is available, and thus the children don't get proper education. Because both parents (or sometimes one of the parents isn't even available) go working until late - and THEN they're just too exhausted to look after the kid. Because the wages are so poor the prents need to work so much they jut can't - don't have the time - to look after the kid.
And these kids are those who buy themselves violent games - often with the help of older fellows of school or elsewhere.
Recently I overheard a fragment of a talk of two girls. "But - aren't you 16 ?" "No, but it doesn't matter ..." I guess they wanted to go to a party or into a Disco. They're just trying to get around laws - which re basically meant to protect them. But they see no sense in it.
And right now we have quite a heavy discussion going on here in our country of how to enable parents to be able to carefully and successfully protect and educate children ... And this is mostly a case of socially chllenced families. Not not only. There might be "socially cold" families, too. Where the materialistic point of view overrides things like compassion, love and mercy. "Can't buy me love", like the Beatles put it. You can't buy the love of a child just wth money. And if someone thinks so, then something's wrong there. A whole society might be wrong, then. This is what is currently being discussed here in our country.
