Here, no matter how great the provocation, it was widely held that the State could not, indeed, should not embroil itself.

Since, by common consent, the State’s role was above all “corrective” and deemed to stop where that of the parents started, the problem of child poverty, in general, and of hunger and malnutrition, in particular, lay in a kind of no man’s land that politicians preferred not to see. encouraging local government and private initiatives towards the extension of play areas in the interests of national security (physical degeneration) as well as public order concerns.ĢBut one respect of this system of child protection was woefully inadequate and singularly at odds with the public image of “State parenthood”.Even more surprising, the State become an active participant in the field of child leisure activities 2 Even inside the home the long arm of the law could be said to have come to the rescue of the child in danger, for the first Children’ s Charter (Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act) of 1889 made parents responsible for the safety of their children, and in cases of neglect even provided for the removal of the child from “parental care” 1. Educational provision had, likewise, been established as a national system through the 1870 Education Act (England and Wales) and the 1872 Education Act (Scotland) which made attendance compulsory for all children from the age of 5. In the work place, a series of Factory Acts from the 1830s on had radically transformed the child’s status, by firstly improving conditions and limiting the number of hours worked, and progressively reducing the age at which a child could be employed.

The intervention of the State was evident by then in a wide spectrum of activities.

(.)ġBritain by the end of the nineteenth century was a society which felt enormous pride in its collective provision for childhood. Findlay, 'The Geography of play: children’s street games in Victorian and Edwardian Scotland'.

1 For one well-known advocate of child protection, this Act marked the beginning of parliamentary re (.).

Darkest dungeons begone thot