Kate Roberts, Children Law
specialist at Watkins & Gunn Solicitors Explores the recent
controversy concerning children's involvement in cage
fighting…
Many column inches and editorials have been devoted to the
recent cage fight between two young boys watched by 250 adults at a
Labour club inPreston.
The Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt described it as "very
barbaric" and the activity has been criticised by the NSPCC and the
British Medical Association for putting children at risk.
The police investigated and found no case to answer. Nick
Hartley the father of one of the boys could not see that he had
done wrong. He said that his son loved the sport and it was
not a bit dangerous.
Whatever the arguments for and against this "sport", failure to
protect your child, even if the activity is legal, can result in
the involvement of social services and potentially care
proceedings. Parents are placed under a duty under the
Children Act 1989 to protect their children from harm. If
social services receive a complaint which they were duty bound to
investigate and found that one or both parents had failed to
protect their child, they could issue care proceedings and remove
the child from their parents' care. There is no suggestion to
date that this has happened in this case, but parents need to be
aware of their obligations and duties to their children to keep
them from harm.