A well meaning judge has given social workers the green light to search for missing parents on Facebook so that they can be alerted to care proceedings, but this could open up a raft of problems around parents’ and children’s right to privacy.
In the case, the court was desperately trying to track down a mother who could not be found. It was claimed that she had either left the country or been removed from the UK once her child had been placed with an adopter. When the judge asked both Cafcass and the council in question whether there was a chance the mother could be found through Facebook, the organisations expressed scepticism. They also told the court that they had tried to find the mother but were unable to. Oddly enough, she was found almost immediately on the social media site.
The judge went on to criticise Cafcass, the council and other professionals in the case for what he felt was a ‘total disregard’ for the rules around birth parents being properly notified.
Nevertheless, this new power could lead to parents being hunted down and their privacy potentially breached on Facebook and other social media sites. And although no official rule appears to exist about contacting parents through sites like Facebook, reaching out to parents in this way is currently frowned upon inside the child protection sector.
The judgment is likely to cause confusion and lead to less than ethical developments in care proceedings unless some form of guidance by The President of the Family Division is issued immediately.
We would welcome Justice Munby publishing some guidelines in this area.
Researching Reform 
Well meaning judge, Natasha???
Funny that our experiences ‘in the trenches’ have been the opposite! After all, Social Workers and Police do the dirty work of removing the children.
Judges are needed to justify this. Over 1,000 children a month by some 150 of all 350 or so councils!…
https://www.change.org/p/eu-parliament-abolish-adoptions-without-parental-consent/u/16651694
Would LOVE to meet well meaning professionals in the courts!
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Yes, I do think he meant well. The proceedings in this case had nothing to gain from mum being there, in fact quite the opposite. As you can see, the professionals in the case seemed to go out of their way not to bother finding her. The judge, on the other hand, thought she had a right to have her say.
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Thank you very much for sending me a update, this is very alarming as the words cafcass wrote and the council are the same as referring to the mum where they lost her so many times and saying she wouldn’t cooperate with them, were never given up on my son and his baby being reunited. A staggering number children are not reported missing in foster care/ placement orders for at least 48 hours putting more children at risk and people trying to find somewhere safe to have a baby when they are being chased. There acting to hastily and becoming the abusers to meet targets and yes profits to which is very sad. I’ve witnessed with my own eyes the lengths they are going to and committed perjury under the ministry of justice act 1911, also naming people in local authorities who isn’t anything to do with the case , referring to the baby as boy in fact she’s a baby girl and we found out after social service lied saying after the birth she was taken to foster care as DNA had to be done, cafcass told my son : she is being adopted before you were contacted the plan was always adoption, he was training for the army, he come out and still wasn’t good enough.72 cases were adjourned last Friday as protesters were outside the courts every child under the local authorities care/adoption/care orders, and we were listed AT 4pm it was dead where normally BE heaving. It’s very sad the last resort has now become the first resort and its adoption and parent alienated out of the child/children’s lives. We’re taking our case to the high court/court of appeal as the judge was told that she sustained 2 head injuries at 3 months old & 7 months old on her dad’s birthday in contact. Where foster parents said to her dad they didn’t feel she needed it but pictures says different, I’ve never witnessed something so horrific in my life, to be told all babies gets bumps and bruises and I put him straight and said please don’t tell him that as I’ve never heard of such rubbish as baby wasn’t even rolling around. Her hair wasn’t growing properly where she was constantly laid down, again we have been fighting 18 months to revoke the order and judge stamped it knowing an adopted parent had been charged with murdering a 18 month old child the same sex and age in the same town. It’s bararric and he stamped her away even though the local authorities and council refused her medical treatment saying it wasn’t a change in circumstances, denied rights to go on birth certificate so she couldn’t track him down only the mum. He doesn’t want anymore children 👶🏻 after what they have been through and still fighting for him to be given the chance to be a dad as he knows social service has set up a target 🎯 on himself and any of his children. On the mums side 32 children on protection register, 13 were trapped in care before going on to have children there’s 7 since 2014 been adopted out all newborn babies and 2 premmie babies when they knew the survival rate was going up they went for them too all were in the same house with my granddaughter. please draw your own mind on that but these are facts from parents and people in high places. But social service and cafcass can never be reformed and I will never forgive or forget what hurt and lies misleading and inaccurate statements told in a family court an allowing it to happen Yours sincerely Samantha Richards a broken hearted mum lady of injustices we have had and is to continue fighting for people’s rights and children who can’t speak for them selves in the hands of social service and family courts secretly stealing babies from parents and grandparents can not help as no rights.
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If parents flee with their children they must usually love them enough to be allowed to keep them but the “SS” hate to see one”get away” and will pursue their quarry to Africa,the far East,or the West Indies with no expense spared………….
No judge taking children from parents for mere risk ever bothers to compare the horrific risk of putting kids in care with the usually lesser risk of leaving them at home with their family…
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“this new power could lead to parents being hunted down and their privacy potentially breached on Facebook and other social media sites”.
while this idea can be useful in some cases i also agree with the above quote.
the problem is that there are still far too many dishonest SS staff on the loose with one goal on their mind, Adoption.
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How much money owed to the victims of criminal medical negligence and educational neglect by children`s services health teams and SEN education departments has been stolen so far do you think then ? There`s a lot of Nazi scumbags being paid isn`t there so where`s the money all coming from while we have to have ” austerity ” then ? Lets see there`s lots of ” meetings ” and then there`s the heaps of various social workers / education departments / solicitors / barristers/ judges / Recorders / court clerks / All the courts both lower and upper / different groups of police / foster carers / adopters / court guardians / adoption agencies / council staff / children`s services / careline / advocates / contact centres / pharma companies / health centres/ ” Child Protection ” and ” Safeguarding ” and so many people involved who should get a real job instead of hurting children .it`s just silly beyond words ! Why have people who have obvious personality disorders and have no facial expressions been dressed up in pantomime costumes and let lose around children and their parents ? Who let them out in this macabre and sinister situation ? Did someone have a tantrum because we don`t want them to induce precocious puberty in two year olds and cause six month old babies to have a false puberty for the purpose of ritual sexual abuse ? Are they getting their knickers ( or could it be their mothers ) in a twist because we all know about Joseph Mengele`s neurologically damaged twisted vision of the future ? Wait untill the word gets round about what GP`s and maternity and children`s hospitals have been doing to peoples brains and how three generations of breathing nitrous oxide gas and being given vitamin b12 lowering pharma drugs and vaccines causes genetic mutations which cause CJD Microcephaly / Cancer / MS / Infertility / Dementia / Alzheimers / Depression / Suicidal and self harming tendencies / Sudden and inexplicable violence / Bi Polar disorder / Schizophrenia / Diabetes / Heart attacks and strokes/ Locked in syndrome / Blindness / Arthritis / Premature whitening of the hair / Vitiligo / Cot death / miscarriage / Autism / Hairloss / Obesity or Weight loss / Failure to thrive . The list is too long to write .
People may start to get angry when they realise that all the illnesses and disability and victims of cancer including many children were just a bi product of the real end game which was to induce two year olds to grow beards and breasts and cause six month old babies to have a false puberty so that old men could ritually sexually abuse them . . I don`t think the rest of the world will take it well when they realise that what is happening cannot be ” de – population ” when we have children having babies and babies having children can it ?
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To assess a single mother in a North Devon Assessment Unit for just 1 week, cost the SS £4750!!!!! My partner was there for 16 weeks! Do the math, then multiply that by the number 500, roughly half the families involved in care proceedings, That’s a HUGE chunk of taxpayers money, yearly!!!
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They already use Facebook. Rather directly or indirectly. I had a post I made in regards to Depression used against me in court because someone reported it as a concern to LA. I was not impressed.
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Yes, I’ve seen several references to social workers accessing Facebook, for a variety of reasons.
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“Privacy” is another word for “secrecy,” which is another word for “Coverup”, which is another couple words for “screwing justice” over.
Rather, I believe in openness, transparency, accountability, no where to run, nowhere to hide from the wheels of justice. Too often it is the judicial system itself that seeks darkness, hiding, secrecy, Time to expose the darkness with the light of truth, openness and freedom and a willingness to conduct one’s self out in the open for all to see or censor.
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Perhaps the term; ‘well-meaning professionals’ is something of an oxymoron?
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Perhaps ‘Researching Reform’ is a misnomer. I have so far not seen any balanced journalism or commenting from it. The heading – Social Work Spying and the comment “this new power could lead to parents being hunted down” rather give the game away. Objectivity is not evident.
The statement made “reaching out to parents in this way is currently frowned upon inside the child protection sector” is untrue, it’s almost ubiquitous for both Cafcass and local authorities to try and locate missing parents via Facebook *public* profiles. This is not a ‘new power’ and no-one is being hunted. Indeed, such searches of social media can assist both a parent, a child and any siblings that are separated.
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Thank you for your thoughts, Chris. Could you tell the readers a little about yourself?
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Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..
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The state certainly don’t care about the families privacy when it suits them.
Won’t this identify the child and breach the hollowed reason for secret proceedings and gagging and imprisoning parents ?
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Social workers and adoption agencies however are given exemption from SECRECY and are allowed to advertise babies with colour photos ,first names,and character descriptions for potential adopters to pick and choose much like selecting a pedigree cat or dog !Imagine the horror of Crystal’s parents when they saw her “advertised” for adoption in the Daily Mirror !Her father was jailed for throwing an empty plastic cup in the direction of the judge when told his beloved daughter would be adopted…………
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I know my mother had to be found twice whilst i was fostered and the last time it took a year to find her through placed newspaper ads…I guess fb would be quicker than that. She was running from the abusive men in her life..What i am sad about is that it was an abusive man that told her she could not keep me but could keep my sister.. I was fostered for 4 years before the foster family decided to adopt me ..They were paid to foster me for 4 years but during that four years my nmom and nsis were being abused daily and received no help…My adoption was not a good one and damaged me immensely and i cant help but think if my nmom had been given that money and some support instead of my aparents maybe she could of kept me and my sister and got herself into a safe place. I definitely think the archaic system needs revamping.I searched and found my mum at age 55 she is now 77 and we are on different continents I never would of found her without the internet so i am grateful for the advances in technology.
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So I have this CFS worker spying on my Facebook account I found out today because she thought my girlfriend was pregnant and she basically made a silent threat saying if my girl friend was pregnant she would be doing an assessment on me and apprehending the unborn child I was not missing she knows were iam she’s got my address she is just playing stupid but now I know she’s spying on me
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