Even in places where you might expect most awareness, my experience tells me paedophilia doesn’t get taken seriously

The revelations about Jimmy Savile have rightly induced soul searching among those who dealt with him in the media. How did he get away with it for so long? Why was he shielded? Some people have even asked if he was protected – or helped – by people in full knowledge of his behaviour. But what if Savile was protected, not by a knowing network of big players making big decisions but by endless small decisions to protect the status quo? What if these are the kind of low level decisions – about finding the subject of sexual abuse embarrassing, uncomfortable and disruptive – that go on every day and which mean Savile’s activities don’t belong to a dim and distant, sexist past but very much to the present?

Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/18/jimmy-savile-protected-media

The News of the World campaign is wrong – but so are those who vilify the ordinary people who support it

The News of the World campaign to name and shame paedophiles has met with universal condemnation in the quality press. It is represented as dangerous vigilantism which will lead to murder. Of course, I agree this campaign is misguided; it will drive paedophiles into hiding, where the possibility of monitoring is lost. But I am equally appalled at the contempt which this same liberal press is meting out on the people and communities involved in such campaigns.

Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2000/aug/01/childprotection.roscoward