NEWS: Children's Commissioner says young people fear media access to family courts (UK)

by Lauren Higgs - Children & Young People Now - 8 March 2010

Plans to open family courts to the media could be reviewed by the government in the light of a report soon to be published by the new Children's Commissioner for England.

Speaking exclusively to CYP Now, Maggie Atkinson, former director of children's services in Gateshead, explained that children and young people were concerned about being identified under the more transparent set-up.

"We talked to some of the children and young people who were subject to those proceedings and got very strong feedback that they are very nervous indeed about even anonymised access by the media," she said. "We fed back to government and the signals are that there is some thinking going on about the potential to make it more safeguarded or to rethink it altogether."

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