CYFSWatch Frenzy
Ministry of Social Development (of which Child, Youth and Family - CYF - is a part) CEO Peter Hughes’ decision to try and censor the CYFSWatch blog has badly backfired.
As of Friday afternoon, the site is still up and running. Google has so far stood firm - talking to the NZ Herald, Google spokeswoman Victoria Grand said,
We only remove content from a blog if it expressly violates the terms of service or if ordered to do so by a court order.
And public interest is huge. No one would ever have heard of this site if Hughes hadn’t launched his doomed censorship campaign.
As an indicator of how much interest there is in this now, traffic to this blog has more than doubled since I posted on the topic on Wednesday lunchtime. The top ten search queries landing here at the moment are:
1. cyfswatch
2. cyfs blog
3. cyf blog
4. cyf name and shame
5. cyfs watch
6. cyfswatch blog
7. name and shame
8. cyf
9. cyf watch
10. cyfswatch new zealand
and so on into at least the top thirty.
I would refer Hughes to my previous post on Scarcity and ‘psychological reactance’, which pointed out that censorship not only makes people far more interested in the information under threat, but also makes them more inclined to believe it.
January 26th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
It seems to me a lot of people are missing the point about the website. While the government may have mishandled the case, this isn’t simply a case of critical commentry. This is a case when people whose job it is to deal everyday with people who most of us hope to never ever meet (violent & otherwise deranged people) are having are having their home addresses and the like published. If the website had simply wanted to name and shame then a name and perhaps a photo would have been sufficient. However in this case, it seems definite that they want to harass & intimidate CYF workers. It is unfortunate that people are taking this as a freedom of speech issue, ignoring the very real harm that could come to workers. The government’s primary concern appears to be the kind of personal details published not the idea of a critical website in itself. Ironically of course, most of the commentry on this name and shame website is anonymous and CYF workers generally can’t tell their side of the story due to privacy issues.
January 27th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Great work - Please feel free to post the information needed on to BOTHER those who damage our **Whole-NATURAL-Biological-FAMILIES** whoever they be - Go HandsOnEqualParent.org.nz / **NZ-FATHERS-Coalition** / BOTHER Scroll
Onward - Jim
January 30th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
What is needed from Peter Hughes is feedback as to why the Children Young Person and their Families Act 1989 does not work for Government and Non Government Agencies. Why? It takes away the rights of any parent without any onus of proof. Hearsay is not proof. Evidence is!
January 31st, 2007 at 12:09 am
How Green is MP Sue Bradford she is going on about stopping smacking to prevent child abuse but what about CYF.
CYF I suspect do far more emotional damage then that of parents smacking their children ever could.
Sue I am not disagreeing with the anti smacking bill what I am saying is that CYF is a bigger problem and more important issue overall.
Come on Sue help us make CYF more accountable that’s all we ask.
We are not asking you to take sides but give us a voice and chance to get the children we love and adore back. If you think the government cares more about our children then we do and can do a better job then us you are dreaming.
Children have been hit by foster parents, killed raped in CYF care or because of their mistakes. Any child abuse is not good enough one case is one to many let alone if it is under a government department who keep getting away with mistakes. Please Sue and other MP’s who claim to care we need your help.
Social Workers have a code of ethics and registration panels, but what’s the point of all this, if at the end of the day the issues are with the department and no one will act. There is no point shooting the messenger with all these codes and rules if they are toothless and useless.
The Government wants to hold individual Social Workers accountable which is great but all that will do is hang them out to dry while the department keeps on going. Given CYF tent to lie and push the blame onto front line staff to cover-up for higher management mistakes I fail to see how anything will change.
Come on MR Hughes CEO and Ruth Dyson do something other then blast this webpage. Deal with the incidences and you would find people would not have to wrote in.
I don’t blame people for not putting their names on this webpage as you would make life harder on them and their families. MR Hughes you are the gutless one by not dealing with the problems which allowed things to get to this extreme.
How would you feel if your family life, safety and security was turned up side down and all put under threat. Once you put yourself in our shoes you might understand why people are so angry and you should of seen this coming after so long. Don’t shoot the messenger (this webpage) but deal with the issues like a man.
One more comment MR Hughes what’s more gutless giving people a free phone number to anomalously report t child abuse to f**k people over they have a grudge against, or setting up and anomalous blog to speak the truth.
In the same way parents of malicious complaints can not defend themselves to CYF I hope you and the staff now no it feels to be totally F**ked over with out any way of defending yourselves.
Both the CEO and Government should be ashamed that things ever got to this point we now face.
January 31st, 2007 at 11:26 am
NE you seem to forget that CYF is a public servants job. Just like any Professional they should be held accountable for their actions as they play god with innocent families. At the moment there is no help or mediation for any families going through the debarcle of CYF and there are two sides to every story. It is not about the privacy of the social worker as to the confidentiality of the children. Dont bother about going to Sue Bradford or any other MP as the reality proves that this would not be happening if they were a caring party. Check out National on www.news24seven.tv as to what they purpose… a big fat nothing. Have we just gone round in circles or does anyone really care.
April 4th, 2007 at 12:34 am
Rather then shoot the messanger the government needed to sort CYF out.
CYFs do cover things up and tell half truths come visit me webpage at http://graemea.snap.net.nz and write comment on my blog attached.
June 1st, 2007 at 9:46 am
city download sim
ka-ka-sh-ka 4942376 Features of city download sim.
July 29th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title CYFSWatch Frenzy. Thanks for informative article