The Standing Committee For Youth Justice (SCYJ), which includes the NSPCC, Barnardo’s and the National Children’s Bureau among its members, said that the current law on the identification of children in trouble with the law is “not fit for purpose” and requires urgent reform.
Currently, children appearing in youth court have automatic anonymity, although the court can decide to waive it.
Other criminal courts usually grant anonymity but there is no right to it.
An SCYJ report, What’s in a name?, found evidence that allowing children to be "named and shamed" has a number of implications for the children and their family.
The children themselves are put at risk of physical attack, sexual exploitation and psychological or emotional harm, while siblings and other family members of the children identified also lose their privacy, in spite of having done nothing wrong, and can be stigmatised and bullied as a result, says the report.
It also adds that the rehabilitation of the children is threatened because they are “labelled and stigmatised” for life, while their ability to make healthy relationships and gain employment can be threatened by their “inability to escape from their past”.
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