Mandatory child checks?

Jamie Morton at NZ Herald reports:

A coroner has called for compulsory state monitoring of all children until they are 5 – but his hard-line approach has been dismissed as “too much” by Families Commissioner Christine Rankin.

Dr Wallace Bain, of Rotorua, yesterday made several bold recommendations for the Government on tackling child abuse when he issued his findings into the death of local toddler Nia Glassie.

The 3-year-old died of a serious brain injury in 2007 after months of physical abuse at the hands of some of her extended family.

Dr Bain’s proposals include checks on all children aged under 5, compulsory state intervention for single-parent families, mandatory reporting by schools of suspected abuse and, where necessary, compulsory sharing of case information that could breach the Privacy Act.

My instincts are also against compulsory checks on all children aged under 5, but I have to say that if it would save the lives of more infants, then it is worth a debate.