J.K. Rowling Must Register as a Potential Pedophile

[Creeping Death]

J.K. Rowling Must Register as a Potential Pedophile

In a stunningly misguided program implemented by the British government, all children's book authors who visit schools must register with a national database intended to protect children from pedophiles, and they must pay a fee to do so. Beginning October 12, 2009, the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) will require that all adults who work with children, including authors such as J.K. Rowling and Philip Pullman if they make special visits to schools, will be required to register with the database for a fee of £64 ($105).

The Independent reports that as a result, several well-known authors will boycott schools in protest of the requirement. Philip Pullman, Anne Fine, Anthony Horowitz, Michael Morpurgo, and Quentin Blake have all publicly stated that they object to having their names listed in the database. Pullman, author of the popular fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, called the policy "corrosive and poisonous to every kind of healthy social interaction." He eloquently adds, "This reinforces the culture of suspicion, fear and mistrust that underlies a great deal of present-day society. It teaches children that they should regard every adult as a potential murderer or rapist."

This makes Monty Python skits look dead serious.

How long before the whole country has to register as potential pedophiles?

Ms. Rowling needs to leave England as a protest and she should take all her money with her.

[Beorn]

Ms. Rowling does indeed need to leave Scotland and take every penny with her.

How ridiculous this all is. It instills only fear and mistrust in adults. Particularly male adults.
It's going to get to the point where even dropping your children off will first have to be cleared by the relevant authorities.

[SwordoftheVistula]

Wouldn't it be easier to just make a registry of convicted sex offenders, and keep those people away from children?

[Tony]

Ms. Rowling needs to leave England as a protest and she should take all her money with her.

But that's unfair and moreover she would be attacked as a tax avoider , I'd like instead her to start a brand new political party and fight , she can do it since she has an estimated fortune of about 800,000,000 $ , she's also very well known to the public and according to what I see and read Britons are pretty fed up with the politicians caste , there's ground for a major succes , even bigger than that of UKIP.

[Dalriada]

When I was at Primary School, we had the pleasure of having Mairi Hedderwick come to read one of her Katie Morag books to us; it's distressing to think how many children will be denied such memorable, joyful experiences should authors (quite understandably) shun visiting schools due to this bureaucratic nonsense.

[Birka]

Wouldn't it be easier to just make a registry of convicted sex offenders, and keep those people away from children?

How about keeping convected sex offenders, especially of children, locked up in jail? Now if I happened to be the parent of a child that was assaulted by a child sex offender, no jail time would be necessary for the POS. All the state would have to do is provide a coffin.