It sounds creepy because you live in a police state where people abuse their powers.
Imagine a better society. A six year old child turns up at school unwashed and hungry. The parent, who normally collects the child every day, is not there at pickup time. The child lives 3 miles from school. A couple of weeks later the same child is taken to ER. The mother is evasive, but the injuries seem to match the story. The child is again unwashed and a bit dirty and hungry. There are very many cases where these kind of signs go unreported; and one of these signs on it's own probably doesn't reach a threshold where anyone (even if it is reported) will do anything about it. But when collated they start showing that maybe there is something where the parents need more help, or ultimately the child needs to be protected by removing it from it's family.
I live in a country where every single child attending A&E deparments for any reason is reported to their local child protection social workers. In the vast majority of cases nothing happens; no letters; no visits; no threats. But in some cases abused children are detected and protected. It's not perfect, but it's better than letting untrained people guess at what should or shouldn't get reported. Report early report often culture avoids the need for mandatory reporting, which is IMO worse.
When I talk about human rights my American friends say things like "obviously we believe in human rights. The only reason we don't ratify those UN things is a constitutional matter about our courts and our laws", but looking at what Americans in power shows that some of them have no concept of human rights.
A bunch of this stuff is pretty clear in international law (freedom from arbitrary interference; right to a family life for parents; right to a family life for children; family is findamental unit and should be allowed to parent; protect children from harm).
Imagine a better society. A six year old child turns up at school unwashed and hungry. The parent, who normally collects the child every day, is not there at pickup time. The child lives 3 miles from school. A couple of weeks later the same child is taken to ER. The mother is evasive, but the injuries seem to match the story. The child is again unwashed and a bit dirty and hungry. There are very many cases where these kind of signs go unreported; and one of these signs on it's own probably doesn't reach a threshold where anyone (even if it is reported) will do anything about it. But when collated they start showing that maybe there is something where the parents need more help, or ultimately the child needs to be protected by removing it from it's family.
I live in a country where every single child attending A&E deparments for any reason is reported to their local child protection social workers. In the vast majority of cases nothing happens; no letters; no visits; no threats. But in some cases abused children are detected and protected. It's not perfect, but it's better than letting untrained people guess at what should or shouldn't get reported. Report early report often culture avoids the need for mandatory reporting, which is IMO worse.
When I talk about human rights my American friends say things like "obviously we believe in human rights. The only reason we don't ratify those UN things is a constitutional matter about our courts and our laws", but looking at what Americans in power shows that some of them have no concept of human rights.
A bunch of this stuff is pretty clear in international law (freedom from arbitrary interference; right to a family life for parents; right to a family life for children; family is findamental unit and should be allowed to parent; protect children from harm).