Concerned your tiny tot might be the next Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi? England’s got you covered, with a proposed new law that would require nursery school staff, teachers, and any registered childcare professionals to tell the government which kids they think should be kept away from bomb-making materials.
The measure obliges those who deal with children to “identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism and challenge extremist ideas which can be used to legitimise terrorism and are shared by terrorist groups.”
As for what activities would trigger a report, the Telegraph cites as examples a toddler making an anti-Semitic remark or a Muslim child telling their teacher they believe non-Muslims to be “wicked.”
“We would not expect this behaviour to be ignored,” an anonymous Home Office source told the paper.
Institutions will have to “demonstrate” that they have policies in place to identify extremist activity and “intervene” if necessary.The proposal suggests sending them to Children’s Social Care, “for example.”
“Senior management and governors are expected to assess the risk of pupils being drawn into terrorism, including support for the extremist ideas that are part of terrorist ideology,” the document reads. The anti-terrorism plan is attached to the country’s Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill which parliament is now considering.
One conservative member of parliament, David Davis, was skeptical of how this would work: “I have to say I cannot understand what they [nursery staff] are expected to do. Are they supposed to report some toddler who comes in praising a preacher deemed to be extreme? I don’t think so.”
A policy director at human rights organization Liberty, in an interview with the Telegraph, likened the legislation to turning teachers and childcare professions “into an army of involuntary spies.”
A government spokesperson defended the legislation by arguing that “It is important that children are taught fundamental British values in an age-appropriate way.”
Meanwhile, #ToddlerTerror started trending on Twitter in the UK, and the internet has done it justice:
Stealing babies from supermarkets as recruits #ToddlerTerror pic.twitter.com/tKrD3xYElo
— Anas (@Saka1410) January 4, 2015
RT @Saka1410: Looking at CV’s of potential extremists to sign up from nursery #ToddlerTerror pic.twitter.com/jCrAxnyqns
— Ashraf ibn Muhammad (@ashraf_talib) January 5, 2015
“@raf234: What you dreaming about?
Islamic State and stuffs.
#ToddlerTerror pic.twitter.com/e62FzVaRn7“
— hasina palestina (@crookedrib) January 4, 2015
“@Just1ce_4_All: Refuses to eat western-made biscuits!
#ToddlerTerror pic.twitter.com/w9PW1gGOpL“
— hasina palestina (@crookedrib) January 4, 2015
