A four-year-old boy’s referral to Prevent after talking about Fortnite, a popular video game, at his after-school club has prompted fresh calls to abolish the controversial scheme.
The boy, who is from the West Midlands and is a Muslim, was referred to Prevent in September 2019 after saying that his father had “guns and bombs in his shed”.
However, transcripts of a conversation with a club worker reveal that the reference to weaponry was linked to Fortnite. The child’s mother believes that if her boy were white and not a Muslim he wouldn’t have been considered at risk of radicalisation.
In the first (anonymous) interview from a parent of an under-six referred to Prevent, she described her upset at police turning up at the family home at 10.30pm. “It could have gone really wrong. I worry armed police could have come to my house and, you know, arrested the parents, with social services getting involved.”
Read more at The Guardian
Related…
- ‘Scrap Prevent’ says Amnesty report (News, 2023)
- UN concerns about children’s well-being in the UK should prompt the withdrawal of Prevent (Expert View, 2023)
- The People’s Review of Prevent (Report, 2022)
