Failures in child protection services
The media has been preoccupied with failures in child protection services through reporting cases and featuring incidences in news besides devising interventions, and initiatives related to child neglect and abuse. The responsible entities, especially government institutions, also consider the effort and resources they have committed to ensuring children’s rights are protected is enough, but the policies must keep on changing to accommodate emerging trends in child welfare protection. Pickering (2016) notes that the media can sometimes capture child welfare issues accurately, or deliberately or inadvertently distort the issues, which can make them unreliable source of change. Therefore, the media influence on the development of child welfare policy need to be subjected to objective debate to accurately reflect the central issues. Although media coverage of child abuse and protection can have negative consequences for the child and their families, the media is vital if public attention is to remain focused on enforcing child policies. Therefore, representation of child welfare practice in the media has a strong influence on the development of child welfare policies.