DISINFO: Child protection service took at least one child from more than half of Norwegian families
SUMMARY
Child Welfare Services in Norway have taken away at least one child from more than half of Norwegian families. In Norway, there is a very terrible, truly totalitarian system of alleged child protection called Barnevernet.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative concerning Western values. In fact, according to official data, in 2019, the Norwegian Child Welfare Service placed in care 14,671 children, which is approximately 1% of all residents of the country between the ages of 0-22. Also, according to the country's official statistics, in 2019 there were about 600,000 families who had at least one child. If the claim from the Russian media was true, the number of children placed in care would be in the hundreds of thousands. At the same time, local experts note positive shifts in the field of child protection; every year the number of children placed in care in Norway decreases. For example, from 2013 to 2019, the number of such cases decreased by 39%. The other claim about Barnevernet as a truly totalitarian system of child protection is false. It is a public agency responsible for child protection in Norway. It consists of services in each municipality, which are aided and supervised by different governmental bodies at the state as well as the county level. The main goal of the Bernevernet is to ensure that children and adolescents who are living under conditions that represent a risk to their health and/or development receive the help they need when they need it and to contribute to children and adolescents growing up in safe, secure and caring conditions.