See Anything, Say Something?

The pros and cons of ‘mandated reporting.’ In Catholic parishes around the world, at elite private schools such as Phillips Exeter Academy and St. George’s School, and in institutions such as the U.S. Olympic Committee, people who knew about longstanding sexual abuse of children and teenagers ignored it or covered it up. A rash of “good people” did nothing, and evil prevailed. One way to try to prevent this from happening in the future is to legally require that employees of any child-serving organization report their suspicions about abuse to authorities. Most states already mandate that people in certain professions—doctors, members of law enforcement, public school teachers, and social workers, for instance—report suspected abuse or neglect. But everyone else, while encouraged to tell the authorities if they believe a child is being harmed, is not required on pain of punishment to do so.

https://www.weeklystandard.com/naomi-schaefer-riley/see-anything-say-something