The Children’s Protection Act 1892 [30/1892 (55 Vic. No.30)] was a broad-ranging Act that regulated the care of infants and children. It was a response to fears about ‘baby-farming’ and the sale of unwanted children. It made it an offence to charge a premium for arranging adoptions or to fail to report a stillbirth or the death of an infant. It also created a system of registering nursing homes that cared for infants and lying-in homes, where mothers gave birth. It provided for a stipendiary or police magistrate to commit to prison any child under fourteen convicted of an offence or place a child in a ‘Home’ or industrial institution for destitute and neglected children. It was Amended in 1900 to prevent child abuse and the selling of children. It was then repealed by the Children’s Protection Act 1902.
From
1892
To
1902
Alternative Names
An Act to provide for the Protection of Children
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