When a child harms – where does our responsibility begin and end?

Two professionals from the Elem association, Maya Bar-On and Genia Kliot, discuss the question of parental responsibility when one child harms another. They agree that parents cannot be indifferent to their children's actions, but disagree on whether they should bear direct financial liability for the damage caused by the child. Bar-On, who works with victims of crime, argues that parental authority must be accompanied by responsibility, and cites models from the Netherlands and France where parents bear civil liability for damages caused by their minor children. Kliot, who works with juvenile offenders, fears that imposing financial responsibility would miss the educational and rehabilitative goal, and would give the state an easy solution instead of investing in the family. Both agree that the phrase 'he's just a child' cannot be the end of the conversation, and that there is a need for parental presence, boundaries, and genuine processes of repair.