The mother of a 5-year-old girl is reeling from the fact that she unknowingly employed a pedophile baby sitter through an online agency who is charged with sexually abusing a child while on the job.  

She is angered that Kidsline, a Tokyo-based major baby-sitting placement service, failed to notify her and other parents and users after one of the agency's baby sitter had been arrested. 

“I wish they had told me what was going on," the woman lamented. 

Two of the registered male baby sitters have been arrested on suspicion of committing a forced sexual act and carnal abuse while caring for a minor, among other allegations of a sexual nature.

A 29-year-old man who was registered with Kidsline was first arrested in April. Police said the man was sent to an apartment in Tokyo to baby-sit a boy in November 2019. While baby-sitting, he touched the lower part of the boy’s body, they said. The man was rearrested for similar crimes on June 10.

In addition, a 30-year-old baby sitter was arrested on June 12 after he touched the lower part of a girl’s body while baby-sitting her at her home in Tokyo, police said.

The man had been assigned to take care of the mother’s daughter, too.

The mother noticed something was wrong on the evening of May 25.

Her phone rang. It was right after the man finished baby-sitting her daughter.

The caller, a Kidsline female staffer, told her hurriedly, “We can no longer send the baby sitter you used today.”

The mother asked why.

“We can’t tell you because it involves personal information,” the staffer said and divulged nothing else.

The mother hung up the phone and told the daughter she would be unable to have the same baby sitter anymore.

“Great!” the girl responded with a look of tremendous relief and happiness.

Suddenly, the mother had a bad feeling.

“Did he do something strange to you?” she asked.

Her daughter looked confused. But then she told her mother she had been sexually abused by her baby sitter.

The mother called police immediately.

NOTHING BUT A MASS EMAIL

The baby sitter was assigned by Kidsline to take care of her child on April 27 for the first time.

It was after police arrested the other baby sitter registered with Kidsline.

He was not her first choice. A nursery she sent the daughter to was shut down because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. She had difficulty making an appointment with a baby sitter she knew well.

On May 3, Kidsline finally posted information about the first arrest on its website. But it was posted in such a manner that users could not easily spot it.

In addition, the information was not made available on its app, which most of the service users rely on when looking for a baby sitter.

Unaware of the arrest, the mother kept using the service eight times until May 25.

There were signals from her daughter, she recalled. Her daughter once said, “it wasn’t fun at all,” after the baby sitter left.

Once, she staved off the man's hand when he sought to check her body temperature. 

The mother saw the gesture, but she thought the child needed time to get used to the new baby sitter.

“Had I known about the arrest incident, I could have understood why my daughter disliked the man much sooner,” the mother said regrettably.

The mother demanded Kidsline to notify all service users about what had occurred.

The company in mid-June sent out a mass email to all users regarding “safety measures,” which mentioned the fact that registered baby sitters were arrested but left out any detail.

The mother thinks the company’s handling of the situation is unforgivable, considering the nature of sex crimes against children and how difficult it is for minors to reveal the transgressions even to their parents.

PROMOTED BY GOVERNMENT

Kidsline started the online baby-sitting placement service in 2015.

There are no employment relationships between the company and registered baby sitters, who are the sole proprietors.

Parents and those looking for a baby sitter can search for a candidate by experience, qualifications and customer reviews on the Kidsline website and submit a request.

The service was so convenient that it soon became popular among two-income parents.

The central government at the same time was facing pressure from the public to meet demand for child care services.

In October 2019, Kidsline was selected by the Cabinet Office to be added to its list of baby sitter placement service companies. Consumers who use a company on the list get a discount on fees for hiring a baby sitter.

Kidsline also became eligible for the government’s free child education and care program.

As of the end of January, the company boasted it had received “more than a million requests” from users.

About 4,500 baby sitters nationwide were registered as of June.

Meanwhile, the government has failed to set up detailed guidelines for these operators that carry penalties regarding safety management and crime prevention.

“In many cases, a baby sitter is left with a child behind closed doors and out of sight of the child’s guardian,” said Keiji Goto, a lawyer. “Yet, the system to protect children’s safety is so vulnerable. Operators should take the responsibility of human resources management and directly hire a baby sitter and regularly conduct interviews.”

Kidsline has publicly stated that the company will review its search system and ways to resolve problems. But no details have emerged. The company has not responded to questions that The Asahi Shimbun sent it in June.