A plan to introduce provisions for shared parenting in the Children Act was celebrated yesterday by ChildWatch founder Edward Tavares.Government announced last week in the Throne Speech that amendments are coming to allow shared parenting, in which both parents can be given equal rights and opportunities to be with their children.Speaking following the announcement, Mr Tavares said Government should be commended for the initiative, saying: “We at ChildWatch are delighted with the news that the Children’s Act 1998 will be amended to include shared parenting.”He said that, according to research, shared parenting is beneficial for children, leading to higher self esteem, higher grades and less delinquency.As a result, Mr Tavares believes the legislation could go a long way towards mending social issues affecting the community.“We find that data shows, that many of our social ills are related from fatherless homes,” he said. “Bermuda data shows that 85 percent of sole custody are awarded to mothers and visitation to fathers on weekends, on a bi-weekly basis.“The most recent research indicates that when a father is allowed to have say, and be involved in their child’s life, the child feels a sense of security and belonging, especially overnighting with the child,” he said.“Also, when the father is allowed to be involved, the father contributes more, not just financially, to the well-being of the child.”He said that shared parenting legislation has already been implemented in several other countries and US states.“We were notified in January 2013 that Arizona has implemented shared parenting and the language used in their law speaks to ‘joint legal decision making’ instead of ‘sole custody’ and ‘shared parenting time’ instead of ‘visitation, or access’,” Mr Tavares said.“Further, Arizona legislators have introduced sanction for parents who bring false allegations, perjury and who are not compliant with the parenting plan that was formulated by both parents through a process of a parenting programme or counselling.“ChildWatch feels that these amendment would provide many solutions to our current social dilemmas that is caused by Bermuda’s current legal and judicial process.”The Coalition for the Protection of Children however took a more guarded view, saying that legislating family issues is a difficult if not impossible task.“In a community like Bermuda where a very significant portion of parents are not married, or even living under the same roof the problem of ensuring quality shared parenting becomes that much more challenging,” a spokeswoman said. “The question is how can this best be accomplished.“It is difficult to legislate good parenting and virtually impossible to legislate good shared parenting.“It is possible that any attempt to force shared parenting through legislation will be at best unsuccessful in achieving the goal and at worst will serve to eliminate the possibility of a facilitated mutually beneficial agreement that best serve the children over time.“What does work, and what has been amply demonstrated, is that family mediation can accomplish what legislation and forced parental involvement cannot.“In cases where there are disputes involving child custody, access or child support the parties in the dispute should be mandated to engage in mediation as a way to resolve those issues and only if mediation is unsuccessful should the matter be referred to the courts.”