The problem is, that these "institutions" are allowed to exist.

This might give parents the impression that they are kind of legit. The same people who psychologically torture the children probably will have great stories to tell to the parents, perhaps even other people are telling the parents, that these "institutions" are a great and good thing. The parents even might be pressured themselves by a community they belong to into this decision. And of course the true nature of these places is kept hidden.

Yes, submitting your child to abduction is obviously a total failure as being parents, but never underestimate the influence the environment can have onto your judgement. This applies to the children at the camps who get turned into tornmentors, this applies to the parents who might think it is a good idea to send their children there.

A few years ago, I might have considered all of this impossible, but recent years have shown me, how far off the judgement of people can be, considering the bubbles they are in. And I don't think these bubbles are an invention of the internet, though the internet is very influential in creating new ones. But the long history of these facilities show, these bubbles are nothing new. Especially if this thinking is influenced by the religious communities they are part of.

If people can be convinced that drinking bleach is good for their health, I am sure, some might buy into the lies about the benefit of those facilities. That doesn't take any bit of resposibility from the parents, but puts an equal amount of responsibility on the public to not allow these things to exist in the first place and to prosecute anyone involved in this.

In most cases it's parents who are at the end of their rope and feel like they have no other options. I'm not claiming they're necessarily making the right decision. It's just that they've tried everything they know how to do and see it as a last resort.

...and the predatory, profiteering abusers who market to those parents (and, for quite a while, another layer of attention seeking self-help celebrity profiteers who publicized them in the media.)

Don’t forget the therapists who get kickbacks to recommend these programs to the parents of their patients.

Abusive parents.

Kids are "defiant" or have "bad behavior"? Just abuse them more. Even better, just hand them to institutional abusers.

> Cynthia says they eventually settled with the programme for an undisclosed amount on the condition they could speak freely about the circumstances of their daughter's death. She learned Erica had been pushed to keep hiking as her condition worsened throughout the day. She later testified to Congress about how her daughter's distress had been mistaken for teenage belligerence by staff.

The kind of parent who thinks TV is a cheap babysitter.

No, it requires a parent way more invested into outsourcing the whole job of parenting than a typical lazy parent just letting the TV et al. handle things as much as possible. The lazy parent would just continue letting the TV handle things even when things aren't going so well, and hey on average it's probably an improvement over the parent who sends/has kidnapped their kids off to these places, since the TV can't physically abuse anyone.