Whatever your opinion of TrainingComs (mine is pretty low) the point is that as FI's, much of the time we have no ability to control whom we are flying with. People book in for Trial lessons and you have no idea of whether they are under 18 or are counted as vulnerable adults.
So you need a robust system in place not to protect the children, but ourselves.
Whopity has put up a spirited defence and whilst I agree with the sentiments, this is the sort of thing that sends shivers up the spine of people running businesses of any kind.
I for one am not interested enough in this sort of stuff to argue too highly, so it's easier and safer to simply comply with it. People might suggest that this is capitulation, but when you have a business and people's livelihoods at risk, you don't screw about over a principle. You get it done.
Most flying schools are run on a basis that would make the average middle ages blacksmith shake his head in disbelief at the archaic practices that go on. So getting CRB checks and complying with regulation is probably a step too far in most cases.
The current flying school business models are in the most part obsolete and don't offer sufficient oversight of staff to even check that people are doing their jobs correctly, let alone being able to prove that FI's aren't kiddie fiddling when airborne.
The world has changed, businesses now have social responsibilities under the law and bleating about it being unfair or "not how it was done in the olden days" won't help.
Even though you might think this sort of thing bonkers (it is) the point is that you do it to protect the business, not the children. Bonkers, but that's how it is today.