First of all: I don’t know all pertinent facts of the case, so I could be misinformed.
However, it’s an example of the risks of living off grid: social workers in some countries think they know so much better. Meanwhile, there is evidence accumulating that exposure to all the features of modern society at an early age can indeed be harmful (e.g. don’t give your toddler a smartphone).
Now as for social workers, they typically don’t dare to touch an organized squatter, because a squatter has backup and legal advise at hand (a tribe also has backup) - but if they think the kids of a family need urgent assistance, officials of some countries can be extremely intrusive (and cops, being cops, will readily back them with violence).
I recently read an article on a similar topic, about Inuit parents in Denmark running a fivefold risk of their children being taken by the authorites - in part due to a language gap amplifying a doubfully constructed parental skills test, in part due to plain racism (being considered “barbarians”).
So, if you are a barbarian, sadly you have to either have a presentable facade, or a plan of disappearing from the radar. Only young and political squatters can afford riots, families with kids can’t.
This particular family is well positioned however: they can tell the authorities “we wish to leave to Australia” and an Italian court will be hard pressed to find a reason to prevent Australian citizens from leaving to their homeland.
Persnal note: when I grew up in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, I was a city kid, but some farming folks in the countryside didn’t have toilets indoors, but outdoors as a separate building, without water. They also drank well water (usually after boiling). They didn’t die. Waterborne diseases were not common despite the toilet having flies. Just keep about 50 meters distance between those two important institutions, keep them closed up properly and boil the well water. As an irony of the fate, it was me, the city kid, who picked up a life-threatening form of E. coli from packaged food (likely cause: lack of testing in the supply chain) and wouldn’t have lived without a big dose of antibiotics. Which one should be ready to use and not shy away from in need.
P.S. As for mushrooms: know them if you want to eat them - if you aren’t sure, do not eat.
I have to say the biggest warning here to me is: fucks sake people, don’t eat wild mushrooms if you aren’t an absolute fucking expert. And even then, I’m not sure they are worth the risk for the meagre calories.
Over here, there’s a culture of picking mushrooms every autumn and it’s popular, but absolutely only the ones you know. I am qualified to pick [using Latin because local names would look meaningless] Cantharellus cibarius (easy to tell apart), Lactarius deterrimus (not so easy, but there are no poisonous look-alikes anywhere nearby) and Lactarius rufus (not edible when raw, but we boil + wash them and marinate for winter, due to their borderline edibility they are abundant and long-lasting in nature).
Among locals, I would be considered a dumb mushroom picker who should learn to recognize a few more edible species, but I can’t be bothered, becase I have a garden which overloads me with other produce at the same time when others pick mushrooms.
Since mushrooms are different in other places, I would not go picking mushrooms further than 500 km from home.
In case of uncertainty, I would always encourage not taking it.
I read more and apparently the mushrooms were picked by 4yo son and placed on table with mum assuming dad had picked them. Honestly no way of proving that, but if it was what actually happened it’s a bit more forgivable but still, dumb as hell.