Category Archives: Children

Children should get one healthy school meal a day, say EU experts

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Nutritious lunches should be seen as an effective way to address obesity, chronic illness and poverty, says coalition

Children across Europe must receive at least one nutritious school meal a day if governments want to tackle rising obesity rates, prevent chronic illnesses and reduce social inequalities, according to a coalition of experts.

Nearly a third of primary school-age children in Europe are either overweight or obese, while almost a quarter of children in the EU are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

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Worries over confidence and periods hitting UK girls’ enjoyment of PE

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Survey finds less than two-thirds say they enjoy PE in schools, down from 74% in 2016

Girls’ enjoyment of physical education in school has declined over the past six years, with a lack of confidence, concern about periods and anxiety about their appearance holding them back, according to research.

Less than two-thirds of girls and young women (64%) who took part in a survey this year by the UK charity the Youth Sport Trust (YST), said they enjoyed PE, down from 74% when the poll began in 2016.

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Met police failing children at risk and victim blaming, says damning report

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Inspectorate demands emergency changes as Scotland Yard accepts its child protection services are in chaos

The Metropolitan police are failing in their efforts to protect children from criminal and sexual exploitation while bungling efforts to find missing young people, a damning official report has found.

The findings have led Scotland Yard to accept its child protection services are in chaos, and a senior officer admitted that “too often we are letting them down”. The policing inspectorate, which authored the report, said it was also concerned with “the frequency with which officers and staff use victim-blaming language”.

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Teachers deride Starmer’s plan for supervised toothbrushing in schools

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Labour leader’s pledge for English primaries as part of a wider dental plan labelled ‘window dressing’ by union chief

School leaders have accused Labour of “window dressing” after Keir Starmer pledged to introduce supervised toothbrushing for young children in England’s primary schools.

While the policy has long been supported by the dentistry profession as a way of curbing decay, headteachers said it was not appropriate for their staff to check whether pupils had cleaned their teeth.

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‘Staggering’ rise of gambling among school-age children leads to calls for urgent inquiry

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Exclusive: Without action, a ‘generation of young people’ could be addicted to gambling, says independent MP pushing for government to urgently intervene

MPs have called for an urgent parliamentary inquiry into the impact of advertising on children and young people by harmful industries after revelations by Guardian Australia of a 16% rise in young people seeking help for gambling in the last financial year.

The call, led by Dr Sophie Scamps, has been supported by the Greens and fellow Independent MPs including Andrew Wilkie, Monique Ryan, Zoe Daniel and Kate Chaney. Scamps said without action, advertising targeting children “at this vulnerable stage of life could create a generation of young people addicted to gambling”.

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Nine-year-old girl who vanished from camping trip in New York found safe

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About 400 people took part in the search Monday, including state and local police, forest rangers and volunteer firefighters

A nine-year-old girl who vanished during a family camping trip in upstate New York was found safe Monday following a two-day search, authorities said.

Charlotte Sena was located “in good health” and “a suspect is in custody” in connection with her disappearance Saturday evening, New York state police said in a statement.

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Third person charged for infant’s death from fentanyl in New York City daycare

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Prosecutors say Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, 38, played a key role in selling the drugs that were stored at the childcare facility

A third person has been charged in the death of a toddler apparently poisoned by fentanyl inside a New York City daycare center, authorities said on Monday, as the search continued for the alleged ringleader of the drug peddling operation.

Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, 38, was charged with narcotics distribution resulting in death, 10 days after authorities discovered four young children showing signs of opioid exposure at a Bronx daycare center. One of those children, one-year-old Nicholas Dominici, was pronounced dead last Friday.

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Scandal grows over children’s spinal surgery in Ireland

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After focus on work of one Dublin surgeon, expert report sparks wider review of paediatric orthopaedics

Paediatricians and health executives in Dublin were aware that a leading children’s hospital in the city was using “unauthorised, uncertified” medical implants in surgery, a top health official has said.

Ireland is facing a growing scandal over paediatric spinal surgery. An independent investigation found that 19 children with spina bifida suffered serious complications after they were operated on by one surgeon at Temple Street hospital. One child was readmitted to the operating theatre 33 times after her initial operation.

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One in 18 babies born in Australia are conceived via IVF, latest data shows

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The 102,157 cycles of IVF performed in 2021 was a 17% increase on 2020, with an average of two cycles for each woman

One in every 18 babies in Australia are now born through IVF, with a record high number of births recorded in the latest data.

The annual report from medical researchers at the University of New South Wales found a record 18,594 babies were born in Australia as a result of IVF treatment in 2021, with more than one in three women (37.1%) who completed their first cycle of IVF giving birth.

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One person dead after bus carrying schoolchildren crashes in New York

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Dozens hurt, at least five of them badly, after vehicle carrying students from Long Island to a band camp in Pennsylvania collided

A charter bus carrying schoolchildren to a band camp crashed on a New York highway on Thursday, killing one person and hurting dozens of others, police said.

The wreck happened on Interstate 84 in the town of Wawayanda, about 45 miles (72km) north-west of New York City, state police said.

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Meta encryption plan will let child abusers ‘hide in the dark’, says UK campaign

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In Home Office initiative, survivors urge Mark Zuckerberg to rethink changes to Messenger and Instagram

Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to roll out encrypted messaging on his platforms will let child abusers “hide in the dark”, according to a government campaign urging the tech billionaire to halt the move.

The Facebook founder has been under pressure from ministers over plans to automatically encrypt communications on his Messenger service later this year, with Instagram expected to follow soon after.

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Children worry more about rising prices than environment or crime, study finds

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Four in five young people aged 10 to 17 have significant concerns about impact of cost of living crisis on their families

Children and young people have become significantly more concerned about rising prices and their family having enough money than about the environment or crime, research has found.

One in 10 children aged 10 to 17 are unhappy with their lives, according to a study by the Children’s Society.

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Court finds boy, 14, is too young to be held criminally responsible for death of Melbourne teen Declan Cutler

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Supreme court says there’s reasonable possibility the child, then aged 13, didn’t know his conduct was ‘seriously wrong’

A Victorian judge has ruled a boy, who was aged 13 when Melbourne teenager Declan Cutler was killed, is too young to be held criminally responsible for his murder.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faced a judge-alone trial in July after he was identified as one of eight boys who attacked and killed 16-year-old Declan as he left a birthday party last year.

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Fathers have ‘unique effect’ on children’s educational outcomes, study finds

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Research claims children whose fathers read and play with them see a ‘small but significant’ increase in their educational attainment

Children whose fathers read, play, sing and draw with them show a “small but significant” increase in their educational attainment at primary school, according to research that suggests just 10 minutes a day could make a difference.

While it has long been recognised that parental engagement is critical for a child’s education and development, a study led by the University of Leeds claims fathers have “a unique and important effect” on children’s educational outcomes.

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US anti-child trafficking activist resigns after sexual harassment allegations

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Tim Ballard, whose work was dramatized in Sound of Freedom, has left the Operation Underground Railroad organization

The anti-child slavery activist Tim Ballard, whose work was dramatized in the movie Sound of Freedom, resigned from the Operation Underground Railroad (Our) organization he founded amid allegations he sexually harassed colleagues, it was reported on Monday.

Ballard, a former adviser to the Trump administration on child sexual trafficking, who is reported to be exploring a run for a US senate seat in Utah, resigned abruptly from the group in June for then-unknown reasons.

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TikTok fined €345m for breaking EU data law on children’s accounts

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Irish data regulator says platform put 13- to 17-year-old users’ accounts on default public setting, among other breaches

TikTok has been fined €345m (£296m) for breaking EU data law in its handling of children’s accounts, including failing to shield underage users’ content from public view.

The Irish data watchdog, which regulates TikTok across the EU, said the Chinese-owned video app had committed multiple breaches of GDPR rules.

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Revealed: covert deal to cut help for pupils in England with special needs

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Government contract aims to reduce the number of specialist care plans by a fifth

The government has quietly signed a contract targeting 20% cuts to the number of new education plans for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) to bring down costs, the Observer can reveal.

Then junior education minister Claire Coutinho – recently promoted to the cabinet as energy secretary– subsequently told MPs that no targets were in place.

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Most English schools handing out clothes and food to children

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Survey finds cost of living crisis has increased both number of children needing extra support and level of need

Schools are handing out clothing and food to children amid the cost of living crisis, while teachers report deteriorating hygiene among pupils as families cut back on brushing teeth, showering and even flushing the toilet.

According to a survey of schools in England, nine out of 10 said they were providing clothing and uniforms for students, while seven out of 10 were giving out food in the form of parcels, food bank provisions, vouchers or subsidised breakfasts.

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Sunak refused to fully fund repairs of England’s crumbling schools, says ex-official

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PM shown evidence of ‘critical risk to life’ when chancellor, says former top civil servant at Department for Education

Rishi Sunak refused to properly fund a school rebuilding programme when he was chancellor, despite officials presenting evidence that there was “a critical risk to life” from crumbling concrete panels, the Department for Education’s former head civil servant has said.

After the department told Sunak’s Treasury that there was a need to rebuild 300 to 400 schools a year in England, he gave funding for only 100, which was then halved to 50, said Jonathan Slater, the permanent secretary of the department from 2016 to 2020.

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Boy thrown from 10th floor of Tate Modern now less reliant on wheelchair

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French boy, who was six when Jonty Bravery threw him from viewing platform in 2019, is showing a range of improvements

A boy who was thrown from the 10th floor of the Tate Modern in London four years ago now only uses his wheelchair only for longer outings, his family has revealed.

The French boy suffered life-changing injuries in the attack by teenager Jonty Bravery in August 2019. The child, who was then aged six and on holiday with his parents, survived the 30-metre fall, but suffered major injuries, including bleeding on the brain and broken bones. Bravery was convicted of attempted murder in 2020 and jailed for 15 years.

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