Watchdog to investigate why 13-year-old with water pistol was knocked off bike by armed police in Hackney
The family of the black boy rammed off his pedal cycle by police who mistook his water pistol for a real gun have won their fight to have an independent investigation into the incident launched.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) on Friday reversed a decision it had made twice to let the Metropolitan police investigate the actions of its own officers.
Continue reading...Jury found Siraj ibn Wahhaj and three others guilty of a range of charges including kidnapping resulting in death
Jurors on Tuesday delivered split verdicts in a case that stemmed from the search for a three-year-old boy who went missing from Georgia and was found dead hundreds of miles away at a squalid compound in northern New Mexico.
Four members of the family were on trial. Three were found guilty on federal kidnapping charges. Two were convicted on related terrorism charges. The boy’s father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, was one of the two people found guilty of terrorism-related charges.
Continue reading...Head of Honywood school says building of temporary structure is a near miracle after crisis it faced
“Three and a half weeks ago, there was nothing here,” said James Saunders, the headteacher of Honywood school, looking with pride – and disbelief – at the scene unfolding in front of him. “It was a field!”
Before us is a brand new school, built in the space of six weeks – a temporary home for the 800 pupils at Honywood in Coggeshall, Essex, one of the schools most severely affected by the recent concrete crisis that threw the start of the new term across England into chaos.
Continue reading...Ignoring tricky questions could drive young people on to the internet, where disinformation proliferates
As difficult as it might be, carers should not avoid discussing the Hamas-Israel conflict with children, experts have said. Doing so, they warn, could drive young people on to the internet where disturbing disinformation and images are easily found.
“Don’t avoid difficult questions,” said Emma Citron, a consultant clinical psychologist with extensive experience of working with children. “If those questions are in the heads of our young people, it’s our job to give them a balanced and reassuring – but also an honest – account.”
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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”.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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”.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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