Category Archives: Children

Thousands of pupils in England lose out on first-choice secondary school place

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Of 33 councils polled, 18 reported a decline in the proportion of families getting their first preference

Thousands of 10 and 11-year-olds have failed to get into their first choice of secondary school as offers were made across England, but the expected increase in demand for year 7 places in some big cities once again failed to materialise.

There were predictions that the proportion of children awarded a place at their top choice could hit a record low nationally this year as a result of a baby boom 11 years ago, but in London and Birmingham the number of applications and success rates were similar to last year.

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Number of UK children in food poverty nearly doubles in a year to 4m

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Support grows for expansion of free school meals to struggling families in face of rising hunger

The number of UK children in food poverty has nearly doubled in the last year to almost 4 million, new data shows, ramping up pressure on ministers to expand the provision of free school meals to struggling families.

According to the Food Foundation thinktank, one in five (22%) of households reported skipping meals, going hungry or not eating for a whole day in January, up from 12% at the equivalent point in 2022.

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England’s poorer pupils face ‘geographic exclusion’ from top state schools – study

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Offering places by proximity results in selection of pupils from more affluent households, say researchers

Disadvantaged children are suffering “geographic exclusion” from England’s best state schools because they cannot afford to live near those with the best exam results, according to new research published by the University of Bristol.

The research found that very few state secondary schools give priority to pupils who qualify for free school meals, despite the government’s admissions rules being redesigned more than eight years ago allowing them to do so.

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Meta-funded online tool lets people remove their explicit images from the internet

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Take It Down allows anyone to anonymously generate a digital fingerprint of the image they want deleted, without uploading it

“Once you send that photo, you can’t take it back,” goes the warning to teenagers, often ignoring the reality that many teens send explicit images of themselves under duress, or without understanding the consequences.

A new online tool aims to give some control back to teens, or people who were once teens, and take down explicit images and videos of themselves from the internet.

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Child abuse image offences in UK have soared, NSPCC report shows

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Charity says police recording has improved but online grooming has risen and tech firms are failing to act

Police have recorded a surge in child abuse image offences in the UK, with more than 30,000 reported in the most recent year, according to a report from the NSPCC.

That is an increase of more than 66% on figures from five years ago, when police forces across the country recorded 18,574 such offences.

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Portugal: Catholic clergy abused nearly 5,000 children since 1950, inquiry finds

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Independent commission reaches conclusion after hearing evidence from over 500 survivors last year

Catholic clergy in Portugal have abused nearly 5,000 children since 1950, an independent commission said on Monday after hearing hundreds of survivors’ accounts.

Thousands of reports of paedophilia within the church have surfaced around the world, and Pope Francis is under pressure to tackle the scandal.

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Children in mental health crisis spent more than 900,000 hours in A&E in England

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Exclusive: Children as young as three in emergency departments for mental health problems, data obtained by Labour reveals

‘We are letting young people down’: the secret psychiatrist on NHS delays

Children suffering mental health crises spent more than 900,000 hours in A&E in England last year seeking urgent and potentially life-saving help, NHS figures reveal.

Experts said the huge amount of time under-18s with mental health issues were spending in A&E was “simply astounding” and showed that NHS services for that vulnerable age group were inadequate.

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Gangs, cholera and political turmoil leave half Haiti’s children relying on aid

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Triple threat sees Caribbean country in worst crisis since 2010 earthquake, with young people bearing the brunt, warns Unicef

An escalation of gang violence, political instability and a deadly cholera outbreak in Haiti has left half its children relying on humanitarian aid to survive, Unicef says.

At least 2.6 million are expected to need immediate lifesaving assistance this year as the overlapping crises leave Haiti’s children in the worst position since the earthquake of 2010, Unicef’s Haiti representative, Bruno Maes, told the Guardian.

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Teachers handing out toothpaste as rising UK costs hit pupils’ dental health

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Three-quarters of teachers surveyed say they have noticed children lacking access to toothpaste and toothbrushes

Four out of five UK teachers have given toothbrushes and toothpaste to students, with the cost of living crisis affecting the oral health of children, according to new research.

A survey of secondary teachers by hygiene poverty charity Beauty Banks and the British Dental Association (BDA) has revealed that 81% of teachers say some children in their school have no access to toothpaste, with 41% saying this leads to them being socially excluded because of poor oral hygiene.

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Children to be housed closer to family in overhaul of England’s social care system

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Changes in children’s social care, including earlier help for families, fall short of ‘full reset’ called for by adviser

Ministers are to pledge that children taken into care in England will be placed close to their family and friends rather than being housed hundreds of miles away, under what is described as an ambitious overhaul of the struggling social services system.

The commitment on care placements is one of a series of proposals aimed at reforming what the government has acknowledged is a children’s social care system too often failing to meet the needs of vulnerable families and children.

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‘Storm the house’: Queensland care home receives threats after being wrongly identified as halfway house

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Online posts urge violence against residents in care home after it was described as a place for ‘youth offenders’

Children living in a Queensland residential care home were the subject of death threats on social media – including calls for neighbours to “storm the house” and “hang whoever is inside” – after media reports incorrectly claimed the premises was a halfway house for young criminals.

The head of the Queensland family and child commission, Scott Twyford, said last week he was “deeply concerned” at public sentiment which called for more punitive responses to youth crime in the face of clear evidence that “tough” approaches don’t work.

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One in 10 children ‘have watched pornography by time they are nine’

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Report by children’s commissioner for England finds worrying amount of content involves violence

One in 10 children have watched pornography by the time they are nine years old, according to “disturbing” new research by the children’s commissioner for England.

The report found a quarter of pupils in their final year of primary school have already been exposed. It also showed much of the material being consumed by children and young people features violence.

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Revealed: child migrants racially abused and threatened with violence at Home Office hotel

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Whistleblower tells of threats and illegal detention in fresh revelations about failures that drove children into hands of criminals

Children seeking asylum in the UK were threatened and subjected to racist abuse by staff at a Home Office-run hotel, a whistleblower has claimed as pressure grows on the government to act over the growing crisis in the system.

The source, who worked in the Brighton hotel for more than a year, said that in such an environment of “emotional abuse”, scores of children, who had arrived in the UK without parents or a carer, were driven on to the streets and into the hands of criminals.

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Covid lockdowns created ‘online backdoor’ for child abusers, says charity

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Internet Watch Foundation reports rise in UK children aged seven to 10 manipulated into abusing themselves on camera

Internet predators have exploited a rise in online activity during lockdown to manipulate primary school age children into abusing themselves on camera, with reports of such imagery rising by more than 1,000% in the UK since 2019.

The Internet Watch Foundation received reports of 63,050 webpages containing images and videos of children aged seven to 10 sexually abusing themselves on camera last year, an increase of just over 1,000% on the year before the coronavirus pandemic.

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Tech bosses face jail if children not kept safe online after UK parliament deal

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Rebel Tories drop amendment after ministers agree to make managers criminally liable for persistent breaches of duty of care

Tech executives whose platforms persistently fail to protect children from online harm will face criminal charges after ministers reached a deal with Conservative backbenchers.

Rishi Sunak was facing the prospect of defeat in a Commons vote on Tuesday after a rebel amendment to the online safety bill won opposition support. However, supporters have now withdrawn the amendment after the government agreed to change the legislation.

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Finding who can be held to account after a six-year-old shoots a teacher

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Where does the responsibility lie in the recent shooting in Newport News, Virginia, for a country so inured to gun violence?

The shooting of a Virginia teacher by her six-year-old student last week left the town of Newport News and the rest of the US shaken and shocked.

Even in a country long used to the sort of school shootings that are rare in much of the rest of the world, the astonishingly young age of the shooter prompted a bout of public agonizing in the US about its gun violence problem.

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NSW government to ‘review’ proposal to make judges consider needs of children when carers seek bail

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Bipartisan recommendation that would bring Australia in line with UN standards and is backed by advocates ‘noted’, but not supported

The New South Wales government says it will “review” a bipartisan recommendation to force judges to consider whether refusing bail to a parent accused of a crime would harm their children.

A NSW parliamentary inquiry last year called for the attorney general to change the law and “mandate” judges and magistrates to consider “parenting and caregiving responsibilities” when making bail decisions.

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Number of US children who accidentally ate cannabis rose by 1,375% in last five years

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In 2017, 207 cases of accidental ingestion by children younger than six were reported, while in 2021 there were 3,054, report says

The number of young children accidentally ingesting marijuana in the US has rocketed by 1,375% in the last five years, a new report reveals.

The report, released on Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics, examined findings from the National Poison Data System on pediatric exposure to edible cannabis products in children younger than six years old from 2017 to 2021.

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Ministers studying plans for UK child-specific terrorism orders

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Exclusive: Official adviser recommends giving those arrested for low-level crimes a choice to accept help or face jail

New legal terrorism orders specifically for children should be brought in to tackle the growing numbers being arrested, the official adviser on terrorism law has told the government.

Ministers are studying plans that would result in children being compelled to accept help or face jail, devised by Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation.

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Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler sued for 1970s sexual battery and assault of minor

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Suit alleges ‘various acts of criminal sexual conduct’ were committed against teenager by singer over three-year period

A woman who says she had a sexual relationship with Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler when she was 16 is suing him in California, under a state law that has temporarily extended the statute of limitations for adults to take legal action on sexual abuse they suffered as children.

Julia Holcomb Misley, who has spoken out publicly for years about Tyler’s treatment of her as a teenager, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles on Tuesday alleging sexual battery, sexual assault and intentional infliction of distress during a three-year period in the 1970s.

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