Category Archives: Children

‘Inherently cruel’: Canadian parents say citizenship bill erodes rights of children adopted abroad

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Rule would require adopted children born abroad to prove ‘substantial connection’ to Canada to pass on citizenship

Canadian parents of children adopted abroad say a proposed citizenship bill represents a “shocking and unconscionable” erosion of their children’s rights by the governing Liberals.

The federal government is in the midst of overhauling the Citizenship Act so Canadians born abroad can pass citizenship to further generations born abroad. The bill would also restore or grant citizenship descendants who were excluded under older citizenship laws.

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Hamburg man charged with murder over US teen’s livestreamed death

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German authorities issue 204 charges against 21-year-old suspect, alleged to be part of wider network of abusers

A man accused of luring children worldwide into a sadistic online abuse network has been charged by German prosecutors with hundreds of crimes, including murder, for the livestreamed death of a 13-year-old American.

Using the pseudonym “White Tiger”, the 21-year-old man from Hamburg is alleged to have victimised more than 30 children with online sexual abuse, manipulation and exploitation as a part of a virtual network of abusers known as “764”.

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Majority of family court cases in England and Wales feature domestic abuse, watchdog says

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Commissioner’s review found 87% of cases uncovered physical, psychological or sexual abuse of a family member

Nearly 90% of cases before the family courts in England and Wales show evidence of domestic abuse, a watchdog has disclosed.

Physical, psychological or sexual abuse of a member of the family or household was uncovered in 87% of cases, according to a review ordered by the domestic abuse commissioner, Nicole Jacobs.

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Denmark plans social media ban for under-15s as PM warns phones ‘stealing childhood’

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Mette Frederiksen links social media use to anxiety, depression and lack of concentration

The Danish prime minister says the country will ban social media for under-15s, as she accused mobile phones and social networks of “stealing our children’s childhood”.

Mette Frederiksen used her speech on Tuesday at the opening of Folketing, the Danish parliament, to announce the proposal, in which she said: “We have unleashed a monster.” She added: “Never before have so many children and young people suffered from anxiety and depression.”

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George Clooney says his children have a ‘much better life’ being raised in France than LA

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The actor said that their French farm will be free of paparazzi, teach them self-sufficiency and let them see his handyman skills, such as fixing the coffee machine

George Clooney has said that his decision to base himself in France was informed by the desire to give his children a better start in life than if they had remained in the US.

The actor, 64, who has eight-year-old twins, Ella and Alexander, with his wife, the human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, gave a lengthy interview to US Esquire magazine while staying at his Italian villa on Lake Como.

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Scottish government says schools must have separate toilets for boys and girls

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Schools encouraged to also offer gender-neutral facilities for trans pupils or access to disabled and staff toilets

Schools must provide separate toilets and changing rooms for boys and girls to be used on the basis of a pupil’s biological sex, the Scottish government has said in updated guidance.

Transgender pupils can no longer use “the facilities they feel most comfortable with”, as was previously the case, but schools were encouraged to offer gender-neutral facilities or access to disabled and staff toilets for the relatively small number of children affected.

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Low birthrates in England could lead to ‘closure of 800 primary schools by 2029’

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Primary pupil numbers could fall by 4% over next five years leading to reduction of 162,000 pupils, study finds

Declining numbers of children across England could lead to the equivalent of 800 primary schools falling empty or being closed by the end of the decade, according to research by a thinktank.

The national decline in pupils at state primary schools is mainly driven by low birthrates but is magnified in London by increasing numbers of people moving out of the capital or leaving the state system to move abroad or send their children to private schools, according to the Education Policy Institute.

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Fake Labubu dolls account for 90% of counterfeit toys seized at UK border

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Many of the 236,000 imitations of the fluffy figures found this year contain banned chemicals or pose choking risk

Fake Labubu dolls accounted for 90% of counterfeit toys seized at the UK border this year, with many found to contain banned chemicals or pose choking hazards.

Border officials intercepted almost 259,000 counterfeit toys worth more than £3.5m, including 236,000 fake versions of Pop Mart’s toothy, fluffy Labubu dolls.

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Venice police fine parents of children who played football in public square

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Murano resident reported children, aged between 12 and 13, to the police

Italy might be a football-loving country but that did not stop police in Venice from pursuing a group of unlikely targets: 14 children who fell foul for playing the game in a public square, leading to fines presented to their parents, in a move that has sparked a debate about the rights of young people to play outdoors.

The children, aged between 12 and 13, were playing football earlier this month in Pino Signoretto square in Murano, an island of about 4,500 inhabitants in the Venetian lagoon, when a resident, annoyed by the noise they were making, reported them to the police.

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‘She never got help’: mother says daughter who died on motorway was failed by care system

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Tamzin Hall, 17, was struck by a vehicle after leaving a police car on the M5 motorway in Somerset after being arrested at a children’s home

The mother of a girl who was struck by a vehicle and killed after she left a police car on a motorway says the untimely death of her daughter came after years of frustration and disappointment with authorities over the teenager’s care.

Tamzin Hall, 17, had been arrested and was being taken into custody when she left the police vehicle in which she was travelling on the M5 northbound between Taunton and Bridgwater in Somerset on 11 November 2024.

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Lucy Powell: Labour should raise gambling taxes to axe two-child benefit cap

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Deputy leadership candidate says party needs to be ‘clear that our objective is to lift children out of poverty’

Labour should consider raising taxes on gambling firms to cover the cost of lifting the two-child benefit cap, the party’s deputy leadership candidate Lucy Powell has suggested.

The Manchester Central MP, who is battling with the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, to succeed Angela Rayner as Labour’s deputy leader, also acknowledged the public was “exasperated” because of “some mistakes” Labour had made in office.

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Judges rule against Trump administration on deporting Guatemalan children and Venezuelans

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Double defeat protects Venezuelans with temporary protected status and Guatemalan minors

The Trump administration has been handed a double defeat by judges in immigration cases, barring the executive branch from deporting a group of Guatemalan children and from slashing protections for many Venezuelans in the US.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the administration to refrain from deporting Guatemalan unaccompanied immigrant children with active immigration cases while a legal challenge plays out.

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Sweden to implement nationwide mobile phone ban in schools

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From autumn 2026 all schools and after-school clubs must collect and hold students’ phones until the end of the day

Sweden is to implement a nationwide mobile phone ban in all schools in an attempt to improve security and study conditions for students.

From the next school year, starting in autumn 2026, it will be compulsory for all schools and after-school clubs to collect students’ phones and hold them until the end of the day.

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First group of children from Gaza arrive in UK for life-saving NHS treatment

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Care and support package, including housing, will help 30-50 young Palestinians for an initial two years

The first group of children from Gaza have arrived in the UK for specialist life-saving treatment on the NHS, the Guardian understands.

Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, informed the parliamentary Labour party on Monday evening about the development. On arrival in the UK, the patients and their families have been granted access to NHS treatment, appropriate housing and comprehensive support services for an initial two-year period.

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Guy Pearce and Annie Lennox join call to end ‘normalised horror’ for children in Gaza

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Stars read Michael Rosen’s 2014 poem Don’t Mention the Children in film released by Save the Children

Guy Pearce, Annie Lennox and Vanessa Redgrave are among the celebrities calling for an end to the “normalised horror” of children being killed in Gaza, as part of new short film.

Released by Save the Children and Choose Love, it features the stars reciting the words to a poem by Michael Rosen. Titled Don’t Mention the Children, the poem was written in 2014 in response to a Guardian article about the Israeli government banning a radio advert naming children killed in Gaza. It begins:

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Junk food leads to more children being obese than underweight for first time

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Cheap ultra-processed food behind rise in overweight children, with one in 10 now obese globally, says Unicef

More children around the world are obese than underweight for the first time, according to a UN report that warns ultra-processed junk food is overwhelming childhood diets.

There are 188 million teenagers and school-age children with obesity – one in 10 – Unicef said, affecting health and development and bringing a risk of life-threatening diseases.

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School absence a big factor in child mental illness in England, data shows

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Loughborough University and ONS study of 1 million school-age children reveals risks increase with longer absence

School absences “significantly contribute” to children’s mental ill health, according to research backed by the Office for National Statistics that shows the risks increase the longer a child is absent.

“Our research shows that the more times a child is absent from school, the greater the probability that they will experience mental ill health,” the authors, from Loughborough University and the ONS, concluded.

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Ministers urged to digitise adoption records to help reunite families

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As ITV’s Long Lost Family airs, campaigners say retaining archives is crucial for those separated by forced adoptions at unmarried mothers’ homes

Ministers have been urged to digitise records essential to reuniting families separated by the UK’s unmarried mothers’ home scandal by campaigners who fear they could be lost in Angela Rayner’s local government reorganisation project.

Hundreds of thousands of British women were coerced to give up babies at church-linked homes, which worked alongside statutory agencies, between the 1940s and 1980s.

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Vaccine warning for England as one in five children start school unprotected

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Experts say country needs ‘wake up call’ with levels far below those needed for herd immunity

England needs to “wake up” to its faltering infant vaccination programme, experts have warned, as it was revealed that one in five children start primary school unprotected from serious infectious diseases.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the target for vaccine uptake among children in order to achieve herd immunity is 95%. But figures for 2024-25 released by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on Thursday show that no childhood vaccine has met this requirement.

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Labour MP ‘receives death threats’ after Tory MP shares video on grooming gangs inquiry

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Anna Dixon accuses fellow West Yorkshire MP Robbie Moore of spreading misinformation

A Labour MP has said she has been subjected to death threats and online misogynistic abuse after a video was shared by a Conservative MP about her position on a national inquiry into grooming gangs.

Anna Dixon, the MP for Shipley in West Yorkshire, said police were investigating the threats and accused the MP for Keighley and Ilkley, Robbie Moore, of disseminating “misinformation” about her stance on the issue.

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