Category Archives: Children

Elon Musk does not grasp EU fears about disinformation on X, official says

Posted on by

EU commissioner Vera Jourová says tech firms must hire staff versed in legal and historical context of free speech in Europe

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, lacks understanding of European concerns over the hatred and division that can result from the spread of disinformation, a senior EU commissioner has said.

Speaking just days before the European parliamentary elections, in which disinformation, particularly Russian-backed propaganda, has been a key issue, Věra Jourová criticised what she said was a clear deterioration in content moderation on X since Musk bought the platform in 2022.

Continue reading...

Children die of malnutrition as Rafah operation heightens threat of famine in Gaza

Posted on by

Arrival of Israeli troops in the southern border town has choked aid supplies, as hunger deepens in southern Gaza

Fayiz Abu Ataya was born into war and knew nothing else. Over his first and only spring, in a town stalked by hunger, he wasted away to a shadow of a child, skin stretched painfully over jutting bones.

In seven months of life, he had little time to make a mark beyond the family who loved him. But when his death from malnutrition was reported last week, it sounded a warning around the world about a rapidly deepening crisis in central and southern Gaza, triggered by the Israeli military operation in the southern town of Rafah.

Continue reading...

New York governor to launch bill banning smartphones in schools

Posted on by

Exclusive: Kathy Hochul pushes online child safety, telling social media companies: ‘You’re not going to profit off the mental health of children’

The New York governor, Kathy Hochul, plans to introduce a bill banning smartphones in schools, the latest in a series of legislative moves aimed at online child safety by New York’s top official.

“I have seen these addictive algorithms pull in young people, literally capture them and make them prisoners in a space where they are cut off from human connection, social interaction and normal classroom activity,” she said.

Continue reading...

Babbling babies may be warming up for speech, say scientists

Posted on by

Squeals and growls tend to occur in groups, finds study of infants aged up to 13 months

It might sound like a stream of jolly nonsense, but the peculiar sounds babies produce could be an attempt to practise the vocal control necessary for speech, researchers have suggested.

A study analysing the sounds made by infants during their first year of life has found squeals and growls tend to occur in groups.

Continue reading...

Toddlers ‘sold out’ to balance books of childcare bill, English nursery providers say

Posted on by

Experts say government’s relaxation of rules on staff ratios for two-year-olds is putting children at undue risk

Toddlers have been “sold out” to balance the books of the government’s childcare bill, according to nursery providers, who say young children have been put at risk by changes in supervision rules.

The deaths of two babies in nurseries made headlines last week but frontline workers say they are also concerned for the safety of older toddlers after the government relaxed rules on staff ratios.

Continue reading...

Invest in childhood to unlock £45.5bn a year, says Princess of Wales’s taskforce

Posted on by

Report from group set up by Catherine says business can improve early years and benefit all of society

Business investment in early childhood could unlock £45.5bn in value a year for the UK economy, according to a report by a taskforce created by the Princess of Wales.

In the report, CEOs from eight leading companies urged “businesses of all sizes across the UK, to join us and help build a healthy, happy society for everyone”.

The Co-operative Group creating a specific early childhood fund as part of its unique apprenticeship levy share scheme, and committing to raise £5m over the next five years, creating more than 600 apprenticeships.

Deloitte focusing its ongoing investment in Teach First to include the early years sector for the first time, supporting 366 early years professionals in 2024.

NatWest Group extending its lending target for the childcare sector to £100m, launching an early years accreditation scheme to its staff and producing a financial toolkit for childcare providers to help them grow and succeed.

Ikea UK and Ireland expanding its contribution of support, design expertise and products for babies and young children to six new locations across the UK to help families with young children experiencing the greatest disadvantage.

The Lego Group donating 3,000 LEGO® Education Build Me “Emotions” sets, supported by training materials, to early years providers in the UK.

Iceland Foods providing learning, awareness and support in all 1,000 Iceland and The Food Warehouse stores by featuring emoji posters at a child-friendly height – a practical tool to help customers with young children and to create a space of understanding and support in stores.

Continue reading...

German star at Cannes condemns ‘madness’ of protective culture for UK child actors

Posted on by

Cast member of Palme d’Or contender shot in Kent says the high number of chaperones and intimacy coordinators on set was over the top

Is Britain leading the way in protecting young people and children from the potential traumas of working on a film set, or has it all gone far too far? Two of the most prominent European stars attending the Cannes film festival, both with high-profile premieres, have very different views.

Franz Rogowski, the acclaimed German actor who plays a key role in Bird, British director Andrea Arnold’s contender for the top Palme d’Or prize, said this weekend that the proliferation of chaperones and intimacy coordinators that had been required on the shoot on location in Kent qualified as well-intended “madness”.

Continue reading...

Six-month-old baby shot repeatedly during Arizona standoff with child’s father

Posted on by

Police were able to rescue child, who is in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, before house caught fire with father still in it

A six-month-old baby is currently hospitalized after a man allegedly shot the infant several times during an armed home standoff in Surprise, Arizona, about 30 miles north-west of Phoenix.

At about 3am on Friday, the father of the child allegedly broke into the home where the child and mother lived, according to Surprise police. The child’s father did not live in the house, police said, adding that the man held the mother and child hostage for several hours before the mother managed to escape.

Continue reading...

Four US daycare workers charged with spiking children’s food with melatonin

Posted on by

New Hampshire employees of day care arrested after six-month investigation and each face 10 charges of endangering children

Four New Hampshire daycare employees allegedly spiked children’s food with the sleep supplement melatonin and were arrested on Thursday.

The arrests stem from a November 2023 investigation at a daycare in Manchester, New Hampshire, about 30 minutes outside the state capital of Concord.

Continue reading...

All parents, working or not, should have access to childcare, say experts in England

Posted on by

Rescue and reform manifesto from Early Education and Childcare Coalition calls for overhaul of model

A manifesto calling for an overhaul of childcare provision in England, including making early education accessible to all children regardless of whether their parents work or not, has been backed by dozens of leading employers and unions.

Thirty-five national organisations have joined forces to call for the reform of the current childcare model, including the Federation of Small Businesses, the Early Years Alliance, the Fawcett Society, the Joseph Rowntree Trust, and National Children’s Bureau.

Continue reading...

UK free school meal allowances too low for healthy lunches, study finds

Posted on by

Researchers also find lack of fresh fruit and vegetables in schools and say portion sizes sometimes not enough

Free school meal allowances are not enough for students from lower-income backgrounds to buy healthy school lunches, research suggests.

The study, presented at the European Congress of Obesity (ECO), involved 42 pupils aged between 11 and 15 at seven schools across the UK.

Continue reading...

Vulnerable children in England ‘safer at school’ than being educated at home

Posted on by

Review of serious safeguarding failures finds young people from abusive environments ‘less visible’ to agencies

Children who grow up in neglectful or abusive environments are safer attending school than being educated at home, according to a review of serious safeguarding failures in England in which six children died and 35 were harmed in one year.

The report, by the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, emphasised that while home education was not a safeguarding risk, it found that vulnerable children were “less visible” to safeguarding agencies than those regularly in school.

Continue reading...

More than a third of children’s restaurant meals still exceed salt target

Posted on by

Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Prezzo and Wetherspoon’s among worst offenders, Action on Salt survey suggests

More than a third of children’s main meals sold in restaurants still exceed the government’s maximum salt target, with Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Wetherspoon’s and Prezzo among the worst offenders, a survey suggests.

Action on Salt found that 37% of children’s main meals sold in the “out of home” sector exceeded the government-set maximum target of 1.71g of salt, to be achieved by the end of the year.

Continue reading...

‘It wasn’t a big deal’: secret deposition reveals how a child molester priest was shielded by his church

Posted on by

Lawrence Hecker pleaded the fifth 117 times as he detailed how the Catholic church protected him for more than two decades after he admitted to molesting children

Longtime New Orleans Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker received a special honor from the Vatican nearly 25 years ago despite having confessed to molesting children. Then, for another two decades, church leaders in the city strategically shielded him from law enforcement and media exposure – while also providing him with financial support ranging from paid limousine rides and therapeutic massages to full retirement benefits, according to his own, previously unreported testimony.

A sworn deposition Hecker gave in private in 2020 shows exactly how high-placed Catholic church officials in New Orleans let him keep his elevated position for years, even after they had been advised to oust him from the clergy and – much later – publicly acknowledged that he was a child predator.

Continue reading...

Bullfighting firm in Seville to give free tickets to under-eights

Posted on by

Company says move is best way to introduce tradition but critic claims it could psychologically damage young children

A firm managing bullfights at Seville’s bullring is to give free tickets to children under eight, adding to a national debate about the controversial Spanish tradition.

The company, Pages, said adult spectators with a ticket for the “novilladas” – practice bullfights involving younger bulls – at Seville’s Maestranza may be accompanied by a child free of charge, which it said was “the best way to introduce the little ones” to the world of bullfighting.

Continue reading...

Children in danger as NSW child protection reaches crisis point, striking caseworkers say

Posted on by

Public-sector workers call for pay rise, 500 additional staff and the de-privatising of out-of-home care

New South Wales child protection workers have warned that some of the state’s most vulnerable children are being neglected or put at risk of being removed from their families because resourcing problems in the sector have reached crisis point.

More than 2,000 public-sector child protection workers across the state plan to strike for part of the day on Wednesday as they call on the government to give them a pay rise, hire 500 additional staff and de-privatise out-of-home care.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Ofcom accused of ‘excluding’ bereaved parents from online safety consultation

Posted on by

The UK regulator has been criticised by grieving families and internet abuse survivors for failing to engage with them

Bereaved parents and abuse survivors who have endured years of “preventable, life-changing harm” linked to social media say they have been denied a voice in official discussions about holding tech firms to account.

Mariano Janin, whose ­daughter Mia, 14, killed herself after online bullying, and the parents of Oliver Stephens, 13, who was murdered after a dispute on social media, are among those who have accused Ofcom of excluding them from a ­consultation process for tackling online harms.

Continue reading...

Lone children at risk of deportation to Rwanda after being classified as adults, says charity

Posted on by

Refugee Council sounds warning after children wrongly issued with notices of intent by Home Office

Lone child asylum seekers are at risk of being sent to Rwanda because the Home Office has wrongly classified some as adults, it has been claimed.

The Refugee Council, which works with these children, has warned of the risk after more than a dozen of the children it works with were wrongly issued with notices of intent for Rwanda.

Continue reading...

Stop children using smartphones until they are 13, says French report

Posted on by

Children should be banned from most social media until 18 amid attempts to ‘monetise’ them, says Macron-commissioned study

Children should not be allowed to use smartphones until they are 13 and should be banned from accessing conventional social media such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat until they are 18, according to a report by experts commissioned by Emmanuel Macron.

The French president had asked scientists and experts to suggest screen use guidelines for children with a view to France taking unprecedented steps on limiting their exposure. It was unclear how the government might now proceed after the report’s publication. Macron said in January: “There might be bans, there might be restrictions.”

Continue reading...

Children in Gaza underplaying their pain due to extent of trauma around them, say doctors

Posted on by

Observation was made by medics contributing a new pain management manual for treating children in conflict zones

Children being treated in Gaza’s hospitals are “underplaying” pain because it “seems trivial” in the context of the wider conflict, doctors have said.

International medics met in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday to discuss plans for a new trauma pain management manual to support professionals treating children in Gaza and other conflict zones.

Continue reading...