Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine say six officers came to their house after primary objected to WhatsApp comments
The parents of a nine-year-old girl have said they were held at a police station for 11 hours because they complained about their daughter’s primary school.
Maxie Allen and his partner, Rosalind Levine, said they were arrested and detained on suspicion of harassment, malicious communications and causing a nuisance on school property.
Continue reading...Human Rights Watch spoke to 33 Aboriginal parents who between them have had 114 children removed and placed in out-of-home care
Warning: this story contains distressing descriptions of violence
Briana* was just starting to get a handle on the unpredictability of feeding, bottles and all that comes with a newborn when she received an email informing her she had lost custody of her three-month-old son.
Days later, child protection authorities took her child. With him, they took many of the milestones the 36-year-old first-time mother was looking forward to. “I’m going to miss those first words, the first rollover, everything,” she says.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Critics say cuts will mean that children will have to face off alone in court against experienced Ice attorneys
The Trump administration is reported to have cut funding to a legal program that provides representation for unaccompanied immigrant children, one month after directing immigration enforcement agents to track down minors who had entered the US without guardians last month.
Organizations that collectively receive more than $200m in federal grants were informed that the contract through the office of refugee resettlement had been partially terminated, according to a memo issued on Friday by the interior department and obtained by ABC News.
Continue reading...Experiences of harassment, groping, inappropriate touching and rape anonymously reported
Children and adults have anonymously reported testimonies of sexual abuse and harassment at 1,664 primary schools in the UK through a website for survivors, which has called for age-appropriate sex education to be taught to children under the age of nine.
Experiences of sexual harassment, groping, inappropriate touching and even forced penetration have been anonymously reported on the site everyonesinvited.uk, with at least one testimonial relating to an incident that took place when the victim was as young as five.
Continue reading...Teachers will be banned from setting homework involving screens in effort to tackle ‘risks’ of intensive use of IT at young age
The regional government of Madrid has unveiled plans to limit the use of computers and tablets in primary schools to a maximum of two hours a week in an effort to tackle “the risks associated with the early, intensive and inappropriate use of information technology”.
Under the proposals, to be enacted in September, teachers will also be banned from setting homework involving screen use.
Continue reading...National Crime Agency launches awareness campaign, saying criminals are adapting methods and using AI
UK police forces are receiving more than 110 reports of child sextortion attempts every month, according to the National Crime Agency, as a new awareness campaign is launched about the online scourge.
The NCA said the use of artificial intelligence in sextortion attacks had also increased “substantially” over the past three years as criminals adapted their methods.
Continue reading...As parents resist vaccines over vague potential harms, advocates call it a case of ‘morals more than science’
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is planning to devote research dollars to the debunked myth that vaccines cause autism – legitimizing stigma not only around vaccines, but around autism itself.
Matthew Shallenberger, father to an 11-year-old autistic son in Tennessee, says this myth is harmful because “it treats autism as some dreadful disease to avoid at all costs.”
Continue reading...Surrey was region of UK with most sign-ups for Smartphone Free Childhood’s parent pact, launched last year
An online campaign committing parents to bar their children from owning a smartphone until they are at least 14 has garnered 100,000 signatures in the six months since its launch.
The Smartphone Free Childhood campaign launched a “parent pact” in September in which signatories committed to withhold handsets from their children until at least the end of year 9, and to keep them off social media until they are 16.
Continue reading...Firings announced Tuesday as administration decried as ‘detached from how Americans live’
The US Department of Education intends to lay off nearly half of its workforce. The layoffs of 1,300 people were announced by the department on Tuesday and described by the education secretary, Linda McMahon, as a “significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system”.
In a post on X, McMahon said: “Today’s [reduction in force] reflects our commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.”
Continue reading...Checkpoints backed by education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, follow complaints from teachers of children arriving in nappies
Toilet training and the ability to use cutlery are two key checkpoints in a new list of “school-readiness” skills developed by a coalition of early-years educators and endorsed by Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary.
The group said the guidance was the first of its type, intended to help parents to prepare children starting in reception classes in England from the age of four and came after complaints from teachers of children arriving at school in nappies, lacking basic skills and unable to play with others.
Continue reading...UCL team is inviting parents to share their experiences, as age at which children in west acquire the skill rises
Storybooks about potties, underpants featuring superheroes, rewards for doing a wee: toilet training is a rite of passage for any child. But with the average age of toilet training steadily creeping upwards, scientists are now hoping to crack the question of which methods are most effective.
A team at University College London is inviting people from across the world to share their experiences and techniques as part of the Big Toilet Project. The ultimate aim is to uncover evidence that could help parents toilet train children earlier and reduce the massive contribution that disposable nappies make to landfill waste.
Continue reading...Parents banned from school sites after leaders spat at and trolled, poll finds
Four in five school leaders in England, Wales and Northern Ireland say they have suffered abuse from pupils’ parents in the past year, according to a poll that found they had been spat at, trolled on social media and even physically attacked.
The problem has become so serious that more than two out of five (42%) of those who took part in the survey said they had been forced to ban parents from the school site in the last year. Nearly a third (32%) have reported parents to the police and almost three-quarters (72%) have issued a warning letter or email.
Continue reading...Under proposed new codes submitted to eSafety commissioner, tech companies would have six months to implement new measures
Social media and technology companies would have six months to implement a suite of new measures to restrict Australian children from accessing adult content online, or face fines up to $50m, under proposed new codes developed by the industry.
The draft codes, submitted to the eSafety commissioner last week for approval, would require social media platforms that allow pornography to prevent access to minors, and implement age assurance measures for users.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Figures emerge as Kindoki Witch Boy film tells true story of Mardoche Yembi who underwent an exorcism as a child
Thousands of children in England have been accused of witchcraft over the past decade, according to new figures that come alongside a film released on Monday.
Faith-based abuse is a worldwide phenomenon but experts found 14,000 social work assessments linked to witchcraft accusations since 2015. In the year running to March 2024 alone, there were 2,180 assessments linked to witchcraft.
Children accused of witchcraft can call Childline on 0800 1111 or NSPCC on 0808 800 500.
Continue reading...Epicenter of latest outbreak had one of state’s highest immunization exemption rates for 2023-24 school year
The measles outbreak in Texas has grown to at least 90 cases, reaching historic levels, according to officials.
Since late January, 90 cases of measles have been identified in the South Plains region, the state’s department of state health services (DSHS) reported Friday. At least 16 patients have been hospitalized as a result.
Continue reading...Platform cites ‘legal requirements around when we remove data’ after lawsuit filed over deaths of children attempting ‘blackout challenge’
Four British parents who are suing TikTok for the alleged wrongful deaths of their children say they are “suspicious” about the social media platform’s claim to have deleted their children’s data.
The parents have filed a lawsuit in the US that claims that their four children died in 2022 as a result of attempting the “blackout challenge”, a viral trend that circulated on social media in 2021.
Continue reading...Hundreds of teenagers have been given an IN10 police endorsement since 2020, says road safety charity
Electric scooters have been blamed for a surge in the number of children being penalised for driving without insurance.
Since the start of 2020 almost 800 children aged between 13 and 16 have been given an IN10 endorsement – the code used by the police for “using a vehicle uninsured against third party risks” – according to data obtained by a road safety charity.
Continue reading...Martyn Oliver says less office-going since pandemic has led to a shift in attitudes among pupils in England
School attendance rates are being affected by parents working from home after the pandemic, the head of Ofsted has said.
The chief inspector of the schools watchdog in England, Martyn Oliver, told the Sunday Times that the widespread change in working habits after the pandemic had led to a shift in attitudes among pupils.
Continue reading...Judge takes rare step of naming Robert Charles Albon, who subjected mothers to ‘nightmare’ of controlling behaviour
A sperm donor who subjected a couple to a “nightmare” of controlling behaviour over their child has been named by a judge as a warning about the dangers of unregulated sperm donation.
Robert Charles Albon claims to have fathered more than 180 children in several countries after advertising his sperm donation services under the name Joe Donor.
Continue reading...Campaigners demand government issue formal apology to women forced to give up their babies in 1950s-70s
Time is running out for the UK government to issue a formal apology to women who were forced to give up their babies for adoption in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, campaigners have warned.
Most of the estimated 185,000 women involved in forced adoptions are now in their 70s and 80s, and some have died without an apology on behalf of the state being issued.
Continue reading...