Keir Starmer says £88m package will help tackle trend of young people becoming ‘disconnected from their communities’
Youth clubs and after-school activities in England will receive a funding injection of £88m as ministers try to get more children away from smartphones and computer screens.
The package, which Keir Starmer announced on Tuesday, is intended to give pupils access to sport, outdoor activities, art, music, debating and volunteering.
Continue reading...Beeban Kidron says it is not ‘nanny state’ to prevent firms investing billions on making platforms addictive from targeting under-18s
A leading online safety campaigner has urged the UK government to “detoxify the dopamine loops” of addictive social media platforms as tech companies prepare to implement significant child protection measures.
Beeban Kidron, a crossbench peer, asked the technology secretary, Peter Kyle, to use the Online Safety Act to bring forward new codes of conduct on disinformation and on tech features that can lead to children becoming addicted to online content.
Continue reading...UK PM and German chancellor sign first bilateral agreement between the UK and Germany since the second world war
While Rushanara Ali is answering the urgent question in the Commons, Keir Starmer is speaking at the event where he is announcing a “civil society covenant”.
There is a live feed here.
Why does this government think a 16-year-old can vote but not be allowed to buy a lottery ticket or an alcoholic drink, marry or go to war, or even stand in the elections they’re voting? It isn’t the government’s position on the age of maturity just hopelessly confused?
Continue reading...16- and 17-year-olds will be able to vote in all elections as part of changes including easier voter registration and crackdown on foreign interference
The voting age will be lowered to 16 in the UK by the next general election in a major change of the democratic system.
The government said it was a reform to bring in more fairness for 16- and 17-year-olds, many of whom already work and are able to serve in the military. It brings the whole of the UK voting age to 16. Scotland and Wales have already made the change for Holyrood and Senedd elections, as well as local council elections.
Continue reading...Teenagers suspected of being hired by criminals paid to carry out acts on behalf of states, it is understood
Schoolchildren have been arrested by detectives investigating Russian and Iranian plots against Britain, a police chief has said, as he warned hostile state aggression was rising and youngsters were at risk.
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan police’s counter-terrorism unit, said children in their “mid teens” had been investigated. It is understood they were suspected of being hired by criminals paid to carry out acts for Russia and Iran.
Continue reading...Government says new guidance will challenge ‘manosphere’ myths as DfE reports epidemic-scale misogyny
Secondary school pupils in England are to be taught about “incel” culture and the links between pornography and misogyny as part of long-awaited statutory government guidance due to be published on Tuesday.
It will include a new focus on positive role models for boys and challenge “myths about women and relationships that are spread online in the ‘manosphere’”, but will warn schools against “stigmatising boys for being boys”.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: As a new Guardian project begins, we hear from the teenagers navigating deprivation, isolation and a sense of being forgotten
Good morning. A few weeks ago, 18-year-old Tamsin Jarman-Smith, born and raised in a small town just outside Blackpool, sat on a battered sofa at House of Wingz, a community youth organisation tucked down an alleyway a few streets from the beach, and explained what it felt like to be a young person growing up in a coastal town.
“I’m lucky because I found this passion for dancing and I come to this place, which has saved me I think, especially my creativity and hope for opportunities for myself, but lots of people my age feel like there is nothing here for them,” she said.
Europe | Talks over a British and French migration deal remained deadlocked on Wednesday night, as negotiators haggled over how much Britain will pay towards the cost of policing small boat crossings.
UK news | Campaigners have decried as “dangerously naive” the UK government’s sweeping deal with Google to provide free technology to the public sector.
Europe | Police have raided the headquarters of France’s far-right National Rally and seized documents as part of an investigation into alleged illegal campaign financing.
UK news | Thames Water has refused to claw back almost £2.5m paid to senior managers from an emergency loan that was meant to keep the failing utilities company afloat.
Housing | The Bank of England has rolled out looser mortgage rules that policymakers hope will help 36,000 more first-time buyers on to the housing ladder each year.
Continue reading...Amy Hawkins visits one of the many bars popping up across Chinese cities offering drinks, snacks and a vision of the future
In the age of self-help, self-improvement and self-obsession, there have never been more places to look to for guidance. Where the anxious and the uncertain might have once consulted a search engine for answers, now we can engage in a seemingly meaningful discussion about our problems with ChatGPT. Or, if you’re in China, DeepSeek.
To some, though, it feels as if our ancestors knew more about life than we do. Or at least, they knew how to look for them. And so it is that scores of young Chinese are turning to ancient forms of divination to find out what the future holds. In the past couple of years, fortune-telling bars have been popping up in China’s cities, offering drinks and snacks alongside xuanxue, or spiritualism. The trend makes sense: China’s economy is struggling, and although consumers are saving their pennies, going out for a drink is cheaper than other forms of retail therapy or an actual therapist. With a deep-rooted culture of mysticism that blends Daoist, Buddhist and folk practices, which have defied decades of the government trying to stamp out superstitious beliefs, for many Chinese people, turning to the unseen makes perfect sense.
Continue reading...After initial concerns, pupils are said to be more focused and have better social interactions with each other
Bans on smartphones in Dutch schools have improved the learning environment despite initial protests, according to a study commissioned by the government of the Netherlands.
National guidelines, introduced in January 2024, recommend banning smartphones from classrooms and almost all schools have complied. Close to two-thirds of secondary schools ask pupils to leave their phones at home or put them in lockers, while phones are given in at the start of a lesson at one in five.
Continue reading...Rates are higher in young women as in young men and mental ill health up across age groups, study shows
Sharp rises in rates of anxiety, depression and other disorders have led to one in four young people in England having a common mental health condition, an NHS survey shows, with young women more likely to report them than young men.
The study found that rates of such conditions in 16- to 24-year-olds have risen by more than a third in a decade, from 18.9% in 2014 to 25.8% in 2024.
More than a fifth (22.6%) of adults aged 16 to 64 have a common mental health condition, up from 18.9% in 2014.
More than one in four adults (25.2%) reported having had suicidal thoughts during their lifetime, including about a third of 16- 24-year-olds (31.5%) and 25- to 34-year-olds (32.9%).
Self-harm rates have quadrupled since 2000 and risen from 6.4% in 2014 to 10.3% in 2024, with the highest rates among 16- to 24-year-olds at 24.6%, especially young women at 31.7%.
Continue reading...Disciplinary hearing finds two police officers’ search of Child Q, 15, was disproportionate and humiliating
Two police officers who were involved in the strip-search of a black teenager at her school have been found to have committed gross misconduct.
The search at a school in Hackney, east London, was “disproportionate, inappropriate and unnecessary” and made the girl, known as Child Q, feel degraded and humiliated, a panel concluded at the end of a four-week misconduct hearing.
Continue reading...Scheme aims to exploit ‘teachable moment’, when someone is wavering between criminality and turning their back on violence
A scheme aiming to turn children arrested for violence away from crime has claimed staggering success, with up to nine out of 10 diverted from further offending, according to a report.
Under the scheme, which is funded by London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), special youth workers are placed in police custody centres across the capital.
Continue reading...Girl’s lawyer tells police misconduct hearing that she felt ‘physically violated’ by incident at her London school
A black schoolgirl suffered mental harm and felt “physically violated” when she was strip-searched at school by police, a misconduct hearing for three officers has been told.
The girl, who was 15 at the time and has been known as Child Q, was strip-searched in December 2020 at her school in Hackney, east London, while menstruating, having been wrongly accused of possessing cannabis.
Continue reading...Families share incidents of sons being slashed and afraid to leave their cells at HMP Swinfen Hall
Young offenders at a troubled prison in the Midlands have been stabbed, “dehumanised” and are “becoming more violent” in order to survive, mothers of prisoners have told the Guardian.
HMP Swinfen Hall, near Lichfield, Staffordshire, has seen a growing number of disturbances, including the intervention of riot officers. The prison officers union last month called for the Ministry of Justice to intervene and clear the place of weapons after several staff members were attacked.
Continue reading...Officials draft declaration to help tackle ‘fluctuations’ in world economy
The UK is offering the EU a “new strategic partnership” aimed at bolstering trade and presenting a united European front when Donald Trump is threatening to upend decades of transatlantic alignment.
A draft declaration being drawn up by London and Brussels ahead of a UK-EU summit on 19 May points to a “common understanding” on a number of shared interests.
Continue reading...Study shows women today are happier being women – but getting up to go to work remains as punishing as ever
The mundane tasks of everyday life, such as homework after school and household chores at the weekend, may not have changed in the past 80 years, but societal attitudes towards them could not be more different.
A study by the Policy Institute at King’s College London (KCL), comparing public attitudes now and in the 1930s and 40s, reveals how significantly views on everyday life in Britain have shifted over the decades.
Continue reading...Head of National Education Union calls for statutory ban on phones in schools and social media ban for under-16s
Almost all schools in England have banned mobile phone use by pupils, according to the first national survey conducted, as the leader of the largest teaching union called for a statutory ban owing to the “damaging impact” on young people.
The national survey, ordered by Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, showed that headteachers have swiftly instituted bans on smartphone use during school hours. The survey of more than 15,000 schools found that 99.8% of primary schools and 90% of secondary schools have some form of ban.
Continue reading...Young people whose debts outweigh their assets are at risk of experiencing blighted earnings, and even poorer health
Gen Z and young millennials are battling a “negative wealth” problem due to growing debt burdens that limit their life chances, according to a new analysis from the Fairness Foundation.
The thinktank says negative wealth, where debts outweigh assets, is linked to lower wages and worse health in later life, and that ministers should reintroduce the Child Trust Fund to give young people a greater stake in society.
Continue reading...More health-conscious young people take total to 11.5m memberships, report finds, as experts cite social aspect alongside fitness
Record numbers of Britons are going to the gym, as the desire of many gen Zers to socialise while getting fit instead of drinking in the pub drives an unprecedented surge in membership, a report shows.
In all, 11.5 million people aged 16 and over– a new high – now belong to a gym in the UK, a rise of 1.6 million from 2022. It means one in six people have taken out a membership.
Continue reading...National Crime Agency says such groups are fuelling crimes including fraud, violence and child sexual abuse
Teenage boys are joining online gangs where they share sadistic and misogynistic material that fuels crimes including fraud, violence and child sexual abuse, the director general of the National Crime Agency has warned.
Offenders in online communities collaborate and compete to cause harm online and offline through cyber-attacks such as launching malware, ransomware or executing data breaches; fraud; extremism; grooming and blackmailing; serious violence; and child sexual abuse, according to the NCA, which leads the UK’s fight to cut serious and organised crime.
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