Researchers estimate lifetime earnings lost as charities call for independent review of causes of the crisis
More than £1tn will be lost in lifetime earnings in the UK as a direct result of the mental health crisis in young people, research estimates.
Published to launch the new Future Minds mental health campaign, the study forecasts the financial burden of failing to tackle the mental health crisis.
Continue reading...Data to be permanently deleted on 13 February after ‘matrix’ was found to be unlawful
Campaigners say deletion of an unlawful database known as the “matrix” will destroy vital evidence of discriminatory policing and prevent miscarriages of justice being exposed.
The gangs violence matrix (GVM) operated by the Metropolitan police, which linked individuals to alleged gang membership, is being permanently deleted on 13 February after it was found to be unlawful in 2022.
Continue reading...UK will be first country to bring in tough new laws to tackle the technology behind the creation of abusive material
Britain is to become the first country to introduce laws tackling the use of AI tools to produce child sexual abuse images, amid warnings from law enforcement agencies of an alarming proliferation in such use of the technology.
In an attempt to close a legal loophole that has been a major concern for police and online safety campaigners, it will become illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to generate child sexual abuse material.
Continue reading...Downing Street says PM’s call with Trump was ‘warm’ and did not include tariffs, Greenland, defence-spending or Ukraine
The hearing has stopped for a short break. Heather Hallett, the chair, tells Badenoch that her evidence will be finished by lunchtime.
Keith is now asking Badenoch about the fourth report produced by the Race Disparity Unit. It was produced in December 2021.
Relevant health departments and agencies should review and action existing requests for health data, and undertake an independent strategic review of the dissemination of healthcare data and the publication of statistics and analysis.
Government is not necessarily great at delivering these systems. They tend to be big boondoggles for the private sector, but there are private sector companies that can deliver this. There need to be caveats around that.
Continue reading...Study of GP records finds prevalence rose from one in 60,000 in 2011 to one in 1,200 in 2021 – but numbers still low overall
The number of children and young people in England with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria recorded by a GP has risen fiftyfold over 10 years, researchers have found, though numbers are still relatively small.
The growing number of birth-registered females seeking referrals to gender clinics has raised concerns in recent years, with tensions over how best to tackle gender dysphoria in children resulting in the Cass review last year.
Continue reading...Charities say better guidance is needed over increasing number of sexual assaults in UK primary schools
Schools must be given clearer guidance on how to handle peer-on-peer sexual abuse among pupils, charities have demanded.
Rape Crisis and other charities wrote to England’s education secretary Bridget Phillipson and Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, last week, calling on the government to step in with clearer statutory guidance on how schools in England and Wales should address sexual violence when both the victim and the alleged perpetrator are pupils.
Continue reading...Experts say the flood of users to RedNote highlights flaws in the Albanese government’s social media ban
As the TikTok ban looms in the United States, users have flocked to RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu, a China-based app that looks similar to Instagram.
But in Australia, where there is no imminent TikTok ban, the app is also rocketing up the app download charts. And it doesn’t just tell us about TikTok – it also exposes issues with Australia’s forthcoming social media age ban.
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Continue reading...Exclusive: Voters overall are downbeat about politics and almost two-thirds think ‘the UK’s best years are behind us’
One in five generation Z and millennial Britons prefer strong leaders without elections to democracy, and voters overall are feeling downbeat about politics, a report has found.
The polling, due to be published next week as part of the FGS Global Radar report, found that overall 14% of people agreed with the statement: “The best system for running a country effectively is a strong leader who doesn’t have to bother with elections,” rather than the alternative: “The best system for running a country effectively is democracy.”
Continue reading...Senior cabinet minister promises not to dilute new measures despite Zuckerberg’s attacks on countries ‘censoring’ content
Britain’s new laws to boost safety and tackle hate speech online are “not up for negotiation”, a senior government minister has warned, after Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg vowed to join Donald Trump to pressure countries they regard as “censoring” content.
In an interview with the Observer, Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, said that the recent laws designed to make online platforms safer for children and vulnerable people would never be diluted to help the government woo big tech companies to the UK in its defining pursuit for economic growth.
Continue reading...Almost a fifth of adults aged 24-34 are living with parents, particularly in areas of high-cost housing
The “hotel of mum and dad” is the busiest it has been for two decades as an increasing number of young adults in the UK choose – or are forced by low wages and rising rents – to live with their parents, research has found.
The prohibitive cost of renting, let alone buying, a home explains why more twenty- and thirtysomethings are “co-residing” with family at an age when their parents would have been living independently, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said.
Continue reading...Weapons such as sharpened objects and rocks taken from children aged 15-18 at YOI Wetherby
Almost 900 weapons were seized in one year from children detained in a young offender institution in the north of England, a prisons watchdog has found.
In its annual report published on Friday into HM young offender institution Wetherby in West Yorkshire, the institution’s independent monitoring board found that children were in possession of a range of improvised weapons. The children told IMB they carried the weapons because they felt unsafe behind bars.
Continue reading...Exclusive: UK teenagers placed in temporary housing until they are adults as there are fewer obligations to support them if they are not care leavers
Councils are treating teenagers like homeless adults and placing them in unsuitable temporary housing rather than taking them into care, new research has shown.
Local authorities are “waiting out the clock” when assessing vulnerable 16- and 17-year-olds until they can be classed as adults. The teenagers were kept in the dark about their rights after escaping “harrowing” family situations involving physical and emotional abuse, addiction and mental health problems, according to research by the Coram Institute for Children charity.
Continue reading...Advocates argue it’s time for young people’s wages to rise but business groups claim paying more will push some companies into insolvency
Arda Konstantine could vote, drink and drive a car. But as they were 19 years old, their employer, Grill’d, was legally able to pay them just $16.50 an hour – $3.38 less than the hourly national minimum for their age.
If Konstantine worked at the fast food chain’s airport store, their rate bumped up an extra $2. While employed at Grill’d, Konstantine never got weekend or public holiday rates.
Continue reading...Families placed in hotels in England are being forced to live on snack foods, putting young people’s health at risk
Homeless children placed in hotels are developing rickets and other diet-related health problems because their parents lack anywhere to cook.
The Magpie Project, which works with homeless mothers in the east London borough of Newham, where more households are living in temporary accommodation than anywhere in the country, said families living in hotels were eating an unhealthy diet of takeaways and snack foods because they had no cooking facilities or anywhere to store fresh produce.
Continue reading...Researchers say parent company Meta is failing to remove explicit images on the social media site
Meta is actively helping self-harm content to flourish on Instagram by failing to remove explicit images and encouraging those engaging with such content to befriend one another, according to a damning new study that found its moderation “extremely inadequate”.
Danish researchers created a private self-harm network on the social media platform, including fake profiles of people as young as 13 years old, in which they shared 85 pieces of self-harm-related content gradually increasing in severity, including blood, razor blades and encouragement of self-harm.
Continue reading...Bill passes amid warning that process has been rushed and that a ban could push teenagers towards the dark web or into isolation
Australia’s parliament has passed a law that will aim to do what no other government has, and many parents have tried to: stop children from using social media. The new law was drafted in response to what the Labor prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says is a “clear, causal link between the rise of social media and the harm [to] the mental health of young Australians.”
On Thursday, parliament’s upper house, the Senate, passed a bill by 34 votes to 19 banning children under 16 from social media platforms.
Continue reading...Gambling Commission figures show shock rise to 85,000 in number of young people suffering gambling harms
The proportion of young people in Great Britain with a gambling problem has more than doubled, according to “astonishing” official data that prompted calls for urgent government intervention.
New figures from the Gambling Commission, which regulates bookies, online casinos and the national lottery, revealed a shock rise, to 85,000, in the number of children classified as having a gambling problem under widely used diagnostic criteria.
Continue reading...David Crisafulli pledges minimum isolation periods for youths who attack staff despite evidence of dangers of solitary confinement
The Liberal National party leader, David Crisafulli, has promised to introduce “mandatory isolation periods” for children who assault workers in youth detention, as the Queensland opposition formally launched its state election campaign on Sunday.
Speaking to a crowd of LNP candidates and party faithful in Ipswich, Crisafulli focused much of his remarks on what he has dubbed the state’s “youth crime crisis”.
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Continue reading...Survey of young people aged 16-25 from all US states shows concerns across political spectrum
The overwhelming majority of young Americans worry about the climate crisis, and more than half say their concerns about the environment will affect where they decide to live and whether to have children, new research finds.
The study comes just weeks after back-to-back hurricanes, Helene and Milton, pummeled the south-eastern US. Flooding from Helene caused more than 600 miles of destruction, from Florida’s west coast to the mountains of North Carolina, while Milton raked across the Florida peninsula less than two weeks later.
Continue reading...Building opened in 1904 and featured on Smiths album sleeve needs ‘urgent cash injection’ as grant income falls
Salford Lads Club, the youth centre immortalised by the Smiths on the sleeve of their third studio album The Queen Is Dead, is under threat of closure.
The rising costs of maintaining and running the Grade II-listed building, as well as a drop in grant funding, have left it with a shortfall of about £250,000.
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