#child-protection

#child-protection

The government's review of taxi licensing in England follows Baroness Casey's report on grooming gangs, which identified taxis being used by offenders across the country and recommended tougher rules. At the moment, taxi drivers can buy a private hire vehicle licence from one council but work as far away as they like, taking advantage of lower standards, cheaper licences, and a lack of enforcement. This allows them to get around tough rules aimed at protecting children, such as Rotherham's gold standard licensing scheme, which includes CCTV in cabs.

Her words came in reaction to the growing scandal of Elon Musk's Grok AI tool being used to digitally undress photos of women and children to create public deepfaked sexualised images of them without their consent. The row rumbled on through the weekend, with the deputy prime minister, David Lammy, telling the Guardian on Saturday that JD Vance, the US vice-president, agreed that the proliferation of AI-generated sexualised images of women and children was entirely unacceptable.

Ministers may quit platform as Grok 'undresses' women and children

she backed the UK regulator Ofcom to take any enforcement action it deems necessary. We cannot and will not allow the proliferation of these demeaning and degrading images, which are disproportionately aimed at women and girls, she said. Make no mistake, the UK will not tolerate the endless proliferation of disgusting and abusive material online. We must all come together to stamp it out.

Police sirens were still sounding and the pavement was stained with blood when I first met Abdullah Tanoli in August 2024. It was only a few hours after he had intervened in a knife attack on a young girl in central London. Abdullah stood nearby, calm and composed, having just disarmed a man who had stabbed an 11-year-old child multiple times. The attacker, 33-year-old Ioan Pintaru, was sentenced on Tuesday to indefinite detention in a high security mental hospital.

Deep cuts to foreign aid by United States President Donald Trump this year, coupled with reductions from other donor countries, have forced the closure of thousands of schools and youth centres in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, devastating critical child protection programmes. The consequences are dire: Girls forced into marriage, children as young as 10 pushed into hard labour, and some girls as young as 12 coerced into prostitution.

Almost 200 adult asylum-seekers were placed in Tusla children's accommodation over the last three years before it was learned they were over 18.

children in Jersey may now face fewer barriers to accessing inappropriate content than their UK counterparts

A draft of the measure, released in October, urged "the establishment of a harmonised European digital age limit of 16 years old as the default threshold under which access to online social media platforms should not be allowed unless parents or guardians have authorised their children otherwise." They also recommended setting a harmonised EU digital age limit of 13, under which no minor would be permitted to access social media. The same minimum age would apply to video-sharing platforms and so-called "AI companions," whose popularity among adolescents has raised concerns in several EU states.

Armed groups have increased their recruitment of minors under 18. Should the government be responsible for their deaths? Bogota, Colombia Eight underage rebel recruits were killed last week after the Colombian government launched a fresh military offensive against a prominent armed group, according to President Gustavo Petro. The news comes amid soaring child recruitment by Colombia's armed groups in recent years and has ignited a debate over whether forced recruits can be protected on the battlefield.

The claims have been made against Billy Watts, who worked at the club's Cliff training ground in the 1980s. He died in 2009. A civil case has been brought by a man who alleges he was abused when he was a child and he accuses the club of failing to protect him from the abuse while he was under their care and supervision.

In one message read by Sheiban, Hamber said the older boy was unhealthy and had an eating disorder. It should be a red flag, but I can't speak as to why it wasn't, Potts said. It is obvious [he] is underweight and does not look healthy, Sheiban said in quoting Hamber. The lawyer then argued: This should have been a red flag. Yes, Potts responded.

"I'm not going to," she said. "For me, it's really important to protect her and her story until she's old enough to potentially one day share it herself."

Despite increased societal awareness of sexual abuse perpetrated by adults, the idea that sexual abuse might occur between children, specifically minor siblings, remains largely unspoken. However, research reveals that sibling sexual abuse (SSA) impacts 1-7% of children and can occur in all families, regardless of income, ethnicity, or family composition. The effect of these behaviors on the involved children and the whole family can be severe. Child sexual abuse prevention efforts should always include a focus on SSA.

Known publicly as Baby P, he had suffered more than 50 injuries, including a broken back and ribs, despite receiving 60 visits from social workers, police officers and health professionals over eight months. Connelly was first released in 2013 having served the minimum term of five years after admitting the offence of causing or allowing the death of her son. Baby P died after months of abuse while living with Tracey Connelly and her partner Steven Barker (PA Media)

Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

Since these attacks took place, specialist Met investigators have been working at pace to identify those responsible. We understand reports of this nature can cause considerable concern, especially to those parents and carers who may be worried about the impact of such an incident on them and their families. We want to reassure the community and anyone affected that this matter continues to be taken extremely seriously.

Meta Superintelligence Labs Superintelligence: It means an A.I. that's not only as smart as humans, it's supposedly even smarter. The guy who coined the term superintelligence thought it would probably lead to the extinction of the human race. Mark Zuckerberg thinks it will lead to lots and lots of money. At Meta, we believe in putting the power of superintelligence in people's hands to direct it towards what they value in their own lives.

Empathy for whom the mother or the child? Mature parents do not slap their children across the face for acting up. They take the kid out of the store until they calm down. If this happens in public, one can only imagine what goes on in private. If I had seen it, I would have snapped a picture of the three of them, as well as the license plate of the mother's car. Then I would report the woman to child protective services so they could investigate.

Australia's eSafety Commissioner has written to GitHub to ask it to consider if it's a social network that endangers children. The reason for the cyber-safety regulator's correspondence is Australia's imminent requirement that some social media platforms restrict access to Australian residents under 16 years of age, on the grounds that such services can be harmful to children. The ban on providing service to kids under 16 starts on December 10th,

Yeah. Look, I mean, in terms of a Christian country, I was christened. So, that is my church, has been all my life, Starmer began. And we are, you know, that is wired into our informal constitution. Of course, we celebrate many other faiths as well. And I'm really proud that we're able to do so as a country.

In a dark, grimy dugout in the middle of the freezing New Zealand bush, the three Phillips children lived with their father. Childhood is measured in increments; birthdays, lost teeth, certificates, a felt tip on a height chart. In the version of reality Tom Phillips created and controlled for his children, it's hard to know how time was marked. But from 9 December 2021, when their father took them from their mother

Vital PHNs are the backbone of our health system Both Kyran Durnin and the as-yet- unnamed young child who disappeared in the last few years had previously been referred to Tusla. Referral is a vital step in child protection when there are significant concerns. However, escalation ought to rest on a bedrock of health, social and education services that are extended to all children.