Parents to be shown how to protect children online

March 27, 2008 in Adults, Child safeguarding, Children, Family support, Mental Health, Pay and conditions, Workforce, Young people, Youth justice

Parents to be shown how to protect children online

The first national strategy for child internet safety, including a streamlined system for classifying computer video games and codes of practice for social networking sites, will be set out today in a ground-breaking report for government.

Law changed to protect elderly people paying for own care

The government will extend the Human Rights Act to protect up to 300,000 people who have been placed by local authorities in privately-run residential and nursing homes, the Guardian can reveal.

Failure to tackle fuel poverty a social disaster, ministers told

The government’s failure to tackle the growing problem of fuel poverty was yesterday branded a social disaster after it emerged that record numbers of vulnerable households are struggling to pay gas and electricity bills.

Curbs on computer games to protect children

Video games must be given cinema-style age classifications to stop children accessing graphic images of sex and violence, a Government adviser will announce today.

Hundreds born within abortion limit survive

Hundreds of children are surviving after being born within the legal limit for abortion, official figures have disclosed.

Painful memories could be erased with the help of anaesthetic drugs

A drug that numbs the pain of surgery could also be used to wipe out painful memories.

Scientists have found that the anaesthetic gas stops harrowing images from lodging in the mind.

It could be used in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event such as a car accident, or might help soldiers erase the horrors of battle.

Police hunt adults who forced screaming children to fight in brutal YouTube ‘happy-slapping’ film

Egged on by a sniggering adult, two boys trade blows in a sickening video posted on YouTube.

The child in the dark shirt is repeatedly punched, kicked and even headbutted as he suffers a merciless beating.

Home Office U-turn on cannabis as link to mental illness deepens

Youngsters are to be given a stronger warning on the dangers of cannabis following a U-turn in the Home Office.

It is to scrap guidance that cannabis should be avoided by those who already suffer mental health problems.

Instead, young people will be warned that “anyone who uses cannabis could be doing so at a risk to their mental health”.

American man claims to be five months pregnant with a baby girl

A bearded man who was born a woman says he is five months pregnant.

Thomas Beatie, who has had partial sex change surgery, posed for this extraordinary photograph to announce that he is an expectant father.

Mr Beatie, who has a wife, Nancy, is legally classified a man after having surgery to remove his breasts and testosterone treatment.

Dementia linked to beer bellies

A BEER belly in middle-age boosts the risk of getting dementia, say medics.

A bulging midriff had been linked to heart disease and diabetes.

But a study of 7,000 people aged 40 to 45 found that those with the highest level of waistline fat were THREE times more likely to have brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, in their 70s.