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‘We can do anything’: the Indian girls’ movement fighting child marriage

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At 17, Priyanka Bairwa refused her arranged marriage. Instead, she started Rajasthan Rising to help thousands of others and call for free education

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An epic and intimate journey filmed through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria

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https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/03/scotland-becomes-first-country-in-uk-to-ban-smacking-of-children

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The government's two-child limit on benefits is having a devastating impact on family life as it pushes millions of children deeper into poverty, according to the first detailed study of the benefit cut.

Nearly all families affected by the limit reported cutting back on essentials such as food, medication, heating and clothing as a result of the policy, which makes them miss out on at least £53 a week in benefits support.

Many parents reported stress and strained family relationships, as well as shame and guilt at being unable to provide for their children. Several women said they had considered terminations because of fears over the impact on family finances.

Interviews with women experiencing domestic abuse suggested that the two-child limit was regarded as a financial barrier for women and children trying to escape an abusive relationship and created "stark choices between poverty and safety".

The limit, introduced in April 2017, restricts the child element in universal credit and tax credits worth £2,780 per child per year to the first two children. The government has championed the policy, which will cut the benefits bill by £1bn a year by 2021, as an incentive for people on benefits to work.

However, official figures show most families affected are already in work, while the study found those affected felt strongly that the two-child limit unfairly punished hard-working low income families at a time - the birth of a child - when they most needed support.

One mother told researchers: "The safety net doesn't exist any more for my family ... You feel really distressed that you have turned to the welfare state and that there is nothing available for you and now I must turn to charity. What am I paying taxes for?"

Alison Garnham, the chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, which published the report along with the Church of England, called for the two-child limit to be abolished. "We wouldn't turn away a sick child from our hospitals or stop them going to school and yet the two-child limit denies families the support they need from our social security system when they experience tough times, trapping kids in poverty," she said.

The limit will push an additional 300,000 children into poverty by 2024, while 1 million children already below the breadline will be pushed into deeper hardship, the report says. To date an estimated 160,000 families and 600,000 children have been affected, and this could rise to 1.8 million young people over the next five years.

Ministers have defended the policy on the basis that it forces parents to take responsibility for their choices and teaches them that "children cost money". However, the study says the policy has been barely publicised by government, and only half those affected were aware of it before they became pregnant.

Many women interviewed said their third child had been unplanned. For them, the study noted, "the only way to exercise choice would have been to have a termination, which some of the women simply would not contemplate for moral or emotional reasons and which those in Northern Ireland would have been unable to access even if they had wanted to."

Relatively few claimants appeared to have used a "rape clause" covering a third or subsequent child conceived as a result of sexual assault.

The report dismantles a claim made by the policy's supporters that claimants could compensate for the cut in support by getting a job or working more hours. Nearly three in five (59%) families affected are already in work, while analysis for the report showed it was impossible for most affected families to make up the loss through extra hours.

"The overriding picture emerging from both the survey and interview findings is that families affected by the two-child limit are facing severe and ongoing financial difficulty, which cannot be overcome through careful budgeting or just 'tightening their belts', but instead leads to real deprivation," the report says.

The policy disproportionately affects the most deprived areas. In two parliamentary constituencies - Bradford West and Birmingham Hodge Hill - more than 50% of children could potentially be affected, while in a further 37 constituencies the proportion is more than a third.

A government spokesperson said: "This policy helps to ensure fairness by asking parents receiving benefits to face the same financial choices as those in work. Safeguards are in place and we've made changes this year to make the policy fairer."

This year the government cancelled much-criticised plans to extend the two-child policy in universal credit to children born before the policy was introduced. It exempted kinship carers after the high court found last year that the policy as it affected this group was "perverse and unlawful".
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Two-child benefit limit pushes families further into poverty - study

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The government's two-child limit on benefits is having a devastating impact on family life as it pushes millions of children deeper into poverty, according to the first detailed study of the benefit cut.

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https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/childrens-rights

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-39947971

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https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/scotland-ban-smack-children-parenting-uk-a9133846.html

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Jody

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Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the UK government of breaching its international duty to keep people from hunger by pursuing "cruel and harmful polices" with no regard for the impact on children living in poverty.

Examining family poverty in Hull, Cambridgeshire and Oxford, it concluded that tens of thousands of families do not have enough to eat. And it revealed that schools in Oxford are the latest to have turned to food banks to feed their pupils.

In a damning 115-page report that echoes previous expert condemnation of the UK's policies on food poverty, the NGO - better known for documenting abuses from Myanmar to Haiti - said that the government was breaching its obligations under human rights law to ensure people have enough food.

Volunteers and staff at schools in Oxford confirmed that they were now reliant on donations, saying that teachers were noticing pupils who were missing meals at home and needed to be fed.

HRW said that ministers had "largely ignored growing evidence of a stark deterioration in the standard of living for the country's poorest residents, including skyrocketing food bank use, and multiple reports from school officials that many more children are arriving at school hungry and unable to concentrate".

The report will provide further ammunition to those who say that the government is failing in its duty to the poorest. It comes before Wednesday's release of the final report on the UK by Philip Alston, the United Nations rapporteur on extreme poverty, who has already highlighted the same issues in his interim findings, following a two-week tour of the UK last November.

The report, which will appear on the eve of the European parliamentary elections, is likely to echo Alston's warning last month that the political preoccupation with Brexit meant that issues like poverty are being ignored in a way that will leave the country " severely diminished ". Alston said: "You are really screwing yourselves royally for the future by producing a substandard workforce and children that are malnourished."

The government dismissed the findings, saying that it was misleading to present them as representative of the whole country, and said it is helping parents back into work to reduce poverty and is ending the benefit freeze next year.

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A tonne of food per day that would have been dumped is donated to Oxford Foodbank by wholesalers and supermarkets such as Marks and Spencer, Lidl and Waitrose. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

"Employment is at a record high and children growing up in working households are five times less likely to be in relative poverty," a government spokesperson said. "We spend £95bn a year on working-age benefits and we're supporting over 1 million of the country's most disadvantaged children through free school meals."

Pupils at Orchard Meadow and Pegasus primaries schools in the Blackbird Leys area of Oxford are among those receiving leftover fruit, vegetables, bread and dried goods from supermarkets and wholesalers delivered by the Oxford Food Bank, which aims to reduce food waste. It emerged last week that Sandwell Valley School in the West Midlands is using a food bank to deliver fresh produce to reduce the price of meals to pupils who might not otherwise afford them. The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, also asked Theresa May at last week's prime minister's questions why a primary school in Great Yarmouth has set up its own food bank for hungry children.

Kartik Raj, the author of the HRW report, said growing hunger was "a troubling development in the world's fifth largest economy". He said: "Standing aside and relying on charities to pick up the pieces of its cruel and harmful policies is unacceptable. The UK government needs to take urgent and concerted action to ensure that its poorest residents aren't forced to go hungry."

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A certificate taped to a fridge at Oxford Foodbank. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

Oxford Foodbank delivers to schools, community groups and homeless shelters and reuses a tonne of food a day that would otherwise have been dumped by wholesalers and retailers - including Marks and Spencer, Lidl and Waitrose - which donate it instead.

Chris Hearn, a retired firefighter and volunteer driver for the charity, said: "I think it is a shameful thing the state schools have to rely on charity to give their students plentiful and nutritious meals. It's outrageous."

At Orchard Meadow, dinner lady Thelma Trevis searched boxes of red peppers, mushrooms, bread, salad and a glut of beetroot for supplies.

"We have teachers coming up to us in the middle of the day and they say there is a child who hasn't had breakfast, who hasn't eaten since the previous evening," she said. The cooks rely on the free produce to keep costs down and without the donations would not have enough vegetables, she said.

At Pegasus primary school, Rachel Wilding, whose job involves contacting pupils' families, said the deliveries are used to feed children at breakfast and to try and teach parents how to cook better. Some is bagged up and offered to needy families to take home.

"We expect [the children] to go into the classroom and learn, but if you don't have enough food in your stomach it is not not going to be a priority," she said.

Another food drop was at the Peeple Centre, which helps families with children under five who are often referred by social services. Its workers bag up the food and take it to sessions with their users.

Half of children needing summer food bank support are in primary school

"People are hungry," said Helen Stroudley, project manager for Peeple's Oxfordshire deliveries. She cited high prices and the difficulty of keeping food if families are squeezed into temporary accommodation and lack fridge space.

Even working parents - including a mother and father who both work as nurses - need the food parcels they offer, she said.

The biggest taker was the O'Hanlon House homeless hostel in central Oxford where the chef makes 100 meals a day.
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UK's 'cruel and harmful policies' lack regard for child hunger, says NGO

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Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the UK government of breaching its international duty to keep people from hunger by pursuing "cruel and harmful polices" with no regard for the impact on children living in poverty. Examining family poverty in Hull, Cambridgeshire and Oxford, it concluded that tens of thousands of families do not have enough to eat.

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Grace Ferrary

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A record number of children are at risk of abuse or neglect in England, according to a Sky News study of new Government data.

We have found that serious child protection cases known as "Section 47s" have doubled in the last seven years to record highs.

On average there are now 500 new cases launched in England every single day.

The Department for Education figurs also show the number of children supported through child protection plans has almost doubled over the past 10 years, and this year saw the biggest annual increase in children in care since 2010.

Social workers say workloads have become unmanageable.

Experts also warn of "generational trauma" for children not receiving proper attention, which they say in the long run will be "unaffordable".

With reference to the tragedies of Baby Pand Daniel Pelka, both toddlers who were killed in the care of their parents, one social worker said: "We are just waiting for something else to happen."

Sean Rafferty, who works in children's services, added: "People say we need better communication and we have, but we've also got a smaller pot.

"It's like an elastic band: you can stretch it and stretch it but eventually it's going to break."

Ray Jones, a veteran social worker and former professor at Kingston University, told Sky News: "Many services are at the point of breaking down.

"There is going to be a £2bn deficit in children's services by 2020, unless the Government changes its plans.

"What that means in reality is that workers are being run ragged, as are health visitors, police officers, and others in the child protection system."

The number of Section 47 investigations this year is 185,450.

That means one child in every 65 is the focus of a multi-agency investigation.

There are, however, huge regional differences: in Blackpool the figure is one in 14.

Blackpool is where children appear to be most at risk, with investigation figures five times the national average.

Sky News went to the town and met young people who had been through the care system.

One said that many children slept rough, adding: "I know some kids who slept on the beach, or in the toilets, even in bins."

Children's services in Blackpool are struggling.

One of its main hostels shut down two years ago, while Street Life - a centre offering night shelter for young people - has had its local authority funding pulled.

High-profile cases, such as the death of Baby Pand Daniel Pelka, are thought to be behind a more precautionary culture in child welfare and, therefore, more investigations being launched.

However, experts say poverty is fuelling higher levels of child neglect.

Dr Ruth Allen, chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers, also partly blames Government policy.

She told Sky News: "The Government needs to see that those social policies on things like welfare benefits, on employment tax credits, housing, also impact the welfare of children.

"In the long run this means generational trauma for children."

Councillor Richard Watts, chair of the Local Government Association's Children and Young People Board, said: "We have warned that the situation across children's services is fast becoming unsustainable, with a combination of reduced budgets and significantly increased demand for help and protection leaving many areas struggling to cope.

"Ninety children came into care every day last year, and council children's services will need an extra £2bn by 2020 just to keep current services in place.

"The Government needs to act urgently to give councils the funding they need to meet this growing demand, by using the Autumn Budget to close the £2bn funding gap facing children's services and provide additional investment for vital early intervention services to help families before problems become serious."

Responding to our report, Robert Goodwill, Minister for Children and Families, said: "All children deserve the best possible support which is why we are driving forward improvements across every area of the child protection system to identify those at risk sooner.

"This includes recruiting high-calibre social workers as well as improving multi-agency approaches to the prevention, detection and response to abuse.

"Councils have a duty to provide appropriate care for the children in their area, including responding to referrals.

"We are supporting them to deliver efficient services by investing £200m in the Children's Social Care Innovation Programme - this includes projects providing targeted support for children in need."

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Record number of children at risk of abuse or neglect in England

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A record number of children are at risk of abuse or neglect in England, according to a Sky News study of new Government data. We have found that serious child protection cases known as "Section 47s" have doubled in the last seven years to record highs.

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Three in five young people have been victims of bullying in school and nearly a third (30 per cent) have been bullied online , survey suggests.

The majority of children (53 per cent) say they are worried about experiencing bullying online , research by charity the Diana Award has revealed.

The survey, of more than 1,000 children aged between 11 and 16, found that more than two in three young people f ind it easier talking about online issues with peers their age than with a teacher

We'll tell you what's true. You can form your own view.

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Nearly half (49 per cent) of online bullying starts offline but the majority of cases (78 per cent) start in school, the research shows.

It comes as Facebook hosts a Diana Award anti-bullying school event on Tuesday to celebrate young people across the UK who are working together to tackle bullying in their schools.

The charity's anti-bullying ambassador scheme is a training programme offered to schools in the UK to train young people to provide peer-to-peer support and stand up to bullying.

The programme has reached 770 schools with 9,120 young people trained in anti-bullying prevention since working with Facebook in March 2018.

Alex Holmes, deputy chief executive of the Diana Award, said: "We know that bullying remains the number one concern of young people, with the majority of bullying behaviour starting in school."

He added: "We are now urging more secondary schools across the UK to sign up to this programme."

Culture secretary Jeremy Wright and Nicola Mendelsohn, vice president of Facebook in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, are expected to participate in a panel discussion at the event.

Ms Mendelsohn said Facebook had developed many resources to help young people stay safe over the past decade.

But she added: "We know there's still work to do, and we will continue to invest in this important work to help young people build safe and supportive communities on Facebook."

The findings come on the same day that a survey by charity Action for Children found that two thirds of parents and grandparents felt childhoods were getting worse, and a third of children agreed.

All said bullying - online and offline - was the main problem followed by pressure to fit in, which has intensified in the age of social media.

Last month, a global survey of around 260,000 teachers revealed that is one of the worst countries for bullying among secondary school pupils.

The frequency of bullying in has almost doubled in five years - and secondary school heads in England reported the highest level of cyberbullying among students compared to other countries.

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Three in five children have been bullied at school, survey finds

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Three in five young people have been victims of bullying in school and nearly a third (30 per cent) have been bullied online, survey suggests. The majority of children (53 per cent) say they are worried about experiencing bullying online, research by charity the Diana Award has revealed.

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Olivia

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Children are not being considered when it comes to urban planning. Shutterstock

Children are being left out of decisions about the environments created around them, when really, their needs should be at the heart of them.

In the UK, children are becoming less healthy - physically and mentally - and spend more time indoors than previous generations. Society is so caught up in discussing children's health, education, safety and social media use, that little time is spent looking at the effect urban planning has on their lives.

Children growing up in towns and cities have less freedom to move around their neighbourhoods than their parents. Experts suggest that a ten-year-old child today has far less licence to roam than a ten-year-old two generations ago. The biggest problem here is the increase of traffic and dangerous roads, which makes many adults hesitant to allow children out.

Children can also be excluded from open space due to overzealous regulations such as "no ball games", or the idea that that playing near their homes causes nuisance. There are even more problems for teenagers who are more likely to be treated with suspicion in a public space than adults. While social issues at heart, these problems are perpetuated by poor planning and urban design. This is leading to children living increasingly sheltered lives and experiencing the outdoors only in adult-led, organised activities.

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Children's rights and needs

The UK signed up to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1991. It gives all people below the age of 18 additional rights to adults, recognising that children are generally more vulnerable to being manipulated, and also less likely to be given a say in how they live their lives. Among these rights are three articles especially relevant to their environment:

Article 12: the right to participate in all matters that affect them.

Article 15: the right to freedom of association, including to gather in public space and organise their own activities.

Article 31: the right to play, rest, leisure and access cultural life.

Current planning policy across the UK recognises a need for greater sustainability and inclusivity. But in practice, this mostly takes into account economic matters such as providing enough employment opportunities; transport, traffic and parking; and enough housing to meet growing demand.

In the midst of all these economic concerns, social needs - and especially those of the youngest, most vulnerable citizens - can be brushed aside. When it comes to planning, a plethora of evidence shows adult communities often feel unheard, while involving children at all is still viewed as an innovative thing to do. The proliferation of parks, playgrounds and skateparks is an indication that children's rights are not well understood.

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When children are asked about their favourite places to play, the playground is rarely their first choice. And most adults will often agree that they also favoured places other than the playground when they were children: parks, woods, riverbanks, fields and beaches were the places that captured imagination, not a few swings in an enclosed tarmacked space. Similarly, skateparks offer only limited recreation potential and tend to be favoured more by boys than by girls.

Playgrounds often lack a range of equipment to suit children of different ages and abilities and are not always well maintained. Children also have to be able to reach the playground safely on their own, otherwise they have to be accompanied. This can limit the time children have to play outdoors and contributes further demands on the time of already pressured parents and carers.

These exclusions and misunderstandings of what children really need contribute to environments that favour adults over children, and can leave children feeling disempowered, discouraged, inactive and dependent on the adults around them.

Fixing the problem

Far from a side issue, this leads to epidemics in childhood obesity, mental health issues and a lack of opportunity for poorer children. Environments need to become more child friendly, and everything has to start with planning policy.

First and foremost, the UNCRC can and should be integrated into UK law, putting children first at all levels of policy and practice.

Planners need to understand that keeping children in mind helps meet other agendas, such as improving facilities for cycling and walking, biodiversity, and ensuring access to green space for all. Planners can create more child-friendly environments if they take into account that for children to go outside they need time, space, and attitudes that support their use of public space.

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My research suggests five key steps policymakers can take to improve the facilitation of children's rights in the environment:

1. Encourage and endorse children's rights training for planners at both degree and professional level.

2. Produce guidelines and methods for engaging with children.

3. Create a robust and routine feedback practise between planners and children.

4. Encourage networking, collaboration, and skills exchange between planners and childhood professionals.

5. Collate an accessible evidence base on children, and their relationship to, and use of, the built environment.

Improving children's rights in the built environment requires paying attention to both the process and the outcomes of planning. The environments we live in have a major impact on our routines and lifestyles, but they can be changed over time and include local communities, taking account of their needs.

Society has a vital opportunity here to seriously step up to create spaces and places that work for everyone. When determining what this looks like, the rights of the child are a clear and accessible barometer for progress, respecting the most vulnerable citizens now and in future.

But this can't happen in isolation - what children need has to be integrated into all the other community needs under consideration. Playparks and skateparks are all very well, but if society is going to foster confidence and independence in children, the way environments are created has to put them at the centre of planning in the first place.

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Urban planning is failing children and breaching their human rights - here's what needs to be done

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Children are being left out of decisions about the environments created around them, when really, their needs should be at the heart of them. In the UK, children are becoming less healthy - physically and mentally - and spend more time indoors than previous generations.

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Etienne Poli

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More than half of the world's children are being robbed of their childhoods as a result of conflict, poverty and gender based violence, a new report from charity Save the Children has found.

Around 1.2 billion children live under the bread line and almost 153 million children live in areas affected by what researchers identified as the three main threats affecting children's wellbeing: poverty combined with violence and high levels of discrimination against girls.

"This report is in its second year, and this year we were able to look at factors which threaten childhood through specific lenses," said spokesperson Bhanu Bhatnagar.

"This data is extensive and will really help paint a picture of where work needs to be done to protect children worldwide."

The research, released ahead of International Children's Day on Friday 1 June, uses indicators of poor health, malnutrition, lack of education, child labour, marriage, early pregnancy and violence to rank 175 countries according to where childhood is most and least threatened.

The report, titled 'The Many Faces of Exclusion', found that the top three countries where childhood is protected are Singapore, Slovenia and Norway. Despite their wealth, the US (36th), Russia (37th) and China (40th) all trailed behind Western European countries in the new index.

The bottom 10 countries were all in Africa: Niger, Mali, the Central African Republic, Chad, South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Guinea, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Despite the immediate threat to life and limb from violence in war zones, the report found malnutrition and disease - coupled with inadequate access to healthcare - killed 20 times as many children as violence related to conflict.

And when the fighting ends, it can have long-lasting effects.

In Mosul, the city which formed the capital of the Iraqi half of Isis ' caliphate until the militants were defeated last year, many children are struggling with trauma as well as crippling poverty in a town where rebuilding will take years.

Twelve-year-old Nour, whose name has been changed, was forced to care for his father who was dying of kidney failure during the gruelling US-backed Iraqi coalition offensive to retake the city.

He was forced to venture out into Mosul's dangerous streets to sell crisps to feed his family and buy his father's medication. He learnt to administer his father's injections himself, but eventually he died in agony in the boy's arms.

Nour now sees himself as the head of the household, responsible for his younger siblings.

The boy is unfortunately not the only Iraqi child forced to take on adult roles. The country placed 125th on the Save the Children index, in large part due to the fighting with Isis, which displaced 14 per cent of the population and has interrupted the schooling of almost a quarter of Iraqi children.

"Both living under Isis and during the coalition offensive, these children have experienced things no child should have to. They have extreme emotional as well as physical scars," said Save the Children's Mr Bhatnagar, who recently returned from a field trip to Mosul.

"We have to act now to save this generation of Iraqi children."

The charity is calling on governments to ensure no child is robbed of their health, education or a future stunted by mental distress, early marriage or forced labour.

"Over time I have seen how our caseworkers build relationships with displaced and traumatised children and their families," Mr Bhatnagar added.

"The pain and the grief can be overcome. This work is vital if these children are to get some of their childhoods back, enjoy school and play again and become mentally fit members of society."

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More than half of all children worldwide affected by conflict, poverty and discrimination, new report says

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More than half of the world's children are being robbed of their childhoods as a result of conflict, poverty and gender based violence, a new report from charity Save the Children has found.

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Young people are demanding that governments act against climate change. Lester Kiewit spoke to a Cape Town schoolgirl, one of 16 children from 12 countries who laid a legal complaint at the United Nations
Ayakha Melithafa says that in a just and fair world everyone would have clean water, fresh air and enough food to eat. But the 17-year-old says that, because of climate change, unfair economic policies and greed, it is people who look like her - poor, black women - who are suffering the most.

She is one of 16 young people from 12 countries who last week laid a complaint with the Committee for the Rights of the Child, which receives and investigates complaints and monitors implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Ayakha, who goes to school in Cape Town, didn't make it to New York last week, because of problems with the necessary travel documents.

Their petition was aimed at five of the G20 states - Germany, France, Argentina, Brazil and Turkey - saying that the countries have known about the threats associated with climate change yet are "knowingly causing and perpetuating the climate crisis".

They want the committee - to which South Africa is a signatory - to find that "climate change is a children's rights crisis".
If it does this, then the signatories would have to act to secure the rights of children. Because South African law requires that the country acknowledges international laws, especially when it has signed up to treaties, a finding could be binding here.

There are many hurdles to be cleared for such finding to be made, including that most UN findings are recommendations so countries can oppose or ignore them.

But the move by the 16 young people is a big legal step and it puts countries in a difficult position.

Ayakha joins Sweden's Greta Thunberg, who started the movement Fridays for Future school strikes, which challenges governments and decision-makers to deal with the climate crisis.

The complainants, who range in age from eight to 17, told their stories of how climate change is affecting their lives.

For Ayakha, the effects of erratic, unpredictable weather are personal.

Her mother, who lives just outside East London in the Eastern Cape, is a small-scale farmer and has been heavily hit by drought over the past few planting seasons.

Ayakha says it is this kind of first-hand experience of climate change that showed her that it is real and needs urgent action to be taken.

"Normally in the Eastern Cape, my mom knows when to plant which vegetable. She knows how the weather will be. But since climate change is affecting us, we don't really know when the rains will come," says Ayakha.

This year, her mother couldn't plant, which means no income, so her family will be hard hit.

"When the drought hit, and it started affecting livestock I saw all these animals die. And when a cow dies, that's a lot of money. A full-grown cow is about R16 000. I saw my family lose all that money. My mom is supporting five children; she's the only one working," Ayakha says.

Last year, parts of the Eastern Cape were declared a disaster area because of the ongoing drought.

In February 2018, Parliament's water and sanitation committee was warned that the lack of rain would not only affect the availability of drinking water but also the livelihoods of thousands of subsistence farmers who grow food to feed their families. The drought has continued.

This follows similar patterns experienced in much of the rest of the country.

Ayakha says the crisis in her home province is far worse than Cape Town's "Day Zero" warnings of 2017, when the city came close to running out of water.

"When there's a drought in the Eastern Cape, it doesn't get the same attention as when there was Day Zero in Cape Town. Because the people of the Eastern Cape don't know how to panic and complain to the government.

"So I want my people to know about climate change, so that they can make a noise and that they can be heard. People don't know who to complain to."

She says that's why her mission is to educate people - especially young people in the rural parts of the country - about climate change.

"We need to make people aware. We need to educate more youth, even in the remote places in South Africa, and around the world, so they can stand up with us. We need them to share their heartbreaking stories about how climate change is affecting them," she says.

The voices of young activists have been amplified in recent months. It is they who will face an uncertain future if rapidly rising temperatures and ocean levels continue unabated.

The schoolchildren's movement is growing and pressure is being placed on governments to cut down on using fossil fuels and seek renewable forms of energy to help keep economies going.

"How can you live comfortably knowing that your child won't have a future?" asks Ayakha.

"There are things that parents can do to help, move to renewables, install a solar panel. There's a lot of small things you can do. Because it's not the responsibility of the youth to be making these changes.

"It's the adults who have the power to implement change so they must act now."

South Africa is among the developing countries that are already being affected by the climate crisis.

The government's 2017 climate change report warned of the effects of the crisis. "Increases in climate variability and climatic extremes are impacting both water quality and availability through changes in rainfall patterns, with more intense storms, floods and droughts; changes in soil moisture and runoff; and the effects of increasing evaporation and changing temperatures on aquatic systems."

In short: less water and less predictable rainfall. This presents serious problems for farmers, and for cities whose populations are expanding.

Ayakha says: "I see my future being a desert. I'm seeing it being so hot that it will become uninhabitable and there's no life or biodiversity. I see us going into extinction. So I don't really see a future if there is no action now."

She plans to study environmental law to educate people and to advocate for the environmental and economic rights of poor, rural people.

"I want clean oceans. I want breathable air. I want a prosperous future where we use renewable energy. I don't want to see animals dying, and people living next to hazardous sites. I want to see people and an economy thriving. A future that is safe. And that's the way it should be."

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Young people are demanding that governments act against climate change. Lester Kiewit spoke to a Cape Town schoolgirl, one of 16 children from 12 countries who laid a legal complaint at the United Nations Ayakha Melithafa says that in a just and fair world everyone would have clean water, fresh air and enough food to eat.

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Scotland is to become the first country in the UK to make it a criminal offence for parents to smack their children.

Parents and carers are currently allowed to use "reasonable" physical force to discipline children.

But the Scottish government has backed moves to give children the same protection from assault as adults.

A ban on all physical punishment is expected to be overwhelmingly backed by the Scottish Parliament in a vote on Thursday afternoon.

The change to the law was originally proposed by Scottish Greens MSP John Finnie, who has won the support of his own party, as well as the SNP, Labour and Lib Dems - with only the Conservatives opposed.

Mr Finnie said ahead of the vote that it was "staggering" that the country's smallest and most vulnerable citizens do not currently have full protection from assault.

He added: "Physical punishment has no place in 21st Century Scotland. The international evidence tells us that it can have serious adverse impacts on children, and that it is not an effective."

Opinion polls have suggested a majority of people in Scotland are opposed to a smacking ban - with critics arguing that the current law is sufficient, and that the changes risk criminalising "good" parents.

But most of the responses to a consultation on Mr Finnie's bill were in favour of a ban, and the move has been widely supported by children's charities.

What physical punishment are parents currently allowed to use?

In Scots Law, all physical attacks on adults can be treated as assault - but children do not have the same protection.

This is because a person accused of assaulting of a child can claim a defence of "reasonable chastisement" or "justifiable assault" when they have used physical force as a form of discipline on children under the age of 16.

When deciding whether the chastisement was reasonable, the courts take into account factors such as the nature of the punishment, its duration and frequency, the age of the child and the effect - both physical and mental - it had on them.

In practice, this generally means parents are allowed to smack their children on the body - but blows to the head, shaking or the use of an implement are illegal.

All physical punishment in schools and other education settings is already completely banned.

How will this change?

Mr Finnie's bill will end the defence of reasonable chastisement, meaning parents could face prosecution for any use of physical punishment on their children.

This will mean that children have the exact same protection from assault as adults.

The bill uses the same definition of physical punishment, sometimes referred to as corporal punishment, used by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

It includes hitting such as smacking, slapping and smacking with a hand or an implement, as well as kicking, shaking or throwing children, scratching, pinching, biting, pulling hair or boxing ears, forcing children to stay in uncomfortable positions, burning, scalding or forced ingestion.

How widespread is smacking anyway?

A report published by a group of Scottish children's charities in 2015 found that the physical punishment of children was more common in the UK than in similar countries such as the US, Canada, Italy, Germany and Sweden.

The researchers estimated that between 70% and 80% of parents in the UK have used physical punishment, with children aged between three and seven the most likely to be smacked.

They also found that many parents do not view smacking as a "good thing", but believe that sometimes it is the "only thing that will work".

And they said the use of physical chastisement has declined over the years alongside a shift in public attitudes, with "convincing evidence" that the decline has been steeper in the more than 50 countries around the world that have already banned smacking.

Research examining the views of children on smacking has suggested that it hurts and upsets them, and does not always stop bad behaviour.

What do opponents of the ban say?

A campaign against the ban has been led by the Be Reasonable Scotland group, which argues that the move - while well-intentioned - could do more harm than good.

The group argues that the current law only allows parents to use "very mild discipline" such as a smack on the hand or bottom - which would become a criminal offence in the future.

They say that the "unnecessary" changes will therefore do nothing more to help vulnerable children who are the victims of serious physical abuse, but will cause traumatic interventions in "good" families.

And they have urged the government to instead invest in social work and other services to improve their ability to identify and tackle genuine abuse.

What is the law elsewhere?

In 1979, Sweden became the first country in the world to ban corporal punishment in the home - with Scotland set to become the 58th to do so.

Parents in England and Wales can currently face criminal charges if they hit a child so hard that it leaves a mark, or causes bruising, swelling, cuts, grazes or scratches.

However Wales is close to an outright ban, with a bill currently working its way through the Welsh assembly that would remove the defence of "reasonable punishment" that has been in force since Victorian times in England and Wales.

There have been calls for England to follow suit, with the Association of Educational Psychologists saying last year that smacking is harmful to children's mental health and should be banned.

Northern Ireland has similar legal provisions to those in England and Wales, while Ireland banned smacking in 2015.

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Scotland to be first in UK to ban smacking

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Scotland is to become the first country in the UK to make it a criminal offence for parents to smack their children. Parents and carers are currently allowed to use "reasonable" physical force to discipline children. But the Scottish government has backed moves to give children the same protection from assault as adults.

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SANA'A, 25 September 2019 - As the new school year starts amid continuing violence in Yemen, 2 million children are out of school, including almost half a million who dropped out since the conflict escalated in March 2015. The education of another 3.7 million children now hangs in the balance as teachers' salaries have not been paid in over two years.

"Conflict, underdevelopment and poverty have deprived millions of children in Yemen of their right to education - and of their hope for a brighter future. Violence, displacement and attacks on schools are preventing many children from accessing school. With teacher salaries going unpaid for over two years, education quality is also at stake," said Sara Beysolow Nyanti, UNICEF Representative in Yemen.

The current conflict in Yemen spiralled more than four years ago and has devastated the country's already fragile education system. One in five schools in Yemen can no longer be used as a direct result of the conflict.

"Thirty years since the Convention on the Rights of the Child was ratified, it is unacceptable that education and other fundamental child rights are out of reach for children in Yemen all because of man-made factors," said Nyanti.

When children are not in school, they face countless risks of exploitation, abuse and other rights violations.

"Children out of school face increased risks of all forms of exploitation including being forced to join the fighting, child labour and early marriage. They lose the opportunity to develop and grow in a caring and stimulating environment, ultimately becoming trapped in a life of poverty and hardship," added Nyanti.

Together with partners, UNICEF is working around the clock so that children can realize their right to education. In the last school year, UNICEF paid incentives to over 127,400 teachers and school-based staff who had not been paid in over two years to help them cover their transportation to school and other basic expenses. UNICEF has rehabilitated over 1,300 schools since 2015 and continues to provide learning materials for children.

Urgent efforts must be made to prevent an entire generation of children in Yemen from missing out on their education.

Stop attacks on education facilities to protect children and teachers. These attacks are a grave violation against children and breach International Humanitarian Law. Schools must be protected as safe zones for learning.

Education authorities across Yemen should work together and find an immediate solution to provide salaries for all teachers and education personnel so that children can continue to learn.

The international community, donors and development partners should support incentives for teachers while the search for long-term solutions to the salary crisis in Yemen continues.

Above all, parties to the conflict in Yemen must work towards peace to allow for recovery and for children to return to normalcy.

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As school year starts in Yemen, 2 million children are out of school and another 3.7 million are at risk of dropping out

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SANA'A, 25 September 2019 - As the new school year starts amid continuing violence in Yemen, 2 million children are out of school, including almost half a million who dropped out since the conflict escalated in March 2015. The education of another 3.7 million children now hangs in the balance as teachers' salaries have not been paid in over two years.

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Global Climate Strike in London on Friday 15th March 2019. By Garry Knight / Flickr
On Monday world leaders gathered at the United Nations for the Climate Action Summit were roundly chastised by a 16-year-old girl, the now famous Greta Thunberg. The Swedish teenager later led a group of 15 other youth climate activists in filing a formal complaint against the UN for failing to protect the world's children from the effects of global warming.

Today (Wednesday) the UN General Assembly will spend an hour marking the 30 th anniversary of the treaty that the young people invoked in their complaint - the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, whose observance is overseen by UNICEF.

Climate change, in fact, heads a list of worries that UNICEF's Executive Director, Henrietta H. Fore, has concerning "the children of today and tomorrow," whom she addressed directly in " An open letter to the world's children " this week. "There is perhaps no greater threat facing the rights of the next generation of children," she wrote.

Miss Fore's other concerns are: the disruption of children's lives in areas of conflict; the mental health of adolescents; treatment of migrant children; undocumented children; children who are missing out on the skills needed for life in the 21 st century; privacy in the digital age; and a growing mistrust of social institutions because of "fake news".

Some of these apply more to the developing world than others, but they are all obviously important issues for an organisation with global oversight of the most vulnerable members of the human family. It is important to add that Miss Fore has countervailing hopes for each of these issues, based on efforts already in hand.

UN sceptics may dismiss this as a piece of dutiful window dressing, but it is worthwhile to remind the world of the trends that seriously affect children, and what can be done about them.

The odd thing though, is that this reminder is addressed to children, 99 percent of whom are unlikely to read it, even if they could understand it. Would it not have been better to write to the mothers and fathers of the children? As their immediate protectors and educators, parents are in the best position to take on board legitimate concerns and hopes about young people.

And there are some serious omissions from the worry list. For example, around a third of children in the UK and North America do not live with both parents, and in South Africa only a third of children do live with both biological parents (part of the cultural legacy of apartheid). In developed countries this usually means that a woman is struggling to raise children alone or has a shared parenting arrangement with the largely absent father - a situation that is often fraught.

The breakdown or non-formation of families with two resident biological parents causes unhappiness for many children and tends to hamper social mobility in the long run. And family instability is increasing through the increase in cohabitation at the expense of marriage. This is a serious issue affecting many of the world's children - and likely to affect more - but there is no mention of it by the head of UNICEF.

This seems particularly odd since the Convention on the Rights of the Child - harking back to the 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child and, before that, to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - states in its Preamble the following principles or assumptions behind the articles of the treaty:

"Convinced that the family, as the fundamental group of society and the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members and particularly children, should be afforded the necessary protection and assistance so that it can fully assume its responsibilities within the community,

"Recognizing that the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding,..."

But perhaps not so odd. While the Preamble sees the child as someone to be cared for and protected, the articles themselves tend to view children as independent agents: expressing their own views when they are capable, having freedom of expression and access to information, as well as freedom of thought, conscience and religion. (Articles 12-16) Greta Thunbergs, if you like, and all well and good when parents are given credit for being normally the best guides for their maturing children.

This seems to be acknowledged when Article 14 says that, "States Parties shall respect the rights and duties of the parents and, when applicable, legal guardians, to provide direction to the child in the exercise of his or her right in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child." Or when Article 18 says that governments "shall use their best efforts to ensure recognition of the principle that both parents have common responsibilities for the upbringing and development of the child" and should help parents fulfil these responsibilities.

Yet a summary statement about the Convention from the UN Office of the Human Rights Commissioner this week makes no mention of parents, or even families. Children "should be cared for, develop and be part of their communities," it says. And,

"Children have human rights and they should be empowered to claim them. Thirty years ago the Convention recognised children as their own beings entitled to non-negotiable rights. Nearly all Governments - to the exclusion of one - have pledged to respect, protect and promote those rights. This makes the Convention one of the most visionary and universally accepted human rights agreement in history."

Unfortunately, in the decades since 1989 many parents have come to distrust what governments see as children's rights.

Even before that date it was clear that neither the UN administration nor the majority of "States Parties" are committed to another principle of the Preamble:

'Bearing in mind that, as indicated in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, "the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth".' (Emphasis added)

The Universal Declaration, which first enunciated that principle in 1948 after a war in which "unwanted people" were dehumanised and then murdered en masse, clearly did not envisage legalised abortion. Yet by 1989 a veritable war on the unborn child had spread across the West, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child had nothing to say about the most fundamental violation of a child's rights.

Neither, sadly, has Ms Fore. Sadly, but not surprisingly; after all, the child in the womb cannot speak into a television microphone or go marching on the streets, or take a lawsuit against the UN in pursuit of a popular cause. So what use is she?

Carolyn Moynihan is deputy editor of MercatorNet.

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Global Climate Strike in London on Friday 15th March 2019. By Garry Knight / Flickr On Monday world leaders gathered at the United Nations for the Climate Action Summit were roundly chastised by a 16-year-old girl, the now famous Greta Thunberg.

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https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/nov/20/un-convention-rights-child-unicef

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UN Convention On The Rights Of The Child | Save the Children UK

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We play a direct role in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Find out more about this important international agreement.

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"I was smacked, and it didn't do me any harm."

This is the most common argument against what many call a 'smacking ban' being introduced in Scotland.

It is the right of any parent, they argue, to raise their child using the methods they know work.

Unfortunately, all the evidence now shows that smacking doesn't work, fosters aggression and violent behaviour and, most importantly, does do children harm.

For the purposes of transparency, I wasn't smacked as a child, and neither was my daughter, but I understand and have been in the situation as a parent where you feel out of options and control and feel the urge to raise a hand.

I'm glad I didn't.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health is clear on this. Physical punishment impacts on mental and physical health.

If someone feels it didn't do them any harm, then it is probably because other factors in their life such as financial stability and the presence of loving relationships provided a resilience that allowed them to minimise that harm.

For those who don't have those elements of security, it can be the start of a lifetime of violence.

But the heart of the case for the proposed legislation to remove the defence of 'justifiable assault' isn't about parenting styles anyway. The clue is in the name, 'equal protection'.

Paediatricians, the Children's Commissioner and all the researchers who have spent decades on this aren't interested in giving moral lessons to parents on the rights and wrongs of parenting. To suggest they are is insulting to their work.

They are interested in protecting children from harm, and in the case of the commissioner, upholding their rights.

Bruce Adamson is an experienced human rights lawyer, giving advice to the United Nations, European Union and others.

Obfuscation about how the law will work on the ground, what police officers should be looking out for, what constitutes 'smacking' and so on are irrelevant, because it focuses on what campaigners call "a wee tap on the hand".

The reality is that, as things stand, people are appearing in court because of harm they have caused their own children and their solicitors are arguing that the assault is "justified".

As Police Scotland told MSPs of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee, criminal law is concerned with assault, not parenting, and the bill removes a defence which allows children to be assaulted for the purpose of punishment. Assault will now be treated as assault. A "wee tap on the hand" will still be a "wee tap on the hand".

In her last Programme for Government, Nicola Sturgeon promised to embrace the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into Scots law.

This will mean services and the Scottish Government will be compelled to take "all effective and appropriate measures with a view to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children."

Traditional practices like justifiable assault? "There is no ambiguity. It is unequivocal," Adamson told MSPs in relation to whether the UNCRC applies.

There is no coherent argument for that defence to be maintained, and if Scotland is really going to incorporate the rights of the child into Scots law, this is the most obvious place to start.

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Equal protection is about justice, not parenting styles

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"I was smacked, and it didn't do me any harm." This is the most common argument against what many call a 'smacking ban' being introduced in Scotland. It is the right of any parent, they argue, to raise their child using the methods they know work.

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Phoebe

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Over an eight-month period last year, 11-year-old John would check the amount of money left on the electricity meter the moment he got home. He continued these checks throughout the evening, walking past the mouldy bedroom that forced his entire family to sleep in the living room of the one-bedroom flat. His mother, Chantel, said it slowly morphed into an obsession. "It was really really bad. He would go and see and say: 'Oh, we've got £1 less, we've 50p less, or it's -50p," she said. "He was anxious that the lights were going to go off."

The electricity did sometimes shut off, and Chantel and her two children, John and two-year-old Amy, would spend entire evenings enveloped in darkness. Chantel said things had spiralled out of control when her attempt to renew her visa was rejected. As she no longer had the right to work in the UK, she was forced to leave her job as a teaching assistant. Chantel had to rely on friends and her local church for money to pay for food, nappies and the electricity.

She went to the council when things became unbearably desperate. She told them she had a British child, who was diagnosed with autism, and a baby she was struggling to support. Section 17 of the 1989 Children Act states that local councils have a duty to provide cash or accommodation when a child is destitute and ensure a child's immediate needs are met. But the council refused to support Chantel, pointing to the fact the Home Office had rejected her attempt to renew her visa. Campaigners say this is one of many examples across the country where local councils are refusing to support destitute families because of the parent's immigration status.

Chantel turned to the Magpie Project, which supports destitute migrant families in the east London borough of Newham, for support. The project provided Chantel with essentials, such as food and nappies, but it wasn't enough. "My son would open the fridge and ask: 'Mummy, are we poor?'" Chantel said.

She said it took eight months fighting the council, armed with legal support, before they finally agreed to provide section 17 support. Chantel was rehoused in a one-bedroom flat in Hainault, but says day-to-day life is still a struggle.

Her son's special needs are being met at the secondary school he attends in Newham and she feels it would be too disruptive to change schools. The entire family has to therefore get up at 5.30am and travel for an hour and 20 minutes to get to his school. Chantel said the journey there and back is exhausting for both her and the children.

As she can't afford to make the journey more than twice a day, Chantel and her daughter Amy wait for John to finish school at the Magpie Project or the local Asda in Newham. Chantel said often this means her daughter doesn't get warm lunches. "It's not healthy for the baby. It's not healthy for myself. I'm worn out by the end of the day," she added. "If we're not at Magpie, she spends most of the time in the pram. It's not good for the child's development."

The mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz, said: "I am extremely disappointed that there are still significant issues with the way section 17 support is being administered by some officers in Newham council. I find it unconscionable that this is happening, and it shouldn't be.

"I've asked for an urgent investigation why this has happened, as myself and the cabinet member for children's services, Cllr Sarah Ruiz, had asked for changes in practice to be made earlier this year. We have been let down and are both extremely unhappy with what has recently emerged. I thank our friends at the Magpie Project for bringing the matter to my attention, and I have apologised."

* This article was amended on 27 May 2019. An earlier version incorrectly referred to the 1989 Children Act as the "Children's Act".
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'Mummy, are we poor?': the destitute children denied help by councils

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Over an eight-month period last year, 11-year-old John would check the amount of money left on the electricity meter the moment he got home. He continued these checks throughout the evening, walking past the mouldy bedroom that forced his entire family to sleep in the living room of the one-bedroom flat.

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/16/pupils-special-educational-needs-children-mainstream-schools

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Human progress is slow to happen and sometimes hard to see: in an era as troubled as ours, the world can easily look as though it is regressing at speed. But look back, and you may see how far we have come. I grew up in a world where grim words such as "handicapped" and "retarded" were part of everyday speech, and disabled people were too often shut away. People put money in charity tins to salve their consciences, and then went back to their ignorance. A sure sign of the way society kept some people at arm's length was the inhuman use of the definite article: people knew about "the deaf", "the blind" and "the disabled", but didn't give them much thought.
Families crowdfund legal action against special needs budget cuts
Many of these attitudes linger. But millions of people now know that even the word "disability" often does little justice to who people actually are, and how much the concept blurs into the supposedly "able" population. In the field of autism, the new paradigm of " neurodiversity" underlines a similar point. On a good day, it can feel like a set of old prejudices may at last be being laid to rest. Human beings are complex: as the American writer Steve Silberman puts it in his book NeuroTribes, "Just because a computer is not running Windows doesn't mean it's broken. Not all the features of atypical human operating systems are bugs."

And then you look at the English education system - or, more specifically, the arrangements and policies for kids with so-called special educational needs - and wonder what happened. Cuts are deepening, and there is a rising sense of children who do not fit in being pushed out lest they threaten the gods of discipline, rote learning and competitive exam performance.

At the last count, 4,152 children deemed to have special needs had not been found a school place (up from 776 in 2010), and most of them were forced to stay at home without any formal provision. Even if they are in school, thousands more are increasingly being denied the support they need.

The ideal of inclusion is based on the simple principle that schools should reflect the world at large, so that education in the dry stuff of spelling and sums is accompanied by schooling kids in the meaning of diversity. Hearing people's stories, you rather get the sense that this ideal is slowly being superseded by a mixture of chaos and the gradual return of segregation.

As things stand, the government funds the majority of pre-16 state education through the dedicated schools grant, one of whose elements is the so-called high needs block, meant to cover the education of children who either need intensive support in mainstream education, or go to special schools. From 2011 up to now, the high needs block has effectively been frozen - and to make things worse, new government rules now limit councils' ability to top up special-needs funding from the much bigger budgets intended for mainstream schools as a whole.

Amid an across-the-board spending squeeze, dozens of local authorities are running high needs deficits. Across England as a whole, there is reckoned to be a £400m gap between what councils say they require for their high needs provision and what the government is providing. So schools are cutting back on teaching assistants, special needs training and outside help. If you have a child with special needs, or know anyone who does, you will know what all this entails. One-to-one provision at school often makes the difference between a child progressing or withdrawing. Without such support, it can feel like the sky is falling in.

At the same time, sweeping reforms to the special needs system - which, among other things, extend the state's responsibilities to thousands of people up to the age of 25 - have been botched and underfunded. There are real concerns about academies either excluding kids with special needs or pushing parents to choose other schools. In an absurd twist, people are now exiting the public-sector system and successfully pushing councils to fund places at independent special schools.

In the London borough of Hackney, where a brilliant group of parents is fighting cuts to special needs provision and organising a legal challenge under the banner of Hackney Special Education Crisis, this latter cost now accounts for around half of a nearly £6m high needs overspend. It also threatens to create a vicious circle: more children leaving mainstream schools as their special needs provision gets cut, rising bills for special school places, even more cuts as a result.

There are concerns about academies either excluding kids with special needs or pushing parents to choose other schools

Meanwhile, many lives are getting more difficult. I spoke this week to the mother of a 10-year-old boy who was diagnosed with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when he was five. After three unsuccessful attempts, he now has a formal education, health and care plan that in theory makes his provision dependable and accountable. But the support at his inner London school has been diluted, and she now worries about him being bullied. Looking ahead to secondary school, she says, "We worry won't be able to get him the support he needs. We're going to have to battle." Another mother told me about her 10-year-old son, recently excluded from school for two days, and promised provision that has yet to materialise. "I have a document, and I go to meetings, but I don't see any results," she said.

It would be easy to think that this is all about austerity, but it is worse than that. In the Conservatives' 2010 manifesto, there was a pledge to "end the bias towards the inclusion of children with special needs in mainstream schools", and push back against "the ideologically driven closure of special schools". In the context of education policy, these pledges have since taken on a more sinister aspect.

We all know what modern English education policy is all about: results, league tables, a fixation with "discipline". The stupid Tory obsession with grammar schools is of a piece with that. Where, you wonder, does special needs education fit in. The beginnings of an answer, perhaps, lie in a government announcement in 2017 that under the auspices of the free schools programme, there are to be 19 new "special free schools", providing "high quality provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities", to add to around 30 free schools that have already opened. Some councils' policies are seemingly starting to reflect similar logic. If this causes anyone disquiet, they should get in touch with a pressure group called Allfie - the Alliance for Inclusive Education. "What we're fighting against is segregated education," one of their staff members told me this week. "We're talking about an ideological drive."

I have a child with special educational needs. He's 11 - and, with a lot of support, he has been taught alongside his peers in mainstream state schools since he was four. He has benefited immeasurably: quite apart from how much he likes such subjects as music, science and IT, he has started to acquire some of the everyday social skills he finds difficult. But that is only half the point. His presence at his endlessly encouraging, proudly diverse school means that his peers understand what human difference means in practice. This is the ideal we are now going to have to fight for - before it gets snuffed out, with tragic consequences.

* John Harris is a Guardian columnist
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The sinister segregation policies excluding children who don't 'fit in' | John Harris

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Human progress is slow to happen and sometimes hard to see: in an era as troubled as ours, the world can easily look as though it is regressing at speed. But look back, and you may see how far we have come.

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Many children don't receive the treatment they deserve. Shutterstock

Millions of children throughout Africa don't have access to justice that's needed to realise their rights.

Simply put, they don't receive the treatment they deserve as victims, witnesses, children with welfare needs, children in conflict with the law, the subject of parental disputes about care, contact and maintenance, and as potential claimants for redress when their rights have been violated.

There are several reasons for this. For instance, African justice systems are often hard to reach; courts are usually situated in large towns. Another barrier is that in most countries children cannot approach a court in their own right.

On the continent, only South Africa has a widespread legal aid system that's available and accessible to children.

We know what child-friendly justice looks like. Its key elements were identified at a conference in Kampala, Uganda in 2011. The conference led to the formulation of Guidelines on Action for Children in Justice Systems in Africa.

But one important area has been largely overlooked: the role that informal justice systems can play in realising justice for children. People often choose these informal and largely traditional systems over more formal processes. That's because they don't trust the formal justice system, struggle to access it, cannot afford the travel costs to get to court and find the long delays in adjudication off-putting.

A recent study that I was involved in set out to understand how much children interact with informal justice systems in selected African countries. Our findings were instructive.

It appears that when children are drawn into their countries' informal justice systems, their human rights are often threatened.

That's not to say informal justice mechanisms must be entirely abandoned. They play an important role in communities, often focusing on restorative justice and taking a conciliatory approach which serves to rebuild relationships and secure peace in communities. They are also close to the communities they serve, and familiar with local issues.

The answer to these human rights concerns is to strengthen communities' capacity to access and navigate the formal justice system. Only then will formal court structures become the preferred option for seeking justice.

What the study found

We know that informal justice systems are working in several countries, as shown by case studies undertaken in Egypt, Sierra Leone and Tanzania as part of the broader research report.

But there are issues with these traditional, informal settings. For instance, gender power imbalances may be reinforced so that girls in particular get a raw deal.

As an example, sexual offences may be dealt with through mediation between a young victim's family and that of their abuser. This does not secure any justice for the violated child.

Children will not enjoy legal representation or the right to an appeal. Their voices may be muted, as others speak for them (such as elders). This denies their right to participate in proceedings affecting them.

It's not entirely negative, though. One particular advantage of informal justice outlined in the study is that it does not resort to deprivation of children's liberty through detention or incarceration. In this way it upholds the injunction in the Convention on the Rights of the Child that deprivation of liberty be used as a last resort. Instead, sanctions include reparations, restitution and fines.

Some positive steps

It would be incorrect to tar all African countries with the same brush when it comes to child justice. Many have made noteworthy advances. Many, among them Malawi and Mauritania, have launched specialised children's courts.

Specialised police units dedicated to dealing with offences against children have also been set up in places like Zanzibar and Namibia. These ensure that dedicated services (including forensic services) are on hand, and that the child victim's inevitable trauma is reduced. Another promising practice is the introduction of child rights focused modules in police training programmes, as seen in Namibia and Zambia.

These are positive steps in the right direction. But more work is needed. For instance, specialised children's courts tend only to be located in capital cities and a few big towns. They are not readily accessible by the majority.

And, although specialised courts ought to be staffed by specialised personnel, this is not always the case. The support of social workers is also vital, but social workers are in short supply in most African countries. Those who are in the system tend to be overworked and under-trained.

The jury is out on whether informal justice systems have a role to play here. Some see informal justice as entrenching human rights violations but a necessary player - for now. Others view informal justice more benignly and can tolerate its coexistence with formal systems. My view is that while informal systems have a role, access to formal justice should be improved.

Way forward

This can be done in several ways.

Children need adequate information about their rights and role in justice processes. This can happen in a variety of ways and formats, including at school. Another important step is to constantly train justice and police officials, probation officers and social workers about children's developmental and other needs.

Judicial proceedings, where these are necessary, should be adapted to enable children's meaningful participation. Children should also be informed of the outcome of justice processes, and what implications a ruling or decision might have.

Children's rights are generally not embedded in African countries' justice systems. Our recent study highlights the need for services that are truly child sensitive to be progressively augmented, and for laws and institutions that are meant to protect children's rights to be properly resourced.

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Children in Africa struggle to get justice. Here's how to improve their access

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Millions of children throughout Africa don't have access to justice that's needed to realise their rights. Simply put, they don't receive the treatment they deserve as victims, witnesses, children with welfare needs, children in conflict with the law, the subject of parental disputes about care, contact and maintenance, and as potential claimants for redress when their rights have been violated.

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More than half of the world's children are being robbed of their childhoods as a result of conflict, poverty and gender based violence, a new report from charity Save the Children has found.

Around 1.2 billion children live under the bread line and almost 153 million children live in areas affected by what researchers identified as the three main threats affecting children's wellbeing: poverty combined with violence and high levels of discrimination against girls.

"This report is in its second year, and this year we were able to look at factors which threaten childhood through specific lenses," said spokesperson Bhanu Bhatnagar.

"This data is extensive and will really help paint a picture of where work needs to be done to protect children worldwide."

The research, released ahead of International Children's Day on Friday 1 June, uses indicators of poor health, malnutrition, lack of education, child labour, marriage, early pregnancy and violence to rank 175 countries according to where childhood is most and least threatened.

The report, titled 'The Many Faces of Exclusion', found that the top three countries where childhood is protected are Singapore, Slovenia and Norway. Despite their wealth, the US (36th), Russia (37th) and China (40th) all trailed behind Western European countries in the new index.

The bottom 10 countries were all in Africa: Niger, Mali, the Central African Republic, Chad, South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Guinea, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Despite the immediate threat to life and limb from violence in war zones, the report found malnutrition and disease - coupled with inadequate access to healthcare - killed 20 times as many children as violence related to conflict.

And when the fighting ends, it can have long-lasting effects.

In Mosul, the city which formed the capital of the Iraqi half of Isis ' caliphate until the militants were defeated last year, many children are struggling with trauma as well as crippling poverty in a town where rebuilding will take years.

Twelve-year-old Nour, whose name has been changed, was forced to care for his father who was dying of kidney failure during the gruelling US-backed Iraqi coalition offensive to retake the city.

He was forced to venture out into Mosul's dangerous streets to sell crisps to feed his family and buy his father's medication. He learnt to administer his father's injections himself, but eventually he died in agony in the boy's arms.

Nour now sees himself as the head of the household, responsible for his younger siblings.

The boy is unfortunately not the only Iraqi child forced to take on adult roles. The country placed 125th on the Save the Children index, in large part due to the fighting with Isis, which displaced 14 per cent of the population and has interrupted the schooling of almost a quarter of Iraqi children.

"Both living under Isis and during the coalition offensive, these children have experienced things no child should have to. They have extreme emotional as well as physical scars," said Save the Children's Mr Bhatnagar, who recently returned from a field trip to Mosul.

"We have to act now to save this generation of Iraqi children."

The charity is calling on governments to ensure no child is robbed of their health, education or a future stunted by mental distress, early marriage or forced labour.

"Over time I have seen how our caseworkers build relationships with displaced and traumatised children and their families," Mr Bhatnagar added.

"The pain and the grief can be overcome. This work is vital if these children are to get some of their childhoods back, enjoy school and play again and become mentally fit members of society."

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More than half of all children worldwide affected by conflict, poverty and discrimination, new report says

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More than half of the world's children are being robbed of their childhoods as a result of conflict, poverty and gender based violence, a new report from charity Save the Children has found.

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Top paediatrician says it’s time to give parents extra votes for their children

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Issues from child poverty to obesity are being neglected by government, says Prof Neena Modi

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Lauren

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Scotland has become the first country in the UK to ban outright the physical punishment of children, making it a criminal offence for parents to smack their offspring.

The member's bill, which was lodged by the Scottish Green party MSP John Finnie and supported by the Scottish National party government, was passed overwhelmingly on Thursday evening, with 84 MSPs voting in favour and 29 against. It is designed to give children equal protection from violence by removing the defence of "justifiable assault" in Scots law.

Parents in England and Northern Ireland are currently allowed to use "reasonable chastisement", while similar legislation to Scotland was introduced by the Welsh government in March.

Leading the final stage debate, Finnie, a former police officer, said there was an urgent need to bring Scotland into line with best practice across the world, with 57 other countries already prohibiting the physical punishment of children.

Referring colleagues to the substantial body of research highlighting the damaging long-term effects of physical punishment on children, as well as its ineffectiveness as a parenting strategy, Finnie added: "Critics of this simple reform often say that it criminalises parents, but there is no evidence that this change to the law leads to increased prosecutions in any of the more than 50 countries where this change has taken place."

MSPs also rejected two amendments which the Scottish Conservatives claimed would clarify the bill, in particular around instances such as preventing a child running into a busy road or pulling a pan of boiling water on to themselves.

The Scottish government's children's minister, Maree Todd, insisted that the removal of the defence would not affect the ability of parents to use restraint to prevent a child coming to harm, saying there was a difference between an act of restraint and act of discipline but underlining that the purpose of the reform was to give equal protection "with zero qualifications".

But Oliver Mundell, the Scottish Conservative higher education spokesperson, who spoke for the amendments, said the bill failed to set out clear thresholds for state intervention in family life, arguing: "These concerns about criminalisation have been dismissed throughout the passage of this bill but the truth is no one here can guarantee how this bill will be implemented and interpreted by the police, prosecutors or our courts."

Children's campaigners welcomed the move as evidence of a wholesale shift in attitudes to child rearing and children's rights over the past few decades. Mary Glasgow, the chief executive of Children 1st, Scotland's national children's charity, condemned what she described as "scaremongering" during the debating of the bill: "Listening to the evidence from police, social workers and others working directly with families, it has been clear that there is no intent to criminalise parents, but to bring the law in line with the international evidence and modern parenting practice."

Others warned against complacency. Bruce Adamson, the children and young people's commissioner for Scotland, said: "The world is watching, and people hope this will inspire other parts of the UK, but we cannot be complacent as there's much more we can do to put rights-respecting laws in place, like incorporation of the UN convention on the rights of the child [UNCRC] into Scots law."

In May, the Scottish parliament voted to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12, but the reform was criticised by some for not raising the age to 14, in line with recommendations from the UN's committee on the rights of the child.

Likewise, campaigners welcomed Nicola Sturgeon's commitment to incorporate the UNCRC into Scots law within the next two years, which the first minister made in her keynote speech to the SNP conference in April. However, they have since raised concerns that the legislation is not moving fast enough to be completed before the next Holyrood elections in the the spring of 2021.
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Scotland becomes first country in UK to ban smacking of children

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Scotland has become the first country in the UK to ban outright the physical punishment of children, making it a criminal offence for parents to smack their offspring. The member's bill, which was lodged by the Scottish Green party MSP John Finnie and supported by the Scottish National party government, was passed overwhelmingly on Thursday evening, with 84 MSPs voting in favour and 29 against.

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To smack or not to smack? If English law goes the way of the Scottish it won't even be a question any more. This week Scotland made it a criminal offence for parents and carers to use physical punishment against a child. The move has naturally been welcomed by children's rights campaigners, who have long questioned why adults enjoy legal protection from being smacked by another adult, but children don't.

There are many, many reasons why a parent might smack a child, but they are rarely justified. I try my hardest not to smack my children, but when I do it's usually out of sheer frustration with their behaviour: their stubborn refusal to get dressed, stop screaming, or cease hitting each other...

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Smacking kids is nasty, brutish and ineffective - but we shouldn't ban it

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To smack or not to smack? If English law goes the way of the Scottish it won't even be a question any more. This week Scotland made it a criminal offence for parents and carers to use physical punishment against a child.

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Children’s rights being ‘violated with impunity’

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25 years after the convention on children’s rights, Unicef warns of psychological impact of conflict on millions of children

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https://jelliesapp.com/blog/5-reasons-not-to-post-about-your-child-on-social-media

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/iuKTEGjKgS/teenage_iraq_brides

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Scotland's ban on smacking has been passed on what has been hailed as a "momentous day for children's rights".

Children's campaigners were amongst those who welcomed the passage of the Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Bill at Holyrood.

The legislation, brought forward by Green MSP John Finnie, gives children the same protection from violence as adults by removing the defence of justifiable assault in Scots law.

It will come into force within 12 months of the Bill gaining Royal Assent.

Sweden became the first country in the world to ban smacking in the home when it outlawed corporal punishment in 1979 - with Scotland now the 58th nation to do so.

Scotland's Children's Commissioner Bruce Adamson welcomed the move, saying: "Assaulting a child for the purpose of punishment should never be legal and this important law change brings Scotland into line with its international human rights commitment to provide children with comprehensive legal protection from violence."

Dunja Mijatovic, the commissioner of human rights at the Council of Europe, also welcomed the vote.

I congratulate the Scottish Parliament for adopting the law to give children equal protection from assault. There is no place for violence in a child's life. This law is a good step towards the full realisation of children's rights in the country. #SPEqualProtection @ScotParl

- Commissioner for Human Rights (@CommissionerHR) October 3, 2019

She tweeted: "I congratulate the Scottish Parliament for adopting the law to give children equal protection from assault. There is no place for violence in a child's life. This law is a good step towards the full realisation of children's rights in the country."

Joanna Barrett, of NSPCC Scotland, said: "This historic vote delivers a UK first in fairness and equality for children which the NSPCC has long championed.

"It's a common sense move that closes an archaic loophole and ensures that, finally, children in Scotland will have the same protection from assault as adults."

Martin Crewe, director of Barnardo's Scotland, described it as "a momentous day for children's rights".

He thanked Mr Finnie for his "dedication and passion" in pushing the Bill forward, and said: "We look forward to seeing similar legislation passed in the Welsh Assembly and hope that this progress can be mirrored across the other nations of the UK too."

🎉IT'S PASSED!!🎉@ScotParl has passed the Children (Equal Protection from Assault)(Scotland) Bill.

An historic day for children in Scotland.

Delighted to be there to witness this significant vote w/ our partners @children1st @BarnardosScot @CYPCS #SPEqualProtection

- NSPCC Scotland (@NSPCC_Scotland) October 3, 2019

Mary Glasgow, chief executive of the charity Children 1st, said: "This is a defining moment for Scotland.

"Again and again people have told us about the lifelong impact of being hit as a child, as they've joined the campaign to change the law.

"Today's vote protects every future generation of Scotland's children from any and all levels of physical violence. Families will be stronger and communities will be safer.

"Once again Scotland is leading the rest of the UK in doing what's right for children - our most precious and vulnerable citizens."

We are delighted that the Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Bill has passed @ScotParl.#SPEqualProtection pic.twitter.com/h3FKMzxg0q

- Children in Scotland (@cisweb) October 3, 2019

Medical professionals and religious leaders also welcomed the Bill, which was passed by 84 votes to 29.

Professor Steve Turner, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: "The Scottish Parliament has ensured equal protection for children across Scotland from assault.

"Scotland is the first country in the UK to provide children with the same rights as adults - it is not legally justifiable to use violence against adults, it will not be for children either."

Richard Frazer, convener of the Church of Scotland's Church and Society Council, said: "The passage of this Bill gives children the same legal protection as adults, acknowledging that children are valuable as they are and not simply as adults in training.

"We hope that the positive change marked today will enable children and families to continue to flourish and grow as equal members of our communities."

#SPEqualProtection Hugely proud of Human Rights Guarantors of @ScotParl, Human Rights Leader @JohnFinnieHI, and all the Human Rights Defenders young and old who have long campaigned for this - SCOTLAND WILL HAVE EQUAL PROTECTION for children from physical punishment.

- Bruce Adamson (@Bruce_Adamson) October 3, 2019

The Law Society of Scotland stressed that now the Bill has been approved, the Scottish Government must mount a "comprehensive campaign" to raise awareness of the change in the law.

Morag Driscoll, the organisation's family law committee convener, said: "The reasonable chastisement defence attracted criticism from international children's rights organisations. However, Scotland is now sending a clear message that all forms of assault against children are unacceptable.

"Driving meaningful behavioural change requires much more than changing the law. The Scottish Government now needs to launch a comprehensive public education and awareness campaign to alert people to these changes."

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Holyrood approves smacking ban on 'momentous day for children's rights' - Evening Express

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Scotland's ban on smacking has been passed on what has been hailed as a "momentous day for children's rights". Children's campaigners were amongst those who welcomed the passage of the Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Bill at Holyrood.

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Teachers have reported worsening signs of child poverty in their classrooms with pupils coming to school tired, hungry, angry and confused. Many children are wearing dirty and ill-fitting uniforms and suffering from anxiety and behaviour issues that affect their learning.

This alarming picture is revealed in a survey, by the National Education Union (NEU), of 8,600 school leaders, teachers and support staff. Nine out of 10 who took part agreed that poverty and low income were having a detrimental effect on their pupils' education. Half felt that the situation had worsened over the last three years, particularly in primary schools.

The number of students displaying difficult behaviours has increased and poverty is most certainly a factor.

School teacher

The picture is even more depressing if independent education providers are discounted, with 97% of respondents in maintained schools, academies, free schools and further education colleges reporting concern that poverty affected their students' learning. Over half (52%) said that the effect was large.

"The poverty gap has clearly got bigger," said one respondent. "The number of students displaying difficult behaviours has increased and poverty is most certainly a factor."

The survey was conducted by the NEU among its members, before the union's annual general conference in Liverpool

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the union, said a decade of austerity had resulted in more children in poverty, while the support structures for poor families were being destroyed. "The government must stop blaming schools for the impact of its austerity policies upon the most vulnerable in our society, and take action to alleviate the suffering of the increasing numbers who are living in poverty," she said.

School staff who contributed to the UK-wide survey described their efforts to support their neediest students. Many provided food and personal hygiene products; others did washing and paid for uniform items .

Many said that the funding crisis in England's schools was making it harder to counter the effect of poverty on young people's education. Some schools have had to get rid of breakfast clubs because of budget shortfalls, and some respondents described food banks as "an everyday necessity". There were schools that helped families to buy washing machines, staff who spent their own earnings on socks, tights and underwear, and children who stayed off school on non-uniform days to avoid comments about their clothes.

"Dress-up days can be a very sad day," said one respondent. "The rich children show off and those struggling with finances are really noticed by the other children, so they may decide not to attend school that day."

Asked to identify the effects of poverty on learning, three out of four respondents said they saw children suffering from fatigue (78%), poor concentration (76%) or poor behaviour (75%); more than half said their students had experienced hunger (57%) or ill-health (50%) as a result of poverty, and more than a third (35%) said students had been bullied.

Many of the affected children had parents in low-paid jobs who were unable to afford food and basic equipment. Children who were unwell were brought to school because their parents had zero-hours contracts and could not afford to lose pay. Respondents worried about "latchkey" children whose parents were holding down multiple jobs. "Some students have mentioned that they have not had any food for two days, some come without having breakfast and with no dinner money but are not on free school meals," said one respondent. "I try to teach my phonics group as I am giving others cereal to eat," said another.

The survey also highlighted the shame suffered by poor children and their parents. "Some children will try and avoid coming in for packed lunch by hiding in the toilet because they feel awkward about their meal. Parents feel inadequate because they can't feed their own children, but they work so they get no additional help."

Other respondents described the effect of overcrowding at home, no space to do homework and poor sleep patterns, which left pupils struggling to concentrate and falling asleep in lessons. Children were anxious about their parents and suffered mental health problems. "They struggle to fit in and be a part of school life," said another respondent.

Nadhim Zahawi, minister for children and families, said that tackling disadvantage was a priority for the government: "Employment is at a record high and wages are outstripping inflation, but we know some families need more help.

"While all infant children can benefit from our universal infant free-school-meals programme, we are making sure that more than a million of the most disadvantaged children are also accessing free school meals throughout their education - saving families around £400 per year."
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Tired, hungry and shamed: pupil poverty 'stops learning'

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Teachers have reported worsening signs of child poverty in their classrooms with pupils coming to school tired, hungry, angry and confused. Many children are wearing dirty and ill-fitting uniforms and suffering from anxiety and behaviour issues that affect their learning.

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The images are horrific. Children, some just 3 or 4 years old, being sexually abused and in some cases tortured.

Pictures of child sexual abuse have long been produced and shared to satisfy twisted adult obsessions. But it has never been like this: Technology companies reported a record 45 million online photos and videos of the abuse last year.

More than a decade ago, when the reported number was less than a million, the proliferation of the explicit imagery had already reached a crisis point. Tech companies, law enforcement agencies and legislators in Washington responded, committing to new measures meant to rein in the scourge. Landmark legislation passed in 2008.

Yet the explosion in detected content kept growing - exponentially.

An investigation by The New York Times found an insatiable criminal underworld that had exploited the flawed and insufficient efforts to contain it. As with hate speech and terrorist propaganda, many tech companies failed to adequately police sexual abuse imagery on their platforms, or failed to cooperate sufficiently with the authorities when they found it.

Law enforcement agencies devoted to the problem were left understaffed and underfunded, even as they were asked to handle far larger caseloads.

The Justice Department, given a major role by Congress, neglected even to write mandatory monitoring reports, nor did it appoint a senior executive-level official to lead a crackdown. And the group tasked with serving as a federal clearinghouse for the imagery - the go-between for the tech companies and the authorities - was ill equipped for the expanding demands.

A paper recently published in conjunction with that group, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, described a system at "a breaking point," with reports of abusive images "exceeding the capabilities of independent clearinghouses and law enforcement to take action." It suggested that future advancements in machine learning might be the only way to catch up with the criminals.

The Times reviewed over 10,000 pages of police and court documents; conducted software tests to assess the availability of the imagery through search engines; accompanied detectives on raids; and spoke with investigators, lawmakers, tech executives and government officials. The reporting included conversations with an admitted pedophile who concealed his identity using encryption software and who runs a site that has hosted as many as 17,000 such images.

In interviews, victims across the United States described in heart-wrenching detail how their lives had been upended by the abuse. Children, raped by relatives and strangers alike, being told it was normal. Adults, now years removed from their abuse, still living in fear of being recognized from photos and videos on the internet. And parents of the abused, struggling to cope with the guilt of not having prevented it and their powerlessness over stopping its online spread.

Many of the survivors and their families said their view of humanity had been inextricably changed by the crimes themselves and the online demand for images of them.

"I don't really know how to deal with it," said one woman who, at age 11, had been filmed being sexually assaulted by her father. "You're just trying to feel O.K. and not let something like this define your whole life. But the thing with the pictures is - that's the thing that keeps this alive."

The Times's reporting revealed a problem global in scope - most of the images found last year were traced to other countries - but one firmly rooted in the United States because of the central role Silicon Valley has played in facilitating the imagery's spread and in reporting it to the authorities.

While the material, commonly known as child pornography, predates the digital era, smartphone cameras, social media and cloud storage have allowed the images to multiply at an alarming rate. Both recirculated and new images occupy all corners of the internet, including a range of platforms as diverse as Facebook Messenger, Microsoft's Bing search engine and the storage service Dropbox.

In a particularly disturbing trend, online groups are devoting themselves to sharing images of younger children and more extreme forms of abuse. The groups use encrypted technologies and the dark web, the vast underbelly of the internet, to teach pedophiles how to carry out the crimes and how to record and share images of the abuse worldwide. In some online forums, children are forced to hold up signs with the name of the group or other identifying information to prove the images are fresh.

With so many reports of the abuse coming their way, law enforcement agencies across the country said they were often besieged. Some have managed their online workload by focusing on imagery depicting the youngest victims.

"We go home and think, 'Good grief, the fact that we have to prioritize by age is just really disturbing,'" said Detective Paula Meares, who has investigated child sex crimes for more than 10 years at the Los Angeles Police Department.

In some sense, increased detection of the spiraling problem is a sign of progress. Tech companies are legally required to report images of child abuse only when they discover them; they are not required to look for them.

After years of uneven monitoring of the material, several major tech companies, including Facebook and Google, stepped up surveillance of their platforms. In interviews, executives with some companies pointed to the voluntary monitoring and the spike in reports as indications of their commitment to addressing the problem.

But police records and emails, as well as interviews with nearly three dozen local, state and federal law enforcement officials, show that some tech companies still fall short. It can take weeks or months for them to respond to questions from the authorities, if they respond at all. Sometimes they respond only to say they have no records, even for reports they initiated.

And when tech companies cooperate fully, encryption and anonymization can create digital hiding places for perpetrators. Facebook announced in March plans to encrypt Messenger, which last year was responsible for nearly 12 million of the 18.4 million worldwide reports of child sexual abuse material, according to people familiar with the reports. Reports to the authorities typically contain more than one image, and last year encompassed the record 45 million photos and videos, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

All the while, criminals continue to trade and stockpile caches of the material.

The law Congress passed in 2008 foresaw many of today's problems, but The Times found that the federal government had not fulfilled major aspects of the legislation.

The Justice Department has produced just two of six required reports that are meant to compile data about internet crimes against children and set goals to eliminate them, and there has been a constant churn of short-term appointees leading the department's efforts. The first person to hold the position, Francey Hakes, said it was clear from the outset that no one "felt like the position was as important as it was written by Congress to be."

The federal government has also not lived up to the law's funding goals, severely crippling efforts to stamp out the activity.

Congress has regularly allocated about half of the $60 million in yearly funding for state and local law enforcement efforts. Separately, the Department of Homeland Security this year diverted nearly $6 million from its cybercrimes units to immigration enforcement - depleting 40 percent of the units' discretionary budget until the final month of the fiscal year.

Alicia Kozakiewicz, who was abducted by a man she had met on the internet when she was 13, said the lack of follow-through was disheartening. Now an advocate for laws preventing crimes against children, she had testified in support of the 2008 legislation.

"I remember looking around the room, and there wasn't a dry eye," said Ms. Kozakiewicz, 31, who had told of being chained, raped and beaten while her kidnapper live-streamed the abuse on the internet. "The federal bill passed, but it wasn't funded. So it didn't mean anything."

Further impairing the federal response are shortcomings at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which reviews reports it receives and then distributes them to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, as well as international partners.

The nonprofit center has relied in large measure on 20-year-old technology, has difficulty keeping experienced engineers on staff and, by its own reckoning, regards stopping the online distribution of photos and videos secondary to rescuing children.

"To be honest, it's a resource and volume issue," said John Shehan, a vice president at the center, which was established 35 years ago to track missing children. "First priority is making sure we're assessing the risk of the children. We're getting this information into the hands of law enforcement."

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida who was an author of the 2008 law, said in an interview that she was unaware of the extent of the federal government's failures. After being briefed on The Times's findings, she sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr requesting an accounting.

Stacie B. Harris, the Justice Department's coordinator over the past year for combating child exploitation, said the problem was systemic, extending well beyond the department and her tenure there. "We are trying to play catch-up because we know that this is a huge, huge problem," said Ms. Harris, an associate deputy attorney general.

The fallout for law enforcement, in some instances, has been crushing.

When reviewing tips from the national center, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has narrowed its focus to images of infants and toddlers. And about one of every 10 agents in Homeland Security's investigative section - which deals with all kinds of threats, including terrorism - is now assigned to child sexual exploitation cases.

"We could double our numbers and still be getting crushed," said Jonathan Hendrix, a Homeland Security agent who investigates cases in Nashville.

The videos found on the computer of an Ohio man were described by investigators as among "the most gruesome and violent images of child pornography."

One showed a woman orally forcing herself on a girl who was then held upside down by the ankles in a bathroom while "another child urinates" on her face, according to court documents.

Another showed a woman "inserting an ice cube into the vagina" of a young girl, the documents said, before tying her ankles together, taping her mouth shut and suspending her upside down. As the video continued, the girl was beaten, slapped and burned with a match or candle.

"The predominant sound is the child screaming and crying," according to a federal agent quoted in the documents.

The videos were stored in a hidden computer file and had also been encrypted, one common way abusive imagery has been able to race across the internet with impunity.

Increasingly, criminals are using advanced technologies like encryption to stay ahead of the police. In this case, the Ohio man, who helped run a website on the dark web known as the Love Zone, had over 3 million photos and videos on his computers.

The site, now shuttered, had nearly 30,000 members and required them to share images of abuse to maintain good standing, according to the court documents. A private section of the forum was available only to members who shared imagery of children they abused themselves. They were known as "producers."

Multiple police investigations over the past few years have broken up enormous dark web forums, including one known as Child's Play that was reported to have had over a million user accounts.

The highly skilled perpetrators often taunt the authorities with their technical skills, acting boldly because they feel protected by the cover of darkness.

"People who traffic in child exploitation materials are on the cutting edge of technology," said Susan Hennessey, a former lawyer at the National Security Agency who researches cybersecurity at the Brookings Institution.

Offenders can cover their tracks by connecting to virtual private networks, which mask their locations; deploying encryption techniques, which can hide their messages and make their hard drives impenetrable; and posting on the dark web, which is inaccessible to conventional browsers.

The anonymity offered by the sites emboldens members to post images of very young children being sexually abused, and in increasingly extreme and violent forms.

"Historically, you would never have gone to a black market shop and asked, 'I want real hard-core with 3-year-olds,'" said Yolanda Lippert, a prosecutor in Cook County, Ill., who leads a team investigating online child abuse. "But now you can sit seemingly secure on your device searching for this stuff, trading for it."

Exhibits in the case of the Love Zone, sealed by the court but released by a judge after a request by The Times, include screenshots showing the forum had dedicated areas where users discussed ways to remain "safe" while posting and downloading the imagery. Tips included tutorials on how to encrypt and share material without being detected by the authorities.

The offender in Ohio, a site administrator named Jason Gmoser, "went to great lengths to hide" his conduct, according to the documents. Testimony in his criminal case revealed that it would have taken the authorities "trillions of years" to crack the 41-character password he had used to encrypt the site. He eventually turned it over to investigators, and was sentenced to life in prison in 2016.

The site was run by a number of men, including Brian Davis, a worker at a child day care center in Illinois who admitted to documenting abuse of his own godson and more than a dozen other children - aged 3 months to 8 years - and sharing images of the assaults with other members. Mr. Davis made over 400 posts on the site. One image showed him orally raping a 2-year-old; another depicted a man raping an infant's anus.

Mr. Davis, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2016, said that "capturing the abuse on video was part of the excitement," according to court records.

Some of his victims attended the court proceedings and submitted statements about their continuing struggles with the abuse.

The surge in criminal activity on the dark web accounted for only a fraction of the 18.4 million reports of abuse last year. That number originates almost entirely with tech companies based in the United States.

The companies have known for years that their platforms were being co-opted by predators, but many of them essentially looked the other way, according to interviews and emails detailing the companies' activities. And while many companies have made recent progress in identifying the material, they were slow to respond.

Hemanshu Nigam, a former federal prosecutor in cybercrime and child exploitation cases, said it was clear more than two decades ago that new technologies had created the biggest boon for pedophiles since the Polaroid camera.

The recent surge by tech companies in filing reports of online abuse "wouldn't exist if they did their job then," said Mr. Nigam, who now runs a cybersecurity consulting firm and previously held top security roles at Microsoft, Myspace and News Corporation.

Hany Farid, who worked with Microsoft to develop technology in 2009 for detecting child sexual abuse material, said tech companies had been reluctant for years to dig too deeply.

"The companies knew the house was full of roaches, and they were scared to turn the lights on," he said. "And then when they did turn the lights on, it was worse than they thought."

Federal law requires companies to preserve material about their reports of abuse imagery for 90 days. But given the overwhelming number of reports, it is not uncommon for requests from the authorities to reach companies too late.

"That's a huge issue for us," said Capt. Mike Edwards, a Seattle police commander who oversees a cybercrimes unit for the State of Washington. "You've got a short period of time to be able to get the data if it was preserved."

Most tech companies have been quick to respond to urgent inquiries, but responses in other cases vary significantly. In interviews, law enforcement officials pointed to Tumblr, a blogging and social networking site with 470 million users, as one of the most problematic companies.

Police officers in Missouri, New Jersey, Texas and Wisconsin lamented Tumblr's poor response to requests, with one officer describing the issues as "long-term and ongoing" in an internal document.

A recent investigation in Polk County, Wis., that included an image of a man orally raping a young child stalled for over a year. The investigator retired before Tumblr responded to numerous emails requesting information.

In a 2016 Wisconsin case, Tumblr alerted a person who had uploaded explicit images that the account had been referred to the authorities, a practice that a former employee told The Times had been common for years. The tip allowed the man to destroy evidence on his electronic devices, the police said.

A spokeswoman for Verizon said that Tumblr prioritized time-sensitive cases, which delayed other responses. Since Verizon acquired the company in 2017, the spokeswoman said, its practice was not to alert users of police requests for data. Verizon recently sold Tumblr to the web development company Automattic.

The law enforcement officials also pointed to problems with Microsoft's Bing search engine, and Snap, the parent company of the social network Snapchat.

Bing was said to regularly submit reports that lacked essential information, making investigations difficult, if not impossible. Snapchat, a platform especially popular with young people, is engineered to delete most of its content within a short period of time. According to law enforcement, when requests are made to the company, Snap often replies that it has no additional information.

A Microsoft spokesman said that the company had only limited information about offenders using the search engine, and that it was cooperating as best as it could. A Snap spokesman said the company preserved data in compliance with the law.

Data obtained through a public records request suggests Facebook's plans to encrypt Messenger in the coming years will lead to vast numbers of images of child abuse going undetected. The data shows that WhatsApp, the company's encrypted messaging app, submits only a small fraction of the reports Messenger does.

Facebook has long known about abusive images on its platforms, including a video of a man sexually assaulting a 6-year-old that went viral last year on Messenger. When Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, announced in March that Messenger would move to encryption, he acknowledged the risk it presented for "truly terrible things like child exploitation."

"Encryption is a powerful tool for privacy," he said, "but that includes the privacy of people doing bad things."

"In a recent case, an offender filmed himself drugging the juice boxes of neighborhood children before tricking them into drinking the mix," said Special Agent Flint Waters, a criminal investigator for the State of Wyoming. "He then filmed himself as he sexually abused unconscious children."

Mr. Waters, appearing before Congress in Washington, was describing what he said "we see every day."

He went on to present a map of the United States covered with red dots, each representing a computer used to share images of child sex abuse. Fewer than two percent of the crimes would be investigated, he predicted. "We are overwhelmed, we are underfunded and we are drowning in the tidal wave of tragedy," he said.

Mr. Waters's testimony was delivered 12 years ago - in 2007.

The following year, Congress passed legislation that acknowledged the severity of the crisis. But then the federal government largely moved on. Some of the strongest provisions of the law were not fulfilled, and many problems went unfixed, according to interviews and government documents.

Today, Mr. Waters's testimony offers a haunting reminder of time lost.

Annual funding for state and regional investigations was authorized at $60 million, but only about half of that is regularly approved. It has increased only slightly from 10 years ago when accounting for inflation. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat of Connecticut who was a sponsor of the law's reauthorization, said there was "no adequate or logical explanation and no excuse" for why more money was not allocated. Even $60 million a year, he said, would now be "vastly inadequate."

Another cornerstone of the law, the biennial strategy reports by the Justice Department, was mostly ignored. Even the most recent of the two reports that were published, in 2010 and 2016, did not include data about some of the most pressing concerns, such as the trade in illicit imagery.

The Justice Department's coordinator for child exploitation prevention, Ms. Harris, said she could not explain the poor record. A spokeswoman for the department, citing limited resources, said the reports would now be written every four years beginning in 2020.

When the law was reauthorized in 2012, the coordinator role was supposed to be elevated to a senior executive position with broad authority. That has not happened. "This is supposed to be the quarterback," said Ms. Wasserman Schultz, one of the provision's authors.

Even when the Justice Department has been publicly called out for ignoring provisions of the law, there has been little change.

In 2011, the Government Accountability Office reported that no steps had been taken to research which online offenders posed a high risk to children, and that the Justice Department had not submitted a progress assessment to Congress, both requirements of the law.

At the time, the department said it did not have enough funding to undertake the research and had no "time frame" for submitting a report. Today, the provisions remain largely unfulfilled.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which testified in favor of the 2008 law, has also struggled with demands to contain the spread of the imagery.

Founded in 1984 after the well-publicized kidnapping and murder of a 6-year-old Florida boy, Adam Walsh, the center has been closely affiliated with the federal government since the Reagan administration.

But as child exploitation has grown on the internet, the center has not kept up. The technology it uses for receiving and reviewing reports of the material was created in 1998, nearly a decade before the first iPhone was released. To perform key upgrades and help modernize the system, the group has relied on donations from tech companies like Palantir and Google.

The center has said it intends to make significant improvements to its technology starting in 2020, but the problems don't stop there. The police complain that the most urgent reports are not prioritized, or are sent to the wrong department completely.

"We're spending a tremendous amount of time having to go through those and reanalyze them ourselves," said Captain Edwards, the Seattle police official.

In a statement, the national center said it did its best to route reports to the correct jurisdiction.

Despite its mandate by Congress, the center is not subject to public records laws and operates with little transparency. It repeatedly denied requests from The Times for quarterly and annual reports submitted to the Justice Department, as well as for tallies of imagery reports submitted by individual tech companies.

Mr. Shehan, the vice president, said such disclosures might discourage tech companies from cooperating with the center. He said the numbers could be misinterpreted.

The Times found that there was a close relationship between the center and Silicon Valley that raised questions about good governance practices. For example, the center receives both money and in-kind donations from tech companies, while employees of the same companies are sometimes members of its board. Google alone has donated nearly $4 million in the past decade, according to public testimony.

A spokeswoman for the center said it was common to expect corporations to provide financial assistance to charities. But the practice, others working in the area of child protection say, could elevate the interests of the tech companies above the children's.

"There's an inherent conflict in accepting money from these companies when they also sit on your board," said Signy Arnason, who is a top executive at the equivalent organization in Canada, known as the Canadian Center for Child Protection.

This close relationship with tech companies may ultimately be in jeopardy. In 2016, a federal court held that the national center, though private, qualified legally as a government entity because it performed a number of essential government functions.

If that view gains traction, Fourth Amendment challenges about searches and seizures by the government could change how the center operates and how tech companies find and remove illegal imagery on their platforms. Under those circumstances, if they were to collaborate too closely with the center, the companies fear, they could also be viewed as government actors, not private entities, subjecting them to new legal requirements and court challenges when they police their own sites.

It was a sunny afternoon in July, and an unmarked police van in Salt Lake City was parked outside a pink stucco house. Garden gnomes and a heart-shaped "Welcome Friends" sign decorated the front yard.

At the back of the van, a man who lived in the house was seated in a cramped interrogation area, while officers cataloged hard drives and sifted through web histories from his computers.

The man had shared sexually explicit videos online, the police said, including one of a 10-year-old boy being "orally sodomized" by a man, and another of a man forcing two young boys to engage in anal intercourse.

"The sad thing is that's pretty tame compared to what we've seen," said Chief Jessica Farnsworth, an official with the Utah attorney general's office who led a raid of the house. The victims have not been identified or rescued.

The year was barely half over, and Chief Farnsworth's team had already conducted about 150 such raids across Utah. The specially trained group, one of 61 nationwide, coordinates state and regional responses to internet crimes against children.

The Utah group expects to arrest nearly twice as many people this year as last year for crimes related to child sexual abuse material, but federal funding has not kept pace with the surge. Funding for the 61 task forces from 2010 to 2018 remained relatively flat, federal data shows, while the number of leads referred to them increased by more than 400 percent.

Much of the federal money goes toward training new staff members because the cases take a heavy emotional and psychological toll on investigators, resulting in constant turnover.

"I thought that I was in the underbelly of society - until I came here," said Ms. Lippert, the prosecutor with the task force in Illinois, who had worked for years at a busy Chicago courthouse.

While any child at imminent risk remains a priority, the volume of work has also forced the task forces to make difficult choices. Some have focused on the youngest and most vulnerable victims, while others have cut back on undercover operations, including infiltrating chat rooms and online forums.

"I think some of the bigger fish who are out there are staying out there," Ms. Lippert said.

The internet is well known as a haven for hate speech, terrorism-related content and criminal activity, all of which have raised alarms and spurred public debate and action.

But the problem of child sexual abuse imagery faces a particular hurdle: It gets scant attention because few people want to confront the enormity and horror of the content, or they wrongly dismiss it as primarily teenagers sending inappropriate selfies.

Some state lawmakers, judges and members of Congress have refused to discuss the problem in detail, or have avoided attending meetings and hearings when it was on the agenda, according to interviews with law enforcement officials and victims.

Steven J. Grocki, who leads a group of policy experts and lawyers at the child exploitation section of the Justice Department, said the reluctance to address the issue went beyond elected officials and was a societal problem. "They turn away from it because it's too ugly of a mirror," he said.

Yet the material is everywhere, and ever more available.

"I think that people were always there, but the access is so easy," said Lt. John Pizzuro, a task force commander in New Jersey. "You got nine million people in the state of New Jersey. Based upon statistics, we can probably arrest 400,000 people."

Common language about the abuse can also minimize the harm in people's minds. While the imagery is often defined as "child pornography" in state and federal laws, experts prefer terms like child sexual abuse imagery or child exploitation material to underscore the seriousness of the crimes and to avoid conflating it with adult pornography, which is legal for people over 18.

"Each and every image is a depiction of a crime in progress," said Sgt. Jeff Swanson, a task force commander in Kansas. "The violence inflicted on these kids is unimaginable."

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The Internet Is Overrun With Images of Child Sexual Abuse. What Went Wrong?

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The images are horrific. Children, some just 3 or 4 years old, being sexually abused and in some cases tortured. Pictures of child sexual abuse have long been produced and shared to satisfy twisted adult obsessions. But it has never been like this: Technology companies reported a record 45 million online photos and videos of the abuse last year.

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Scotland is to become the first country in the UK to make it a criminal offence for parents to smack their children.

Parents and carers are currently allowed to use "reasonable" physical force to discipline children.

But the Scottish government has backed moves to give children the same protection from assault as adults.

A ban on all physical punishment is expected to be overwhelmingly backed by the Scottish Parliament in a vote on Thursday afternoon.

The change to the law was originally proposed by Scottish Greens MSP John Finnie, who has won the support of his own party, as well as the SNP, Labour and Lib Dems - with only the Conservatives opposed.

Mr Finnie said ahead of the vote that it was "staggering" that the country's smallest and most vulnerable citizens do not currently have full protection from assault.

He added: "Physical punishment has no place in 21st Century Scotland. The international evidence tells us that it can have serious adverse impacts on children, and that it is not an effective."

Opinion polls have suggested a majority of people in Scotland are opposed to a smacking ban - with critics arguing that the current law is sufficient, and that the changes risk criminalising "good" parents.

But most of the responses to a consultation on Mr Finnie's bill were in favour of a ban, and the move has been widely supported by children's charities.

What physical punishment are parents currently allowed to use?

In Scots Law, all physical attacks on adults can be treated as assault - but children do not have the same protection.

This is because a person accused of assaulting of a child can claim a defence of "reasonable chastisement" or "justifiable assault" when they have used physical force as a form of discipline on children under the age of 16.

When deciding whether the chastisement was reasonable, the courts take into account factors such as the nature of the punishment, its duration and frequency, the age of the child and the effect - both physical and mental - it had on them.

In practice, this generally means parents are allowed to smack their children on the body - but blows to the head, shaking or the use of an implement are illegal.

All physical punishment in schools and other education settings is already completely banned.

How will this change?

Mr Finnie's bill will end the defence of reasonable chastisement, meaning parents could face prosecution for any use of physical punishment on their children.

This will mean that children have the exact same protection from assault as adults.

The bill uses the same definition of physical punishment, sometimes referred to as corporal punishment, used by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

It includes hitting such as smacking, slapping and smacking with a hand or an implement, as well as kicking, shaking or throwing children, scratching, pinching, biting, pulling hair or boxing ears, forcing children to stay in uncomfortable positions, burning, scalding or forced ingestion.

How widespread is smacking anyway?

A report published by a group of Scottish children's charities in 2015 found that the physical punishment of children was more common in the UK than in similar countries such as the US, Canada, Italy, Germany and Sweden.

The researchers estimated that between 70% and 80% of parents in the UK have used physical punishment, with children aged between three and seven the most likely to be smacked.

They also found that many parents do not view smacking as a "good thing", but believe that sometimes it is the "only thing that will work".

And they said the use of physical chastisement has declined over the years alongside a shift in public attitudes, with "convincing evidence" that the decline has been steeper in the more than 50 countries around the world that have already banned smacking.

Research examining the views of children on smacking has suggested that it hurts and upsets them, and does not always stop bad behaviour.

What do opponents of the ban say?

A campaign against the ban has been led by the Be Reasonable Scotland group, which argues that the move - while well-intentioned - could do more harm than good.

The group argues that the current law only allows parents to use "very mild discipline" such as a smack on the hand or bottom - which would become a criminal offence in the future.

They say that the "unnecessary" changes will therefore do nothing more to help vulnerable children who are the victims of serious physical abuse, but will cause traumatic interventions in "good" families.

And they have urged the government to instead invest in social work and other services to improve their ability to identify and tackle genuine abuse.

What is the law elsewhere?

In 1979, Sweden became the first country in the world to ban corporal punishment in the home - with Scotland set to become the 58th to do so.

Parents in England and Wales can currently face criminal charges if they hit a child so hard that it leaves a mark, or causes bruising, swelling, cuts, grazes or scratches.

However Wales is close to an outright ban, with a bill currently working its way through the Welsh assembly that would remove the defence of "reasonable punishment" that has been in force since Victorian times in England and Wales.

There have been calls for England to follow suit, with the Association of Educational Psychologists saying last year that smacking is harmful to children's mental health and should be banned.

Northern Ireland has similar legal provisions to those in England and Wales, while Ireland banned smacking in 2015.

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Scotland to be first in UK to ban smacking

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Scotland is to become the first country in the UK to make it a criminal offence for parents to smack their children. Parents and carers are currently allowed to use "reasonable" physical force to discipline children. But the Scottish government has backed moves to give children the same protection from assault as adults.

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UNICEF poll: More than a third of young people in 30 countries report being a victim of online bullying

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U-Report highlights prevalence of cyberbullying and its impact on young people

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Emily J

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When my twins were babies, I caught a short episode of them on video in which one leaned over and snatched the pacifier from the other one's mouth and, for a second, I dreamed of putting it on YouTube and scoring one of those baby-does-hilarious-thing hits, in which the ad revenue rolls in while you sleep and you are rewarded simply for being alive.
YouTube child stars allegedly abused and forced to perform by adoptive mother
I didn't upload the video in the end, for the same reason I didn't do anything much in that period beyond running round my apartment in concentric circles, picking things up and then putting them down again. But the memory of that temptation - the gold-rush sense that there was easy money to be made if one could only capture a moment of "spontaneous" fun involving one's children - remained, and like most gold rushes, its pull is a vortex.

This week in the US a mother was arrested for allegedly abusing her seven children in the process of making "hilarious" madcap videos of them for her popular YouTube channel, Fantastic Adventures. It is the most extreme case to date of a spectrum that includes adults feeding their toddlers age-inappropriate lines and generally manipulating them for online ad revenue.

In 2017, a family was investigated over the making of YouTube videos on its channel DaddyOFive (175m views), in which the parents "pranked" their kids by screaming in their faces and making them cry hysterically. And another family was charged with child endangerment for putting their eight-year-old and his nanny in the bed of a pickup truck and haring around a small town in southern California (1 million people watched the video).

This week, when welfare officers in Arizona visited the house of the woman who runs Fantastic Adventures, a channel that has racked up more than 250m views, they found a household of traumatised children who alleged they had been pepper-sprayed and locked in cupboards for forgetting their lines. Online, meanwhile, they were shown doing endlessly jolly things and performing like ponies.

The mystery is why so many people watch this stuff. Even the benign child videos have a vague Baby June sense of snuff about them, or the desperate air of They Shoot Horses, Don't They?. In the case of the most popular and successful channels, these kids are in essence child actors unprotected by labour laws, making their parents sizeable incomes.

There are more pressing regulatory issues around YouTube, and the child exploitation racket, unless there is provable abuse, is probably impossible to curtail, not least because it is the natural end point to the universal dynamic that we are all content providers now. The lie, of course, is that it is easy money or that these productions are just slightly massaged versions of Candid Camera home videos. As scripted content, the cost to the child is one of time and effort, but more than that, perhaps, one of perception. Most of these children are young - barely out of toddlerhood - when to perform an idea of cuteness and be made aware of its currency is to usher in early a plague of the age: self-consciousness.

* Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist
Topics

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Parents are exploiting their children on YouTube for fame and easy money | Emma Brockes

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When my twins were babies, I caught a short episode of them on video in which one leaned over and snatched the pacifier from the other one's mouth and, for a second, I dreamed of putting it on YouTube and scoring one of those baby-does-hilarious-thing hits, in which the ad revenue rolls in while you sleep and you are rewarded simply for being alive.

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The recent arrests of two 6-year-old students in Orlando, which prompted outrage and the firing of the officer who restrained one child's hands with flex cuffs, mirrors a persistent problem confronting law enforcement and schools with thousands of children arrested annually and treated like "mini-adults," experts said.

Stunning annual crime statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) show that between 2013 and 2018 (the most recent year for which complete data is available), at least 30,467 children under the age of 10 were arrested in the United States. And the numbers skyrocket for children between the ages of 10 to 12 with 266,321 arrested during the same six-year time span, according to the data.

Rules about the age children can be arrested vary around the world. In England and Wales, for instance, the age of criminal responsibility is 10, with alternative arrangements for those under 10. In Scotland, it is 8.

In the United States, 34 states have no minimum age for delinquency ( according to the most recent data), while most of the rest have set the age at 10, according to government data. The federal system prefers to defer to the state delinquency system for minors, according to the Congressional Research Service, although the federal tradition, is reported to be seven.

And 24 states have no minimum age to transfer juvenile cases to adult criminal court according to the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

While the rate of arrests of juveniles 10 to 17 has been on a steady decline in the U.S. since hitting a peak in the mid-1990s and the arrests of those 12 and under represents a mere fraction of the total made annually in the U.S. (more than 7.8 million in 2018 alone).

While the FBI's latest crime report released on Monday shows the numbers of children arrested under the age of 10 have continue to gradually declining in the past five years from a high in 2014 of 6,458 to 3,501 in 2018, experts say it is still too many.

"This is ridiculous. If we are going to treat children like this, we better think very clearly what the ramifications are, especially if we are so inclined to stop the violence," said Lisa Thurau, founder and executive director of Strategies for Youth, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, nonprofit that trains law enforcement agencies in how to handle young children. "This is producing it and it's also attenuating children's connection to school."

An area of particular concern with juvenile arrests are those in school -- especially how discipline affects those of different races and how officers are trained to deal with children.

A tantrum leads to a 6-year-old's arrest

Meralyn Kirkland, the grandmother of one of the 6-year-olds arrested this month in Orlando by a school resource officer, told ABC affiliate station WFTV in Orlando that her granddaughter, who is black, was taken into custody on suspicion of battery when she allegedly had a meltdown at school and ended up kicking a staff member.

The girl was taken to the local Juvenile Assessment Center, but when Kirkland went to get her she says she was told the child was being fingerprinted.

"I think when they said fingerprinted is when it hit home to me," Kirkland told WFTV. "And I'm, like, fingerprinted? And they said yes, and they escorted me into an office and on the desk in that office were two mugshot pictures of my 6-year-old granddaughter."

Kirkland said that if the school resource officer took the time to inquire, he would have learned the girl is prone to temper tantrums because she suffers from sleep apnea.

Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon announced last week that the school resource officer had been fired for allegedly violating department policy by failing to get a supervisor's approval for arresting a child under the age of 12.

Details on the arrest of another 6-year-old last week by the same officer who arrested Kirkland's granddaughter were not disclosed by Rolon, who cited rules governing the privacy of minors.

"A top priority is to earn and protect the trust between the community and the officers," Rolon said at the press conference. "Because of this incident, the trust has been put in question. I apologize to the children involved and their families."

A dodgeball game, playing with food and refusing to go to the principal's office

Other such arrests of young children have made headlines as well:

-- In July, a 10-year-old black boy was arrested on charges of aggravated assault after he threw a ball at another child's face during a dodgeball game on the playground of a suburban Detroit school, officials said. The charges were later dropped and prosecutors denied that race played a factor, as the boy's mom had charged.

-- In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled that a school resource officer in Kansas City, Missouri, who handcuffed a crying 7-year-old boy for refusing to go to the principal's office and leaving him cuffed there, was "a reasonable course of action" and did not violate the child's constitutional rights. According to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against the school district, the boy, who has a hearing impairment, broke down and began "hollering" after he was asked to move next to another student who teased him.

-- In January 2018, a 7-year-old boy was handcuffed at a Miami school and placed in a police car because, according to an incident report by Miami-Dade Schools Police Department, he misbehaved after a teacher told him "not to play with his food." The district said he "attacked" the teacher and continued to fight her even after she restrained him. According to the chief of the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department, cuffing a 7-year-old, while "rare," was "warranted to prevent his erratic and violent behavior from bringing further harm to others or himself."

-- In August 2018, a school resource officer in Denton, Texas, was captured on his body-camera video putting a 10-year-old boy with autism in handcuffs and holding him to the ground by the neck after he became obstreperous with a teacher when he was pulled out of a cubbyhole where he was hiding in the classroom, according to police and the child's parents. In a written summary by the Denton Independent School District, the boy was described as engaging in self-harming behaviors and that he engaged in "physically assaultive and unsafe behaviors. The Denton Police Department Office of Professional Standards initiated a review of the incident and no violations were found, a statement by the City of Denton said.

Beyond these headline-grabbing incidents, there were hundreds more arrests for serious offenses, according to the FBI data. In 2018, 155 children under the age of 10 were arrested for possessing weapons, 22 were arrested for rape, 11 for robbery, 56 for arson, and 289 for larceny and theft, including 15 for vehicle theft. Details of those cases were not immediately available.

It was not clear how many of those incidents occurred in schools and data surrounding arrests in schools is somewhat murky. According to the U.S. Department of Education Civil Rights Data Collection for 2015-'16, the most recent data available, over 290,600 cases in schools were referred to law enforcement or resulted in arrest. Black students were disproportionately subject to those disciplinary measures -- representing 15% of the student body and 31% of referrals, a 16% gap (up from 11% the year before). Students with disabilities were also disproportionately subject to that kind of discipline, according to the data.

In 2013-'14, the data was similar -- 260,000 students were referred to law enforcement and 92,000 were subjected to school-related arrests. In addition to contacts with law enforcement, the data shows that there were racial disparities in out-of-school suspensions as well, beginning in preschool, with black children -- or children of color -- disproportionately banned from school property.

Lack of training

Some experts said that police and school resource officer interventions with children so young was not surprising.

"None of this is shocking. It's predictable when you don't equip sworn police officers to deal with children and adolescents, who require a different approach," Thurau told ABC News. "You have to be developmentally appropriate, and trauma-informed, and racially equitable. We're not equipping officers to be that generally in the United States, much less when you place them in schools."

Thurau said recruits in police academies are generally given a total of four to six hours of training on how to deal with disciplinary encounters with children, in schools and on the streets. And a 2013 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics said that 62% of police recruits were trained on interacting with youth.

Some school districts employ deputies from local police departments, while others, such as Miami-Dade County in Florida, employ an independent police force for their schools. Still, others employ school resource officers, defined in U.S. DOE reports as "career sworn law enforcement officers with arrest authority, who have specialized training and are assigned to work in collaboration with school organizations." According to the U.S. DOE, 42% of schools employed SROs in 2015-'16 and nearly 11% employed sworn law enforcement officers.

Some states have laws and regulations surrounding the certification or training of SROs, while others do not.

"Then you compound this with systems that don't put any attention to...in-service training for more experienced officers, and then you compound that with a lack of policies," Thurau said. "Most police departments have no policies for how to deal with these youth and so the default assumption is you treat them like mini-adults."

Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, a nonprofit that trains about 10,000 school resource officers a year across the nation, said more than just training goes into a good SRO.

"There has to be a lot of sensitivity that takes place from an officer's standpoint working within a school," Canady told ABC News. "There are three things we're very clear that have to happen: One is that an officer that's going to work in that environment must be very carefully selected. You're talking about putting an adult from your law enforcement agency in a school environment, working with sometimes young children.

"So you've got to make sure that the moral character is right, that they are veterans, that we have a good track record on them, that they really want to work with youth and they've shown that they do that through volunteer opportunities and those kinds of things," he added.

He said the training his organization does with officers, who are oftentimes mandated by state or local jurisdictions to take the course, includes dealing with special needs students and understanding adolescent brain development.

"We want officers to understand the science behind that. What's going on with kids at different phases of their lives and how much brain development impacts that," Canady said. "When we understand that and officers are well educated on that, then they're better able to de-escalate situations. So that's a critically important piece."

Canady, a retired Alabama police officer who spent half of his 25-year law enforcement career as a school resource officer, said officers are also trained to refrain from getting involved in instances that are clearly disciplinary matters that can be handled by school officials.

"The number one goal we teach to SROs that come to our training is that the most important thing they're going to do is build relationships with students," Canady said. "Bridging the gap between law enforcement and youth is critically important and when they do that and they do it the right way they also find themselves with some valuable intelligence at times that has helped us stop acts of violence before they ever occur."

Karol Mason, president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, told ABC News that many programs have been developed in recent years to stem the numbers of arrests of children and give police and schools the tools needed to address the issue.

When she was a former assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Justice Programs in the Obama administration, Mason was part of a task force that presented a report called "My Brother's Keeper" to President Barack Obama in 2014, which included guidance on how schools and police should handle disciplining young children.

"Even relatively simple actions, such as removing suspension as a consequence for low-level offenses, can have a significant impact on suspension rates," the report said, noting that contacts with the criminal justice system can have devastating and lasting impacts on youth and disproportionately affect minorities.

An update two years later noted successes from the program. In Philadelphia, for instance, the Police School Diversion Program prevented children over 10 involved in low-level offenses from being arrested and logged a 54% decline in school-based arrests, the administration said in its report. Students who are diverted and their families are provided with other resources, including food and housing assistance and tutoring.

"It talked about how are we supporting the success of our children of color, particularly our young men and boys of color. And one of the issues that President Obama always talked about was that we don't give children the freedom to be children and to make mistakes and grow up," Mason said.

Racial disparity

In July, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released the report "Beyond Suspensions: Examining School Discipline Policies and Connections to the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students of Color with Disabilities" that analyzed more than 2.7 million student suspensions handed out at U.S. public schools in the 2015-'16 academic year. The study found that students with disabilities are at higher risk of being suspended than their peers, and black students with disabilities lost approximately 77 more days of school due to exclusionary discipline than their white peers.

The commission's report also showed that 1.6 million students attend a school with a sworn law enforcement officer but not a school counselor. The report found that in the 2015-'16 academic year, schools reported having more than 27,000 school resource officers, compared to 23,000 social workers.

"Students of color as a whole, as well as by individual racial group, do not commit more disciplinable offenses than their white peers -- but black students, Latino students, and Native American students in the aggregate receive substantially more school discipline than their white peers and receive harsher and longer punishments than their white peers receive for like offenses," Catherine E. Lhamon, the chair of the commission, wrote in a letter addressed to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

The commission made a series of recommendations, including providing teachers with resources, guidance, training, and support to ensure nondiscriminatory discipline in schools and that Congress should provide funding incentives to states to ensure all schools have adequate counselors and social workers.

"It's not a criminal justice issue, it's a discipline issue and the schools need to think of it that way and not create a pathway for them (young students) into the criminal justice system. Because once they have that on their records and you start treating them a certain way and perceiving them a certain way, there is an unfortunate trajectory," Mason told ABC News.

Mason said some school districts, including one in Charles County, Maryland, have created teams that monitor the behavior of students to figure out what resources they need to make the child successful and avoid disciplinary problems.

"There are a lot of studies that talk about the effect of trauma on child development and arresting a 7-year-old, putting them in handcuffs and taking them out of school, that's trauma and trauma disrupts normal development," Mason said. "Is this child going to definitely wind up in the criminal justice system? No. But are you increasing the likelihood that it could happen because of this? Yes."

This report was featured in the Monday, Sept. 30. 2019, episode of ABC News' daily news podcast, "Start Here."

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More than 30,000 children under age 10 have been arrested in the US since 2013: FBI

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The recent arrests of two 6-year-old students in Orlando, which prompted outrage and the firing of the officer who restrained one child's hands with flex cuffs, mirrors a persistent problem confronting law enforcement and schools with thousands of children arrested annually and treated like "mini-adults," experts said.

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The scale of the "county lines" national drugs network crisis is laid bare as figures analysed by the Guardian reveal the soaring number of cases in which vulnerable children are linked to gangs.

In 2017-18, 8,650 assessments by children's services in England noted young people as being vulnerable with gangs identified as an issue. This included 1,290 cases from the north-west and 3,130 from London, up from 3,680 in 2014-15.

MPs, academics and charities described the findings as shocking, saying the rise of organised criminal groups which use children to traffic drugs from inner-city areas to provincial towns, where they are used to sell drugs, was a key factor in the surge.

Separately, analysis found the number of times children were assessed as vulnerable because of having gone missing also soared in the same time period, from 8,850 to 16,070. This is also considered a major feature of the county lines drug crisis.

Quick guide
What is 'county lines' and who are the victims?

What does the term 'county lines' mean?

The name 'county lines' refers to the phone numbers, or lines, that criminal gangs which traffic drugs from urban to rural areas use to organise the sale of their wares. Gangs in cities such as London, Birmingham and Liverpool use children to deal mostly heroin and crack cocaine over a network of dedicated mobile phones to smaller towns and rural areas.

Who are the victims and how are they recruited?

The majority of victims groomed into working for gangs are 15- to 17-year-old boys but children as young as 11 have been safeguarded and girls have been targeted.

Many victims are recruited over social media, with offenders luring them with images of cash, designer clothing and luxury cars, but vulnerable girls and women are being targeted by men who create the impression of a romantic relationship before subjecting them to sexual exploitation.

How big is the problem?

In 2015, about seven forces reported county lines behaviour. Now, 44 forces, including British Transport Police, have recorded county lines behaviour on their turf.

No one really knows how many young people across the country are being forced to take part. Children without criminal records - known as 'clean skins' - are preferred because they are less likely to be known to detectives. The Children's Society says 4,000 teenagers in London alone are exploited through county lines, while the children's commissioner estimated at least 46,000 children in England were caught up in gangs.

How many children have been affected

The number of individual phone numbers identified by law enforcement officials as being used on established county lines networks is about 2,000 - nearly three times the 720 previously established.

Police estimate the phone numbers are linked to about 1,000 branded networks, with a single line capable of making £800,000 profits in a year.

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Simon Harding, an associate professor of criminology at the University of West London, said the figures were very worrying.

"The rise is shocking. There will be elements of that about increased reporting and awareness but that is not going to account for such a big rise. There is something happening. Working in county lines has a great allure for young people. It gives them a tax-free income, gives them a regular income and high income," he said.

Harding said he had interviewed children making £1,000 a week, or even as much as £1,000 in a single day. "That is an enormous amount of money. It gives them a great deal of freedom, or at least these young people think it does.

"In reality it does not, as frequently they will be quite controlled - but they can be involved in a line for a year or two and then step out and run their own line, and employ their own kids to do it. The learning here is very fast."

The data the Guardian analysed, from the Department for Education, shows the number of finished assessments by children's social care. Overall, the number of episodes of children being in need at any point during the year went from 754,460 in 2014-15 to 753,840 in 2017-18. However, this is up from 742,890 in 2016-17. The rise for those in need who had been involved in gang activity or had been or gone missing surged at a much higher rate.

Josie Allan, the senior policy and campaigns manager of Missing People UK, said there was a general increase in children going missing. "It's hard to prove with the data, as every year it is presented differently. But we do think there is a general increase in kids being vulnerable because of missing episodes.

"We also think there has been an increase in county lines activity and child criminal exploitation, which is supported by the National Crime Agency threat assessment published on this issue."

Allan said the reasons children were increasingly going missing were complex, but factors included reduced children's services and an increase in looked-after young people being placed outside their local authority area.

Social care episodes graphic

She said going missing was a common feature of county lines activity. "If a child is exploited into criminal activity then they are likely not to be where they are supposed to be, especially if there is an element of travel in what they are doing.

"I did research recently with a small group of young people involved in county lines, and everyone who took part said that going missing was a key feature, especially in the early stages of criminal exploitation."

Ann Coffey, the MP for Stockport and chair of the all-party parliamentary group for runaway and missing children and adults, said a greater awareness was one factor behind the rise.

Previously, young boys who went missing were not seen as being at risk so were reported as being absent rather than missing, she said. "Now, people are aware if a 14-year-old boy is going missing, then it could be because of county lines activity."

She added that no one knew the prevalence of the problem in the UK and the numbers the Guardian unearthed were likely to still be an underestimate.

"It is very difficult to map and one reason for that is because county lines activity involves a child going missing in one police area and committing an offence in another. Police have different IT systems and assessment of risk, so it is hard to share - get information - to pull intelligence together from different police force areas to give a good understanding of the problem."

Coffey said the figures were concerning for a number of reasons. "Clearly county lines is a very successful business model organised crime gangs have developed. Although it is seen as the transportation of drugs ... supply lines have been set up and used to transport other merchandise, such as cash or guns.

"What concerns me is that we are not really making inroads on arresting and taking those senior gang leaders out of county lines. As long as they continue to operate, the number of children exploited will continue to grow."

A government spokesperson said:"Any child that goes missing from home, school or care could be in danger of exploitation from gangs or violent criminals - that's why we are equipping the professionals who protect vulnerable children to help them identify those who are most at risk and keep them safe.

"Our national 'tackling child exploitation' support programme is helping specialists in education, social care, health, the police and the voluntary sector to improve how they respond to these kinds of threats in their communities, including gangs, county lines drug activity and trafficking, and our serious violence strategy includes a range of actions to combat county lines."
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Revealed: surge in vulnerable children linked to UK drug gangs

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The scale of the "county lines" national drugs network crisis is laid bare as figures analysed by the Guardian reveal the soaring number of cases in which vulnerable children are linked to gangs. In 2017-18, 8,650 assessments by children's services in England noted young people as being vulnerable with gangs identified as an issue.

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NEW YORK, 23 September - Sixteen child petitioners - including Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Villaseñor - from 12 countries around the world today presented a landmark official complaint to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child to protest lack of government action on the climate crisis.

The child petitioners - aged between 8 to 17 - allege that Member States' failure to tackle the climate crisis constitutes a violation of child rights. They urge the independent body to order Member States to take action to protect children from the devastating impacts of climate change.

"Change needs to happen now if we are to avoid the worst consequences. The climate crisis is not just the weather. It means also, lack of food and lack of water, places that are unliveable and refugees because of it. It is scary," said Greta Thunberg.

The complaint was filed through the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a voluntary mechanism which allows children or adults on their behalf to appeal directly to the United Nations for help if a country that has ratified the Protocol fails to provide a remedy for a rights violation.

Announced at a press conference hosted at UNICEF Headquarters in New York, the complaint aims to inspire the urgent action needed to curb global heating and mitigate the impact of the climate crisis.

"Thirty years ago, world leaders made a historic commitment to the world's children by adopting the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Today, the world's children are holding the world accountable to that commitment," said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Charlotte Petri Gornitzka. "We fully support children exercising their rights and taking a stand. Climate change will impact every single one of them. It's no wonder they are uniting to fight back."

In addition to Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, and Alexandria Villaseñor, the 14-year-old American climate activist, the 14 other child petitioners are from Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Marshall Islands, Nigeria, Palau, South Africa, Sweden, Tunisia and the United States. They are represented by global law firm Hausfeld LLP and Earthjustice.

UNICEF supports the child petitioners exercising their right to bring complaints via the communication procedure of the Third Optional Protocol. However, UNICEF is not a party to the complaint. UNICEF is neutral and plays no part in the adjudication process by the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

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Notes to editors: Download photo and video content from the press conference here:
https://weshare.unicef.org/Folder/2AM408TVA60S
About the Convention on the Rights of the Child
Adopted on 20 November 1989, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is an international human rights treaty outlining the civil, economic, social, political and cultural rights of children - without discrimination of any kind. It is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. Complaints filed under the CRC's Third Optional Protocol are adjudicated upon by the Committee on the Rights of the Child - a group of independent experts. The Committee is able to receive complaints from children, groups of children or their representatives against any State that has ratified the Protocol. The Committee is also able to launch investigations into grave or systematic violations. For more information about the convention, visit www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention.
About UNICEF
UNICEF works in some of the world's toughest places, to reach the world's most disadvantaged children. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone. For more information about UNICEF and its work for children visit www.unicef.org.

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16 children, including Greta Thunberg, file landmark complaint to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child

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NEW YORK, 23 September - Sixteen child petitioners - including Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Villaseñor - from 12 countries around the world today presented a landmark official complaint to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child to protest lack of government action on the climate crisis.

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Doctors and other healthcare staff, looking after very sick children, are urged to take steps early on if disagreements begin to surface with parents over the treatment of their child.

That is to avoid the sort of breakdown of trust and public trauma that took place in the cases of Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans and Ashya King.

In all three cases, the rights and wrongs of the child's care were discussed widely on social media. Donald Trump and Pope Francis were among those who offered their opinions on the Gard case, calling for Charlie to be allowed to go to the United States for an experimental treatment. Breakdowns in trust between parents and NHS staff led to the medical and ethical issues being thrashed out in courts of law with demonstrators outside.
Despite Charlie Gard's tragic story, we must respect the process of our courts | Ian Kennedy
Advice to professionals from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health on preventing and managing conflicts has now been published in the hope of avoiding this sort of escalation which, they say, benefits neither doctors nor families - and certainly not the child.

"Conflict is physically and mentally damaging for everyone involved and, in recent years, as cases are propelled into the public domain, further complexity is added to an already sensitive and stressful situation," said Dr Mike Linney, lead author and college registrar.

It is not helpful to anybody when a case is picked up on Facebook or Twitter, he said. "Once you start getting involved in social media, you can't control it. I don't think there is sufficient advice out there about what the effects of social media can be."

Healthcare staff will read comments that may not be accurate or appropriate, but cannot answer back because they don't have the right to discuss the case. "Those who are involved want to put out more information, but they can't," he said.

It is not helpful to families either. Sarah Barclay, founder of the Medical Mediation Foundation, said: "One of the impacts is to make parents feel that if they are not challenging and fighting, they are not being good enough parents."

Sometimes parents cannot understand why medical science does not have an answer and want to believe there may be a cure in another country. They may have heard of a therapy abroad and be suspicious that the NHS will not pay for it.
Alfie Evans' parents needed help. The vultures came instead | Gaby Hinsliff
If it works, however, the child will have it, said Dr Peter-Marc Fortune, president of the Paediatric Intensive Care Society. "I can't remember an occurrence with a well-proven therapy on the NHS. If it is available elsewhere, I or a colleague would be very ready to have a very open conversation about how to facilitate that."

More difficult is the situation where there is little evidence that the therapy will work. "It is a common situation across all levels of medicine and paediatrics from the most common situations to life-threatening conditions," said Linney. "It is all to do with what the risks are of that treatment and what its value is."

"The problem with this type of therapy is that there is often very little information around the good or the harm it can cause. We wrestle with that as much as the parents do," said Fortune.

The best way forward is to research and discuss these therapies together with the parents, so that they can learn together what the benefits or harms might be.
Hospital in Ashya King case reveals 'outpouring of hatred' directed at staff
The advice lists warning signs of a potential breakdown in relationships. First comes avoidance behaviour. " Parents avoiding health or specific health professionals, health professionals themselves avoiding the family," it says.

Then there is demanding or controlling behaviour. "Parents allowing only specific professionals to look after their child, questioning expertise or feeling the need to record all conversations. Health professionals finding every conversation with families a battle," says the advice.

Beyond that, there is micromanagement, described as "parents requesting authority and review on every aspect of care".

As breakdown escalates, which can lead to entrenched positions. "Development of separate camps, an 'us and them' attitude. Eventually the conflict itself becomes the focus," says the document.

Professionals are urged to avoid giving families inappropriate expectations, the document urges. They should bring in palliative care teams early on, not just for end of life care, but when treatment options are being discussed.

Psychological support should be offered to both families and staff, it adds, and expert ethical and legal advice should be sought early on and mediation services should be considered at an early stage.
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Children's healthcare: new advice aims to avoid breakdown of parents' trust

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Doctors and other healthcare staff, looking after very sick children, are urged to take steps early on if disagreements begin to surface with parents over the treatment of their child. That is to avoid the sort of breakdown of trust and public trauma that took place in the cases of Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans and Ashya King.

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A leading children's rights group has called for a doubling of the federal minimum wage and wider access to housing subsidies to end the "moral travesty" of millions of children living in poverty while the wealthiest Americans get tax cuts.

The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) said in a new report that about 13 million American children are living in homes with incomes below the poverty line, depriving many of a decent education and proper nutrition, and putting them at risk of homelessness and violence. Two-thirds of those living in poverty are children of colour.

"No child should have to worry where her next meal will come from or whether she will have a place to sleep each night in the wealthiest nation on Earth. Yet more than 12.8 million children in America - about one in five - live in poverty and face these harsh realities every day," said the report, Ending Child Poverty Now.

The CDF said poverty stacks the odds against children for life, affecting their development and opportunities. About one in three live in families where at least one adult is in a full-time but often poorly paid job.

Interactive

The organisation calls for sweeping action by Washington. It said that a combination of more than doubling the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour within five years, increased tax credits and widening childcare subsidies would cut child poverty by more than half. Increasing access to housing subsidies to low-income families on less than 150% of the poverty level of $25,100 a year for a family of four, would alone lift 2 million children out of poverty.

"Child poverty is an urgent and preventable crisis. Solutions to child poverty in our nation already exist - we just need to invest in and expand them," the report said. "Benefits like nutrition assistance, housing vouchers and tax credits helped lift nearly 7 million children out of poverty in 2017, but millions of children were left behind due to inadequate funding, eligibility restrictions and low wages. We can and must do more."

The report estimates the cost of the measures at $52bn, just 1.4% of federal spending.

"This is a bargain our nation - which in 2017 spent nearly $2tn on tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals and corporations - can easily afford. Every dollar invested in reducing child poverty will return at least seven dollars to our economy," the report said.

"The question is not whether we have the knowledge or resources to end child poverty, but whether we have the moral decency and political will."

MaryLee Allen, the CDF's policy director, said she is encouraged that there appears to be greater discussion about poverty at a federal level, and that some states are taking the initiative.

"I think that's what gives us encouragement is that we can see some action that we haven't seen in the past. A number of states have approved increases in the minimum wage," she said. "In a country as rich as ours there is no excuse, there's no reason. It's a moral travesty."
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About 13m US children are living below the poverty line, rights group reveals

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A leading children's rights group has called for a doubling of the federal minimum wage and wider access to housing subsidies to end the "moral travesty" of millions of children living in poverty while the wealthiest Americans get tax cuts.

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Over an eight-month period last year, 11-year-old John would check the amount of money left on the electricity meter the moment he got home. He continued these checks throughout the evening, walking past the mouldy bedroom that forced his entire family to sleep in the living room of the one-bedroom flat. His mother, Chantel, said it slowly morphed into an obsession. "It was really really bad. He would go and see and say: 'Oh, we've got £1 less, we've 50p less, or it's -50p," she said. "He was anxious that the lights were going to go off."

The electricity did sometimes shut off, and Chantel and her two children, John and two-year-old Amy, would spend entire evenings enveloped in darkness. Chantel said things had spiralled out of control when her attempt to renew her visa was rejected. As she no longer had the right to work in the UK, she was forced to leave her job as a teaching assistant. Chantel had to rely on friends and her local church for money to pay for food, nappies and the electricity.

She went to the council when things became unbearably desperate. She told them she had a British child, who was diagnosed with autism, and a baby she was struggling to support. Section 17 of the 1989 Children Act states that local councils have a duty to provide cash or accommodation when a child is destitute and ensure a child's immediate needs are met. But the council refused to support Chantel, pointing to the fact the Home Office had rejected her attempt to renew her visa. Campaigners say this is one of many examples across the country where local councils are refusing to support destitute families because of the parent's immigration status.

Chantel turned to the Magpie Project, which supports destitute migrant families in the east London borough of Newham, for support. The project provided Chantel with essentials, such as food and nappies, but it wasn't enough. "My son would open the fridge and ask: 'Mummy, are we poor?'" Chantel said.

She said it took eight months fighting the council, armed with legal support, before they finally agreed to provide section 17 support. Chantel was rehoused in a one-bedroom flat in Hainault, but says day-to-day life is still a struggle.

Her son's special needs are being met at the secondary school he attends in Newham and she feels it would be too disruptive to change schools. The entire family has to therefore get up at 5.30am and travel for an hour and 20 minutes to get to his school. Chantel said the journey there and back is exhausting for both her and the children.

As she can't afford to make the journey more than twice a day, Chantel and her daughter Amy wait for John to finish school at the Magpie Project or the local Asda in Newham. Chantel said often this means her daughter doesn't get warm lunches. "It's not healthy for the baby. It's not healthy for myself. I'm worn out by the end of the day," she added. "If we're not at Magpie, she spends most of the time in the pram. It's not good for the child's development."

The mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz, said: "I am extremely disappointed that there are still significant issues with the way section 17 support is being administered by some officers in Newham council. I find it unconscionable that this is happening, and it shouldn't be.

"I've asked for an urgent investigation why this has happened, as myself and the cabinet member for children's services, Cllr Sarah Ruiz, had asked for changes in practice to be made earlier this year. We have been let down and are both extremely unhappy with what has recently emerged. I thank our friends at the Magpie Project for bringing the matter to my attention, and I have apologised."

* This article was amended on 27 May 2019. An earlier version incorrectly referred to the 1989 Children Act as the "Children's Act".
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'Mummy, are we poor?': the destitute children denied help by councils

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Over an eight-month period last year, 11-year-old John would check the amount of money left on the electricity meter the moment he got home. He continued these checks throughout the evening, walking past the mouldy bedroom that forced his entire family to sleep in the living room of the one-bedroom flat.

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Transgender children SHOULD undergo irreversible surgery without their parents' permission or counselling, psychologists say

Transgender children should be able to have surgery without parents permission

Australian Psychological Association made the claim in unpublished submission

APS says mandatory pre-surgery counselling can be 'an unnecessary burden'

Transgender children under the age of 16 should be able to undergo surgery without their parents' permission, according to Australia's top psychologists.

The Australian Psychological Association, which represents 24,000 professionals, says the disapproval of both parents should not inhibit a child under 16 from consenting to procedures.

But childrens' ability to make decisions must be assessed by 'competent' doctors, the APS said in an unpublished law reform submission, reported by The Australian.

It was only last year transgender children needed to seek the approval of the Family Court to have irreversible surgery.

The APS' stance comes from questions floated by the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute.

They are in the process of reviewing legislation which allows teenagers over 16 to change their gender identity on their birth certificate.

According to the peak psychologist body, mandatory pre-surgery counselling is often 'an unnecessary burden' on the child.

The APS said the child's gender identity had likely already experienced 'considerable medical oversight'.

Parents who disapprove of their children's medical treatment pose a 'significant barrier' for the child, it said.

To overcome this, the body has suggested hospitals should have the right to petition courts as well as 'advocacy' to change the minds of parents.

Further, legal advice should be accessible so the young people can authorise their treatment, it said.

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Transgender children should undergo surgery without parents permission

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Transgender children should be able to have surgery without parents permission Australian Psychological ­Association made the claim in unpublished submission APS says mandatory pre-surgery counselling can be 'an unnecessary burden' Transgender children under the age of 16 should be able to undergo surgery without their parents' permission, according to Australia's top psychologists.

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What if climate breakdown is a violation of the rights of those yet to be born? Finally, this urgent question seems to be getting the attention it deserves. Last month an astonishing 7 million people from nearly 200 countries took to the streets as part of the youth-led global climate strike. Young people around the world recognise that the disastrous repercussions of the already present ecological crisis will fall disproportionately on their shoulders, and the shoulders of generations to come - in particular on those whose communities have emitted the smallest proportion of greenhouse gasses.

Greta Thunberg, whose "school strike for the climate" ignited a movement, often speaks on behalf of those who don't yet exist. Addressing the UN climate action summit in Manhattan on 23 September she denounced the assembled adults for pursuing money over morality and embracing "fairytales of eternal economic growth" instead of facing the facts of hard science. "Young people are starting to understand your betrayal," she said. "The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: we will never forgive you."

That very same day Thunberg and 15 other young people hailing from places such as Tunisia, the Marshall Islands and Brazil, brought a legal complaint about the climate crisis to the UN. "Our rights are being violated by world leaders' inaction," said 14-year-old petitioner Alexandria Villaseñor of New York.

That is precisely what some concerned young people have been arguing in the US court system since 2015, when a group of seven plaintiffs, not yet old enough to vote, filed a lawsuit in the commonwealth court of Pennsylvania against Governor Tom Wolf and various state agencies. The suit argued that the defendants had failed to take necessary action to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases consistent with the commonwealth's obligations as a public trustee. In the legal team's language, the state was failing in its responsibility to "conserve and maintain public natural resources, including the atmosphere, for the benefit of present and future generations".

While the Pennsylvania lawsuit ultimately failed, a similar case filed in Oregon has been wending its way through the legal system with greater success. In Juliana v United States, 21 plaintiffs take aim at the federal government for violation of the constitutional rights not just of their generation but also of future ones. Now aged 11 to 22, they accuse federal officials and oil industry executives of knowingly creating a national energy system that causes climate change, despite decades of evidence that carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels destabilise the environment. Officials did not merely fail to regulate and restrain bad actors, they argue, but actively facilitated their endeavours, thereby violating citizens' constitutional rights to life, liberty and property while also jeopardising essential public resources.

In Juliana, "future generations" are explicitly named, represented through their "guardian", James Hansen, a Nasa scientist and activist, whose granddaughter is part of the suit. The federal government attempted to get the case dismissed on the grounds that the grievances are too broad, but such arguments were rejected. "I have no doubt that the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is fundamental to a free and ordered society," wrote US district judge Ann Aiken. Noting that the case was not about whether or not climate breakdown is real (for the "purposes of this motion, those facts are undisputed"), Aiken added: "Federal courts too often have been cautious and overly deferential in the arena of environmental law and the world has suffered for it." Should the children's lawsuit be allowed to move forward, it will be the first time the federal government has faced allegations in court that its climate policies violate citizens' constitutional rights.

Such efforts may seem quixotic, but these suits are part of a larger trend of climate litigation. Citizens of countries including the UK, New Zealand, Ireland, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, Pakistan, Ukraine, India and Uganda are attempting to use the legal system to force governments to ensure citizens a habitable future, whether by halting oil drilling or cutting emissions. In Colombia, 25 young people aged seven and older are suing on constitutional grounds to stop the continued deforestation of the Amazon. In Portugal, seven children whose home district of Leiria was devastated by forest fires in 2017 are suing the member states of the Council of Europe, accusing them of failing to take necessary action to prevent climate disaster.

Back in the US, municipalities such as New York City, San Francisco and Richmond are suing fossil fuel companies for billions of dollars in damages for suppressing information about the hazards of carbon emissions and impending sea-level rise. Additionally, First Nations communities are invoking treaty rights to prevent the pipeline transport of fossil fuels over unceded indigenous territories. The citizens behind these creative legal campaigns are trying to curb resource exploitation to ensure we leave behind a place that is livable.

Rekha Dhillon-Richardson became one of the plaintiffs in the Pennsylvania lawsuit when she was 15. "The fundamental human rights and futures of children and youth are disproportionately threatened by climate destabilisation, even though we have had little to do with the production of the problem," she told me when I asked what had inspired her to join the suit.

The youth lawsuits and school strikes dramatise a crucial aspect of the threat to democracy posed by climate emergency: the question of intergenerational responsibilities and ethical duties across decades and centuries.

To put it another way: what is the relationship of democracy to time? This question may seem abstract but is actually foundational. We are all born into a world we did not make, subject to customs and conditions established by prior generations, and then we leave a legacy for others to inherit. The project of self-government invariably requires navigating the tension between short- and long-term thinking, our immediate circumstances and what is to come, the present and the future. Nothing illustrates this more profoundly than the problem of climate crisis, which calls into question the very future of a habitable planet.

When individuals like me take multiple flights a year and buy food imported from halfway around the world, we can rest assured that we won't meet the people who will, down the road, be most gravely affected by our carbon-intensive lifestyle. But don't we have democratic obligations to them regardless? If we expect justice from our predecessors, don't we owe this debt to future generations? Right now the world's relatively affluent are on the way to being bad ancestors, the kind who think only of themselves in the here and now.

emocracy's relationship to time will always involve some conflict between the short-term preferences of people in the present and the future interests of our collective descendants. But under certain conditions, this tension may become a recipe for disaster. Extreme inequality, more than any other factor, compounds the temporal antagonism.

Take climate breakdown. On one level, we all have a long-term interest in greenhouse gases being reduced, particularly those who have children or grandchildren they would like to see thrive, or just survive. If the world were a more equitable place, perhaps we could find a relatively painless resolution, because at least the sacrifice demanded of everyone would be more or less the same. As things stand, though, people in wealthy countries appear unprepared to make anything resembling the sort of sacrifice required for climate justice - especially not if citizens of other relatively affluent countries or communities are going to keep the coal fires burning. (And burn they do: coal remains one of the main fuels powering the global economy, with an estimated 1,600 new plants in the works worldwide.)

Citizens of less industrialised countries are already bearing the brunt of this intransigence and the shifting weather patterns that result, despite barely having contributed to global emissions. The concept of "climate debt" has emerged to account for these historical inequities. Some researchers estimate that the US owes developing nations over $4tn for exceeding its carbon allocation. Should people from poor places, in response, feel entitled to burn more carbon to make up for not having consumed anything near their "fair share"? These complexities and countless others make climate breakdown the greatest problem requiring collective action that humanity has ever faced.

It raises core questions about how we ought to organise our societies and distribute the planet's limited resources. Since 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that developed countries must make a radical break with fossil fuels, which means lowering consumption and switching to renewable energy sources while also shifting our diets away from meat and dairy, as animal agriculture is a massive source of emissions. A proposal for curbing emissions from the developed world so that the billion individuals who live without electricity can enjoy its benefits would probably pass in a landslide in a world referendum, but it would likely fail if the vote were limited to people in the wealthiest countries.

Still, an overwhelming majority of people in those affluent countries believe the climate crisis is an urgent threat that must be addressed. Going against the grain, one contingent of citizens, largely disconnected from the repercussions of their actions, sees environmentalism as the real threat and takes solace in denialism. If it is too hard to face the fact that one's way of life will lead to planetary catastrophe, disavowal is a way to alleviate the cognitive dissonance: the experts are untrustworthy, the scientific research an elaborate hoax, the whole thing a conspiracy cooked up by liberals. Denial, though sometimes the result of ignorance, can also be an act of self-protection, a last-ditch defence of social privileges.

We cannot say we were not warned. In an 1847 speech, pioneering conservationist and congressman George Perkins Marsh identified processes that would later be understood as part of the greenhouse effect. His popular 1864 book, Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, reprimanded those who despoil the environment and recommended a course of resource management that would take the needs of future generations into account. "The Earth is fast becoming an unfit home for its noblest inhabitant, and another era of equal human crime and human improvidence ... would reduce it to such a condition of impoverished productiveness, of shattered surface, of climactic excess, as to threaten the depravation, barbarism, and perhaps even extinction of the species," he wrote. "The world cannot afford to wait till the slow and sure progress of exact science has taught it a better economy."

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Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images

A century later, two pioneering climate scientists issued the following statement in a 1957 coauthored paper, bolstering Marsh's case for urgent action with carefully marshalled evidence: "Human beings are now carrying out a large-scale geophysical experiment of a kind that could not have happened in the past nor be reproduced in the future. Within a few centuries we are returning to the atmosphere and oceans the concentrated organic carbon stored in sedimentary rocks over hundreds of millions of years."

This astonishing paragraph touches on the most elemental aspects of the relationship between climate crisis, democracy and time. Fossil fuels (the petrol we pump into our cars, the oil with which we heat our homes, the ingredients that make the plastic bags in which we carry our lunch) are the product of photosynthesis reaching back hundreds of millions of years. They are the past condensed, the geological remains of once-living organisms. Every barrel of oil represents a swathe of land and epoch of life concentrated down to its potent essence.

The discovery of coal seams, the accumulation of past energy, sparked a frenzy of exploitation. "In the abstract, mankind entered into the possession of a capital inheritance more splendid than all the wealth of the Indies," Lewis Mumford observes in his masterwork Technics and Civilization. But like "a drunken heir on a spree", industrialists began burning through humanity's bequest.

This extractive fever had unexpected consequences. Two hundred years after the fact we are finally beginning to comprehend the full implications of burning coal in 19th-century England. The atmospheric transformations we are witnessing are the consequence of human actions of decades or even centuries ago. "Global warming is sun mercilessly projecting a new light on to history," writes historian Andreas Malm. "If we wait some time longer and then demolish the fossil economy in one giant blow, it would still cast a shadow far into the future: emissions slashed to zero, the sea might continue to rise for many hundreds of years." Time motion is all mixed up, boggling the minds of humans who live second by second, day by day. When the awesome power of coal and petroleum was unlocked, who could have predicted that by burning up the past, we would imperil everything to come?

he history of liberal democracy and its intimate companion capitalism is inseparable from the discovery of these incredible energy sources. Coal, gas and oil are power in a double sense: they are mechanical power and social power. Coal enabled the rapid technological innovation that drove the industrial revolution; coal and, later, oil allowed for the concentration of wealth and influence in the hands of the few who controlled the sources and supply chains.

While societies were once dependent on scattered energy resources - wood for fire, human and animal labour (that is, horse power), water and wind - fossil fuels changed the game. Coal turned water into steam, which led to the development of trains, which crisscrossed the country and then the continent. Soon enough, aided and abetted by colonial projects, pipelines and ferries began carrying crude oil from the Middle East to distant locales. Throughout human history, energy had been bound to a specific place and moment; with the discovery of fossil fuel, it could be extracted, transported and stored. Space and time, once natural, inherently local phenomena, became global and abstract.

The way democracies relate to time is key to their effectiveness - we need them to be both fast and slow. Democracy entails careful, unhurried deliberation, a measured, assiduous pace of proceedings. But haste is also required for a quick response to crises. Our current system poses challenges to both speeds. On the one hand, there is never enough time for representatives to fully think things through (which partly explains why politicians lean so heavily on lobbyists, who provide free expertise and cheat sheets on complex issues, biased as their summaries and suggestions may be). On the other hand, elected officials are not generally inclined to make rapid moves, even when catastrophe threatens.

Preoccupied by their limited turn in office and seeking re-election, they have an incentive to pass the buck to whoever occupies their seat next. The court system moves slowly, too. The urgency of climate change demands swift and decisive action, but the delayed consequences mean that most officials have even less reason to act. Why should they sacrifice their careers on the altar of the unborn, who can't vote?

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Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland. 'Oil companies have known about climate change and its risks for decades.' Photograph: George Robertson

Society's sluggish resistance to change is exacerbated by the many obstacles thrown up by vested interests. No oil executive in thrall to the profit motive can leave the liquid money in fossil fuels lying fallow. As environmentalists Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein have demonstrated in detail, the world's largest, most powerful corporations are already in possession of untapped reserves of oil and natural gas that far exceed the limits we must observe if we are to mitigate the oncoming catastrophe. Companies would need to keep those reserves buried underground, in the process forfeiting approximately $20tn in assets. This is a prospect they cannot entertain, because conventional business models are beholden to the bottom line and short-term thinking. Their timescale privileges the present, which is profoundly out of sync with environmental realities and democracy itself. Today, high-frequency trading means stocks are bought and sold within nanoseconds. Capitalism, it seems, lacks the attention span required for survival.

Worse still, the logic of maximising profits prevents adequate investment in renewable energy solutions (while also encouraging outright sabotage of anything that might depress demand for fossil fuels). Though the sun supplies the planet with more energy per hour than humans consume in a year, this abundance is unwelcome to people with substantial investments in the status quo. So after a short and highly publicised burst of enthusiasm for solar energy, the big players quit the business. "We have thrown in the towel on solar," BP representative Bob Dudley told investors in 2013. "Not that solar energy isn't a viable energy source, but we worked at it for 35 years, and we really never made money."

A more decentralised, sustainable energy future is technically possible. But manmade laws, not physical or natural ones, stand in the way. The switch from a fossil fuel economy can happen only if there is massive, coordinated and transformative public investment across a wide array of sectors - a comprehensive proposal recently dubbed the Green New Deal. Companies may be loth to leave gas wells and tar sands untapped, but the state should have no such qualms. The cities and countries that are making strides in renewable energy tend to be places where the government has subsidised innovation, yet the efforts remain far too small. McKibben compares the necessary scale of government investment to the mobilisation of national resources during the second world war. What's required is "a wholesale industrial retooling". McKibben writes, "World War III is well and truly under way, and we are losing."

Oil companies have known about climate change and its risks for decades, although executives hid this news from the public, spending millions to sow confusion and doubt when word finally got out. Now, when the industry concedes the coercive truth of nature's physical laws and acknowledges the impact of greenhouse gases, it promises painless solutions. Geoengineering will save us: carbon will be sucked out of the air, oceans will be fertilised with iron, reflective shields will be shot into space to deflect the sun's rays.

Rex Tillerson, the CEO of Exxon turned Donald Trump's short-lived secretary of state, reluctantly admitted that global warming is real and then brushed it aside. "It's an engineering problem, and there will be an engineering solution," he insists. In the ultimate act of hypocrisy, these industrialists disparage any attempt at public investment as a dangerous revival of the Soviet Bloc style of economic planning. Yet they happily appoint themselves central planners of the climate, the future autocrats of a geoengineered epoch they want us to believe is our only hope.

The fossil fuel and finance industries, alongside the public officials they've bought off, will fight to the death to maintain the status quo, but our economic and political arrangements don't have to function the way they do.

With climate calamity upon us, liberal democracies are in a bind. Capitalism constrains our relationship to the future, sacrificing humanity's wellbeing and the planet's resources on the altar of endless growth while enriching and empowering the global 1%. Meanwhile, in the US, the constitution exacerbates this dynamic, preserving and even intensifying a system of minority rule and lashing the country's citizens to an aristocratic past.

The fact is, we're up against ecological limits, not monetary shortages; we are constrained by a carbon budget not a federal one, and we need to remake our economy to reflect this reality. Ample wealth exists to be reclaimed for collective benefit, and bringing finance under democratic control will mean that money will finally serve people, instead of the other way around. Nationalisation and other forms of community ownership of energy suppliers and infrastructure will be crucial but must also involve genuine public oversight and control. This is the radically democratic, equitable and sustainable vision at the heart of the best and boldest proposals for a Green New Deal.

Thousands of years ago, the Athenian statesman Pericles defined democracy as providing for the many, not the few. Inspired by the young climate strikers and their allies, the challenge ahead involves expanding "the many" to somehow acknowledge and account for future generations, adding a new temporal dimension to our concept of social inclusion.

Towards this end, our democratic movements must be guided by a deceptively simple question: what kind of ancestors do we want to be? With every action or inaction, we help decide how the future will unfold. What principles and commitments do we want to adopt for a democracy that doesn't yet exist? How will we cast our votes for a society we won't live to see?
Democracy May Not Exist But We'll Miss It When It's Gone by Astra Taylor will be published by Verso on 15 October Topics

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Bad ancestors: does the climate crisis violate the rights of those yet to be born?

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What if climate breakdown is a violation of the rights of those yet to be born? Finally, this urgent question seems to be getting the attention it deserves. Last month an astonishing 7 million people from nearly 200 countries took to the streets as part of the youth-led global climate strike.