Tonight: Who’d be a teacher?
When we’re all feeling the pinch are teachers right to feel hard done by? Isn’t teaching still a secure cushy number?
Why are retailers rationing baby milk?
As it reaches a premium price in China supermarkets here are rationing baby milk powder to two cans per customer.
Why raising a child has never been so expensive
A report shows parents spending 58% more compared with ten years ago.
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'Correlation' between viewing porn and sex offences
Sue Berelowitz, Deputy Children's Commissioner told ITV's Daybreak that is it clear there is a "correlation" between children who witness violent images and children who carry out violent acts.
But she said it is not clear "which is the chicken and which is the egg".
She said: "Clearly children are influenced by what they see, so the evidence from this report is that when children view extreme and violent images, it is affecting their thresholds around risky behaviours."
Parents want help educating children about porn
A survey conducted by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) recently found that many parents believe schools should teach children about the dangers of pornography as soon as they are old enough to use the internet.
The poll revealed that the majority of parents do not want it to be left to them alone to educate their youngsters about the controversial issue, and a large proportion think that pupils as young as five or six should be given lessons on the subject.
Dr Miranda Horvath, senior lecturer, Middlesex University, which led today's review of academic evidence, said:
It is clear that children and young people want and need safe spaces in which they can ask questions about, and discuss their experiences with pornography.
The onus must be on adults to provide them with evidence-based education and support and help them to develop healthy, not harmful relationships with one another.
When pornography is discussed, it is often between groups of people with polarised moral views on the subject. Rather than adopting a particular ideological stance, this report uses evidence-based research to draw its conclusions and further the debate.
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Access to porn can lead children to 'risky behaviour'
The report found young people with access to pornography can lead to engaging in "risky behaviours."
These included sex at a younger age, unprotected anal sex and the use of drugs and alcohol during sex.
The report also highlighted the influence of porn on children's sexual beliefs, leading to young people developing unrealistic attitudes about sex, bad attitudes towards relationships and beliefs that women are sex objects.
A "significant proportion" of children are exposed to or access pornography, which can occur both online and offline, the report said.
'A generation of young people raised on pornography'
The Office of the Children's Commissioner has called for urgent action to "develop children's resilience to pornography" after discovering that a "significant" number of them have access to sexually explicit images.
We are living at a time when violent and sadistic imagery is readily available to very young children, even if they do not go searching for it, their friends may show it to them or they may stumble on it while using the internet.
– Maggie Atkinson, Children's Commissioner for EnglandFor years we have applied age restrictions to films at the cinema but now we are permitting access to far more troubling imagery via the internet. It is a risky experiment to allow a generation of young people to be raised on a diet of pornography.
Warning over children accessing online pornography
Children who access pornography are more likely to have sex at a younger age and engage in "risky behaviours", a report by the Office of the Children's Commissioner has warned.
The report found that access to porn can lead to young people engaging in "risky behaviours" such as sex at a younger age, unprotected anal sex and the use of drugs and alcohol during sex.
It also said that access to porn can influence children's sexual beliefs, developing unrealistic attitudes about sex, bad attitudes towards relationships and beliefs that women are sex objects.
178,000 children providing care for loved ones
New census figures released today show that a total of 177,918 children and young people are carers for their loved ones, with 15,728 providing more than 50 hours of care a week and 19,422 between 20 and 49 hours.
Nearly 10,000 children aged five to seven are providing unpaid care for their family members or guardians.
The figures, compiled from the 2011 Census, indicate that of the 9,985 five to seven-year-olds providing care, 1,642 are doing so for more than 50 hours a week, with 1,166 for between 20 and 49 hours.
Youngsters aged 10 to 14 make up the largest group of care providers, with 72,266 providing unpaid care.
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Courts triumph 'tinged with devastation'
The parents of two 17-year-olds, Joe Lawton and Edward Thornber, who killed themselves after getting into trouble with police, were also at the court for the ruling.
Joe's parents, Nick and Jane Lawton, from Disley, Cheshire, say that their son would "still be here today" if he had received their support when he was taken into custody for drink driving.
– Jane LawtonWe are obviously very pleased with the ruling. We knew right from the first moment that if we had been there it could have all been very different.
We are so pleased, but it is also tinged with such sadness and devastation.
Edward's mother Ann Thornber, from Manchester, also holding a photograph of her son, said:
It's just so difficult. Obviously we are delighted that some good has come out of it, but it's not going to bring Joe or Edward back.
If it can stop another family going through the devastation we have been through, there has to be something positive.
The tragedy is that Edward and Joe would still be here today if the law had been changed in 2010 but it never happened and now we are suffering the consequences of that.
Why are retailers rationing baby milk?
As it reaches a premium price in China supermarkets here are rationing baby milk powder to two cans per customer.
Read the full storyParents urged to protect children from measles after epidemic
Parents are being urged to use the Easter break to arrange potentially life-saving measles protection for their children.A measles epidemic centred on Swansea has underlined the need for protection.
There is increasing concern that pleas for thousands of unvaccinated children to be given the MMR jab are not being acted on.
Health experts in Wales warn that take-up the jab is far too slow, putting lives at risk at the height of an epidemic.Public Health Wales (PHW) warned this week that measles was spreading "at an alarming rate".
Childcare for £300,000-a-year families 'too high'
Mumsnet co-founder Justine Roberts' response to the Government's announcement of future financial help for working parents is "thank God they're doing something".
But she questioned whether parents who earn just under £300,000 should be given extra money by the state.
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