‘Gruesome videos’: social media pushes distressing news to children, experts say

More than half of children who get news from social media are left worried and upset after seeing content that involves war, violence and death, according to new research that found social media companies are “pushing” distressing news to children who are not seeking it.Videos of the murder of Charlie Kirk, the Liverpool parade car-ramming attack, scenes from wars, shootings, stabbings and car crashes have recently been pushed into children’s feeds, research by Internet Matters, an online safety organisation, has found. As a result, 39% of those who saw distressing content described themselves as very or extremely upset and worried by it.More than two-thirds of children are getting news from social media apps including TikTok and Instagram, but 40% do not follow news-focused accounts and are instead coming across stories through recommendation algorithms. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of those who get news from social media have seen a worrying or upsetting story in the past month

English councils to remain poorer than in 2010 despite funding rise, says report

Councils in England will still be poorer by the end of this parliament than they were in 2010 despite Labour’s funding increases, according to analysis by the Institute for Government (IfG).Funding cuts from 2010 to 2019 were so severe that they left gaps that could not be filled even by five years of above-inflation increases, leaving local authorities increasingly reliant on emergency funding and capable of providing only legally mandated services, the report shows.The government increased local authority funding by more than 4% in real terms this year, and has promised an increase of more than 1% above inflation each year for the next three years. However, the IfG report suggests the damage done by years of cuts is so severe that many people will not notice any difference to their local services.Stuart Hoddinott, the author of the report, said: “Most public services struggled when spending was cut during the early 2010s, but few as much as local government

Who’s to blame for the NHS’s blame culture? | Letters

Jeremy Hunt’s article (Here’s the direct effect of our NHS blame culture: babies die. Tragedy after tragedy, it can’t go on, 9 October) will be welcome to many, especially those healthcare professionals who have had to endure the intimidating mistrust and adversarial working culture he describes.What is missing from his account is the seminal role of government’s NHS reforms in creating these problems. In particular, the creation, then proliferation, of commercialised and competing autarkic NHS trusts and outside providers over many years. This has generated a growing culture of corporate defensiveness and reputation anxiety

Charity staff shouldn’t face this abhorrent abuse | Letter

Charities’ struggles to protect their staff and deliver their work in the face of unwarranted attacks and hatred are profoundly worrying (UK charities say toxic immigration rhetoric leading to threats against staff, 13 October). Charities have championed the welfare of those who are vulnerable and ostracised, for centuries. That endeavour is vital not just to our civil society, but to our self-respect as a civilised nation.The Charity Commission will defend and protect the right – and indeed the responsibility – of charities to deliver on their lawful purposes. Over recent weeks, I have met with a wide range of charities, including a group of charities working with refugees and migrants, to hear about the challenges they are facing

Andrew Coates obituary

My father, Andrew Coates, who has died aged 86, had a professional life in three acts: as a technical illustrator in the aviation sector, as a technical adviser to lighthouse keepers and as a teacher.Andrew had been born completely deaf, and so each of those work paths had their challenges. But perhaps his greatest achievements were outside the workplace. In his 20s he became one of the first deaf people in Britain to fly a glider, and he spent countless happy hours on the airfield and in the sky, making 1,500 flights over the next six decades. He also wrote a book, Jane’s World Sailplanes and Motor Gliders, which became a standard reference work in the field

‘Alarming rise’ in mental health stigma in England, research shows

The number of people in England who are frightened of living near people with mental health problems has nearly doubled to one in seven, which experts warn reflects an “alarming rise in stigma”.Even if the mentally ill person had recovered, one in 10 people said they would be unwilling to live next to them, according to new research from the mental health charity Mind.The survey, by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London, found that only 63% of people were comfortable about mental health services operating in their community instead of in psychiatric units, down from 70% in 2015.The figures showed that 14% of people were frightened of those with poor mental health living in their neighbourhoods, up from 8% in 2017, while 16% of people believed mental health services “downgraded” a neighbourhood, up from 10% in 2019.The number of respondents who agreed that being part of a community was the best therapy for people with mental health problems was the lowest since the research was first conducted in 2008, at 68%