Body scanner at Manchester Airport

The full-body scanners are up to 10 times more expensive than the usual metal detectors, which cost up to $15,000 (£9,400) Photo: AFP/Getty Images

The full body scanners being introduced to Britain’s airports risk breaking child protection laws against making indecent images of children, campaign groups have claimed.

Telegraph | Jan 5, 2010

By Heidi Blake

Airport staff member demonstrating a full body scan at Manchester Airport in Manchester, north-west England: Passenger profiling needed as well as scanners, airlines chief warns

The pictures created by the scanners are so graphic they are tantamount to “virtual strip searching”, according to privacy campaigners who oppose the use of the security devices.

Ministers may be forced to consider making under-18s exempt from the scans and civil liberties campaigners are demanding measures to ensure the images, which will include those of celebrities, are not leaked onto the internet.

Airport officials say the images from the £80,000 scanners are only seen by a single security officer in a remote location before it is deleted.

But a 12-month trial at Manchester airport of scanners which reveal naked images of passengers only went ahead last month after children were exempted.

The decision came after Terri Dowty, of Action for Rights of Children, gave warning that the scanners could breach the Protection of Children Act 1978, under which it is illegal to create an indecent image or a “pseudo-image” of a child.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport told The Guardian: “We understand the concerns expressed about privacy in relation to the deployment of body scanners. It is vital staff are properly trained and we are developing a code of practice to ensure these concerns are properly taken into account.

Gordon Brown gave the go-ahead at the weekend for the scanners to be rolled out across all Britain’s major airports, and said travellers would see the gradual introduction of full-body scans and hand luggage checks for traces of explosives.

The Prime Minister told the BBC that the Government would do everything in its power to tighten security following the attempt by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate a bomb on a plane bound for the USA on Christmas Day.

BAA, which runs six UK airports, said it would now install the devices “as soon as is practical” at Heathrow.

A spokesman said: “It is our view that a combination of technology, intelligences and passenger profiling will help build a more robust defence against the unpredictable and changing nature of the terrorist threat to aviation.”

But he added that nothing had yet been decided on exactly which passengers would undergo the full body scans, and declined to comment on how soon BAA would be extending the use of scanners to other airports.

Children from middle-class families are not learning to talk properly because they no longer interact with their working parents, according to the Government’s new ‘communication champion’.

Telegraph | Jan 1, 2010

By Chris Irvine

Jean Gross, a former education psychologist set to take up the position next month, claims that because of working parents, children are subjected to second rate childcare, as well as lose out on traditional social interaction of family mealtimes and bedtime stories.

Mrs Gross, who is set to publish research showing how difficulties in learning to talk are an issue with all social classes, said half of children in some areas were starting school unable to form sentences together. In some cases, she says, she has seen native English speakers struggle as much as “a child who has Bengali as their first language”.

“All of us are so busy. Some middle-class families don’t sit down and eat with their children”, she said.

“Adults lead increasingly busy lives and many are not able to spend as much time talking to their children as generations before.

“Our brains have not evolved to learn from machines. Babies are primed to respond to a face, and to recognise their parents’ faces.”

Although Mrs Gross said she understood the “realities” of modern parenting, she said: “I still think parents staying home and looking after their own children is ideal, or making sure a grandparent or trusted person will give a child that one-to-one intense development of language.

“But it’s more to do with the quality of the setting than the structure.”

Daily Mail | Jan 1, 2010

By Laura Clark

Middle-class children are struggling to learn how to talk because working parents are unable to offer them the quality time which is crucial to their speech development, a key government adviser has warned.

They are often left in second rate childcare and no longer benefit from the social interaction of family mealtimes and bedtime stories, according to Jean Gross, the first ‘communication champion’.

Parents should avoid daycare for under-twos unless it has well-trained staff who offer plenty of one-to-one attention, she said.

Children tend to do best when looked after by their mothers or another trusted adult, she added, and those placed in centres which neglect early education may suffer delayed speech development.

A further impediment was the trend for youngsters to spend time in front of ‘machines’ such as TVs and computers instead of interacting with adults.

Mrs Gross, a former educational psychologist who will take up her new position next month, spoke as assessments of five-year-olds revealed 18 per cent – more than 100,000 – have fallen behind the expected level of speech development for their age.

She said 50 per cent of youngsters in some areas are starting formal schooling unable to link words together or even understand simple instructions.

In many middle-class homes, busy parents often struggled to find time to read bedtime stories or eat with their children, she warned.

Mrs Gross, who is preparing to publish research showing how difficulties in learning to talk span all social classes, said: ‘All of us are so busy. Some middle-class families don’t sit down and eat with their children.

‘Adults lead increasingly busy lives and many are not able to spend as much time talking to their children as generations before.

‘Our brains have not evolved to learn from machines. Babies are primed to respond to a face, and to recognise their parents’ faces.’

In other cases, families were reliant on childcare that appeared to be good quality but in fact concentrated on ensuring nappies were changed regularly and children were feeding, while failing to promote language development.

‘I still think parents staying home and looking after their own children is ideal, or making sure a grandparent or trusted person will give a child that one-to-one intense development of language,’ she said.

‘But it’s more to do with the quality of the setting than the structure.’

She said she understood the ‘realities’ of modern parenting meant many mothers could not afford to stay at home because of hefty mortgages and the cost of raising a family.

But parents should instead seek childcare with as much one-to-one interaction as possible.

Mrs Gross also emphasised some children had speech difficulties despite growing up in supportive homes with high levels of exposure to language.

These children needed more support from local authorities to overcome their special needs.

Mrs Gross said many white British pupils are like foreigners in the classroom.

‘I see children who are just as adrift as a child who has Bengali as their first language,’ she said.

‘There are children who are said to be native English speakers but they are not, their language is so restricted.’

Results far higher than previous estimates

Autism higher among boys, whites

Reuters | Dec 18, 2009

By JoAnne Allen

WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Autism, a brain disorder that interferes with communication and social skills, affected an estimated one in 110 American 8-year-olds in 2006, according to a federal study released on Friday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at the medical diagnoses of 307,790 children who were age 8 in 2006. They found 2,757, or 0.9 percent, had been diagnosed with autism.

The CDC team found that autism cases were four to five times higher among boys than girls, with 1 in 70 boys and 1 in 315 girls identified.

The overall ratio is far higher than previous estimates that the incurable family of conditions affected 1 in 150 U.S. children. A few decades ago autism was thought to be rare.

The average increase since 2002 for boys was 60 percent while the average increase for girls was 48 percent, the study said.

The CDC also found autism was far more common among non-Hispanic white children, but found increases in autism among all racial groups included in the review.

Researchers reported a 55 percent increase in autism for white children, 41 for black children and 90 percent among Hispanic children. Estimates of increases for Asian/Pacific Islander children ranged from 1.0 percent to 16.2 percent, the CDC said.

The CDC’s Catherine Rice, who led the study, said there was no single factor behind the rising numbers of the brain disease.

“Some of the increases are due to better detection, particularly among children who may not have come to attention in the past — including girls, Hispanic children and children without cognitive impairment,” Rice told reporters.

But she said something may be happening to make autism more common as well.

The researchers said most children with autism showed symptoms before age three, but identification is often not made until later. The CDC study found the average age of diagnosis was 4-1/2 years.

The study analyzed data collected from 11 Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network sites — in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.

There is no cure for autism, a spectrum of diseases ranging from severe and profound inability to communicate and mental retardation to relatively mild symptoms. But experts believe intensive, early treatment can help many children with the disorder.

“Before the 1980s, the term ‘autism’ was used primarily to refer to autistic disorder and was thought to be rare, affecting approximately one in every 2,000 children,” the researchers wrote.

Parents and advocates have been alarmed by the rise in numbers since then, although some of the increase could be attributed to changes in diagnosis and classification.

The advocacy group Autism Speaks called on the U.S. government to step up its efforts to develop treatments.

“We need meaningful action now that acknowledges the scope of this problem and allocates the resources necessary to take the fight against autism to a new level,” co-founder Bob Wright said in a statement.

Autism research is due for a large infusion of money from President Barack Obama’s $5 billion plan to boost U.S. medical and scientific research.

“There’s a multi-pronged approach going on because we know that there is no single cause for autism. We’re not going to find the one answer,” the CDC’s Rice said.

Autism researchers are looking at a broad range of potential environmental factors, including household products, medical treatments, diet, food supplements and infections. Some recent studies have found strong evidence of several genetic causes for autism.

Pfizer Inc (PFE.N), the world’s largest drugmaker, announced in July that it has begun developing treatments for autism.

Palm Beach Post  | Dec 18, 2009

By Stacey Singer

One in every 100 children in the United States may have some form of autism spectrum disorder, far more than previously believed, and the rate appears to be worsening quickly, especially among boys, new figures from the CDC show.

Researchers with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at the 2006 medical and school records of 308,000 children in 11 communities, including Miami. They found rates of autism much higher than a similar study done in 2002, said Catherine Rice, of the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.

The 2000 data had suggested one in 150 children were affected.

It was a stunning run-up of 59 percent in four years, and the increase could not be explained just by better awareness or an expanded diagnosis, researchers found. The findings were published Friday in the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The findings should be treated as a national emergency, autism activists said.

“We are at a crossroads here,” said Palm Beach resident Bob Wright, founder of the nonprofit foundation Autism Speaks. “We need an integrated governmental approach to deal with the environment and genetics and treatment and diagnosis and ongoing life needs of these children.”

The former vice chairman of General Electric and longtime CEO of TV network NBC and NBC Universal, Wright and his wife, Suzanne, started the nonprofit after their grandson Christian regressed into profound autism.

“Our grandson spoke beautifully at age 2, and then over 120 days he lost it all,” Suzanne Wright said. “My little guy was speaking up a storm, and then little by little he lost everything.”

Autism spectrum disorders are really a group of developmental problems that affect the brain. They leave children unable to learn, think, communicate and interact like their peers. While some function relatively well, like those with Asperger’s syndrome, others, like the Wrights’ grandson, sink into profound disability, unable to speak, and trapped in repetitive movements.

The Wrights have spent long hours wondering what could have sent their grandson into the darkness. Was it a vaccine? His strep throat infection? Something he was eating or breathing?

The study released Friday addressed only the prevalence of autism, not its possible causes, Rice said. But a major research effort is under way to find the causes, and better treatments. The National Institutes of Health put $60 million in economic stimulus money toward the effort in April.

At The Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, neuroscientist Dr. Claes Wahlestedt is studying the genetics of Fragile X syndrome, which is often accompanied by autism.

“The dilemma with autism is that they are probably a bunch of different disorders. As we understand more, we will be able to subdivide the disease, and that will lead to better treatments down the line,” Wahlestedt said. “What it is in the environment that is changing so dramatically I cannot understand. But the genetics are arguably little changed.”

Autism is seen more often in the offspring of older parents, whose sperm and eggs accrue more genetic damage. It also tends to run in twins, giving weight to the argument that genetics are the main culprit. But evidence also argues for an environmental trigger.

Research has ruled out vaccinations, said Dr. Jeff Brosco, a professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Miami . Further research is focusing on pollution, diet, food additives, vitamin D deficiency, nutritional supplements, household chemicals, cosmetics and more.

“We really still don’t understand why some children get autism and some don’t,” Brosco said. “There are something like 80,000 chemicals in our environment and we have good information on 400 or 500.”

The study found a large variation in rates of the disorder. The highest rates were in Arizona and Missouri, where 12 children per 1,000 were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The lowest were in Miami-Dade County, where 4.2 children per 1,000 were diagnosed.

Rice said that researchers had to go by medical records alone in Florida and some other communities. “We think the sites on the lower end are an underestimate,” Rice said.

In Palm Beach County, 1,405 people are known to have an autism diagnosis, and all but 200 of those are under age 21, said Pam Minelli, the parent of a 12-year-old autistic son. She’s involved with the Autism Project of Palm Beach County, which is raising money for a charter school campus for autistic children.

Minelli and her husband helped build up two charter schools for autistic children, the Renaissance Learning Center, which educates 64 children ages 3 to 14, and a new high school, the Renaissance Learning Academy, which serves 22 kids ages 14 to 21. Both are on Corporate Drive in West Palm Beach.

“We have 47 kids on the waiting list,” Minelli said. She’s now hoping to raise enough money to build an expanded campus able to support 300 autistic kids.

“With the CDC numbers, I am afraid we are going to have no problem filling those slots,” Minelli said.

Each South Callaway school bus will have three digital cameras installed to monitor student and driver activity.

Big Brother To Keep Students Safer

KOMU | Dec 11, 2009

Reported by: Megan Granger

SPOKANE – Bus drivers in the South Callaway School District will get some help keeping an eye on students come March.

The school board unanimously voted to install three security cameras in each of the district’s 23 buses. Together, the tiny digital cameras will capture every action that goes on inside.

“It’s got aspects to it so that we can be viewing the camera in the back and yet listening to what the kids are saying in the front,” director of transportation Donnie DeBrodie said. “It shows the entire driver. That’s what we’re looking at.”

Right now, the district is testing the system in one bus – Bus 9. One camera, just to the left of the drivers seat, will monitor students getting on and off, as well as the driver’s actions. The two other cameras stationed in the front and back will see everything that goes on in the seats.

“If I get a phone call that a bus is speeding, we can look at that film. Any damage to the seats, [we'll go back to the cameras for] such things as that,” DeBrodie said.

Drivers can press a button to mark footage if a conflict happens, which makes the incident more easy for the school district to find and view. That footage will also connect to a GPS system that tracks where the bus travels and what happens in it along the route.

The new cameras will save footage for three weeks, whereas the old single-camera VHS system deleted tape after six hours.

“Student safety and security is No. 1. We’re all about students. We realized our security system on our buses was obsolete, and in many cases they failed,” superintendent Mary Lynn Battles said.

“We’ve always had cameras on our school buses. It was the VHS system,” DeBrodie said. “What we’re doing with this is we’re simply upgrading to a digital system. For safety, for training, it’s just a better system all around.”

It will cost $52,981 to equip all 23 of the district’s buses.

“We have normally in the past several years replaced two or three buses. This year, we’re replacing one bus, and the additional savings will go to support the security system,” Battles said. “This system places our kids in a safer environment.”

Terror ‘grooming’ watch on nurseries as police fear children as young as FOUR are being radicalised

Daily Mail | Dec 12, 2009

By Rebecca Camber

Children as young as four are being monitored by terror police who fear they could be brainwashed by Islamic extremists.

Concerns that they could be radicalised has prompted officers to visit nurseries and primary schools, a leaked police memo has revealed.

West Midlands counter-terrorism police e-mailed community groups suggesting children could be targets for terrorist recruiters.

An officer wrote: ‘I do hope that you will tell me about persons, of whatever age, you think may have been radicalised or be vulnerable to radicalisation… Evidence suggests that radicalisation can take place from the age of four.’

Arun Kundnani, of the Institute of Race Relations, later contacted the officer, who said it was ’standard’ and ‘ necessary’ to visit nurseries.

He told a newspaper: ‘The officer said it wasn’t just him or his unit that was doing it.

‘He said the indicators were children might draw pictures of bombs and say things like “all Christians are bad” or that they believe in an Islamic state.’

The revelation comes as Home Office figures show a seven-year-old is the youngest child to feature in a scheme to tackle grooming by extremists.

The child was one of 228 people referred to the Channel Project, part of Prevent, the Government’s flagship strategy to stop young people becoming terrorists.

More than 90 per cent of those identified are between 15 and 24 and most are Muslim.

The programme, funded from the £3.5billion per year security budget, has been dogged by controversy over its aims and claims by some Muslims they are being spied on.

Yesterday Sir Norman Bettison, who speaks for the Association of Chief Police Officers on Prevent, said the e-mail was a ‘clumsy’ attempt to explain the Government’s strategy.

The Chief Constable of West Yorkshire added: ‘There is no example of police engaging with nursery-age kids specifically on this issue. That is the age for learning about “stranger danger” and “The Tufty Club”.’

Anil Patani, Assistant Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, confirmed his officers had visited a nursery school attached to a primary school to speak to staff.

‘No children were spoken to during the visit and this certainly does not constitute a policy of monitoring,’ he said.

The e-mail was sent to community contacts in response to concerns some had raised over a newspaper article about Prevent, he added.

But critics say there is a risk of alienating people if counter-terrorism officers visit schools and nurseries.

Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat spokesman, said: ‘This is an absurd waste of police time and risks putting off the very communities that we rely upon to provide intelligence about terror suspects and to come forward as witnesses in trials.’

There have been fears about radicalisation in and around Birmingham since a terrorist was caught on tape indoctrinating his five-year-old son.

Parviz Khan, who was jailed last year for plotting to kidnap and behead a British soldier, threatened the boy with a beating if he did not say he loved Osama bin Laden.

The head of a Manitoba child-welfare agency that has been plagued with child deaths in recent years has been suspended pending a review of his operation.

Head of beleaguered Manitoba child-welfare agency suspended

Winnipeg Free Press | Dec 5, 2009

By Mary Agnes Welch

WINNIPEG — The head of a Manitoba child-welfare agency that has been plagued with child deaths in recent years has been suspended pending a review of his operation.

David Monias, the longtime executive director of the Awasis Agency, was placed on administrative leave a week ago by the Northern Authority, which is more than a year into a systemic review of how the child-welfare agency serves kids in care.

“This is done while a quality assurance review of the agency is underway,” said Rachel Morgan, a spokeswoman for Manitoba Family Services Minister Gord Mackintosh. “The Northern Authority wanted to ensure the review was unbiased.”

The Northern Authority, the umbrella office that overseas several child-welfare agencies such as Awasis, appointed its own administrator under provisions of provincial legislation. Those provisions allow the Northern Authority to suspend an executive director if he is not properly carrying out his responsibilities or if the health and safety of children are threatened.

Despite five calls to the Northern Authority, chief executive officer Marie Lands could not be reached, so it’s unclear exactly why Monias has been placed on leave.

Monias has been the agency’s head for nine years.

Awasis is one of the Manitoba’s biggest aboriginal child-welfare agencies, serving a dozen of the province’s poorest and most remote communities.

In the last year, Awasis has been plagued by a series of child deaths.

Last November, 13-month-old Cameron Ouskan died while in foster care in Gillam, Man. His foster father is charged with second-degree murder.

Earlier that fall, Rephanniah Redhead, 14, committed suicide in Shamattawa and five-year-old Farron Miles drowned about two kilometres from his foster home on Cross Lake First Nation.

The troubles at Awasis date back even farther. A 2004 inquest into the abuse, sexual assault and suicide of a Shamattawa teen came down hard on the agency for sending her back into the care of a stepfather just released from jail for sexually abusing her.

More than a year ago, the province launched a “quality assurance” review of Awasis. Normally, reviews are triggered by a child death or management misdeeds, but the province also started systematic quality-assurance reviews of each of the aboriginal agencies to find problems. Awasis was first on the list, in part because of frequent rumblings of troubles at the agency.

The report was due last month.

As of the end of March, Awasis had 604 children in care.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

Daily Mail | Dec 3, 2009

By Chris Brooke

Heartbroken: Lisa Hessey was told she would have her parental rights taken away in court if she opposed a decision to place Zak in care

Like many toddlers, Zak Hessey was a fussy eater who refused his mother’s healthy home cooking.

Concerned about his falling weight, his parents sought the advice of doctors. That simple act triggered a shocking chain of events that led to the youngster being put into foster care for four months.

Paul and Lisa Hessey believe in the long-term benefits of healthy eating and rejected advice to feed their two-year-old son high-calorie snack food such as chocolate, crisps and cakes.

To their horror, social workers put Zak into foster care ‘to assess his needs’ and allegedly threatened the couple with the loss of their parental rights if they fought the decision in court.

‘I was absolutely devastated, I broke down in tears,’ recalled Mrs Hessey, 48. ‘I was scared out of my wits. I phoned Paul to tell him and he just broke down on the phone.’

But they went to court and, after four months, Zak returned home with the blessing of social services, who accepted he had good and caring parents.

Zak is now putting on some weight, but his eating problems were not cured by his time in the care of ‘experts’ and, much to the annoyance of his parents, he has acquired a taste for junk food.

Mrs Hessey, of Bolsover, near Chesterfield, said: ‘I thought I was doing the right thing going to the best people for advice when Zak began to lose weight.

‘Instead they basically accused me of neglecting him and implied it was all my fault. I have four other children and they are perfectly healthy, it was just that Zak was refusing food for some reason. They said I should just feed Zak chocolate, cakes and junk food just to get calories into him. But I objected, saying that was only a short-term answer and not a proper solution.

‘The Government and doctors are always drumming into parents the importance of healthy eating – yet they were telling us to feed Zak all the wrong things.

‘That is obviously what they were doing when he was in foster care so now it is hard to get him to eat anything else.’

Mrs Hessey and her 48-year-old husband, a lorry driver, took Zak to see a paediatrician at Chesterfield Royal Hospital in July. He was 20 months old and weighed 1st 3lb.

Mrs Hessey, whose four other children are under ten, said she was happy for Zak to be admitted for a two-week hospital assessment and was hit by a thunderbolt when she went to collect him on July 24.

She was taken into a room with a nurse and social worker who apparently told her: ‘We would like Zak to go into foster care to assess how he feeds. You have legal rights but be warned if you oppose this we will go straight to court and have all your parental rights taken away.’

Mrs Hessey said: ‘They kept saying, “If you love Zak and you want the best for him then you’ll agree to this”. They said we had been negative about eating. That was because they had been telling us we should feed Zak crisps, chocolate and cakes to get calories into him.

‘I was questioning that approach. We eat proper home-made food at our house and just have chocolate and cakes as a treat.’

She agreed to Zak going into care after hearing to the possible repercussions if she objected. Initially she and her husband couldn’t see Zak for six days.

After hiring a solicitor, they were allowed three hours a day with him during the week in the company of a social worker.

The first hearing before the family court in Derby was on September 2 and the case was adjourned for two weeks. Interim care orders were imposed and Zak returned home following a third court hearing on November 18. By this stage social workers had lifted their objections – and he had put on only 1lb.

Mrs Hessey said: ‘Social services did a complete about turn. They admitted that in foster care Zak was exactly the same with his food as he was at home.

‘They said we were very good parents. I still find it hard to come to terms with how we have been treated.’ Derbyshire County Council said: ‘We only take a child into our care either with the consent of the parents or following very careful consideration by a court.’

A spokesman for Chesterfield Royal Hospital said: ‘While we understand Mr and Mrs Hessey’s distress, Zak’s welfare was paramount and we believe we acted in his best interest.’

Irish Independent | Nov 28, 2009

By John Cooney

Pope Benedict XVI has stayed silent over the devastating Dublin diocese abuse report more than 24 hours after publication of its sordid revelations that have shocked Mass-going Catholics and couples with young families.

On Thursday, hours after the release of the chilling report, the Vatican chief spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, said issues such as abuse scandals were handled by the local Church rather than by the Holy See.

But last night the Pope’s representative in Ireland gave an assurance to the Irish public that Pope Benedict was committed to rooting paedophile priests from the ranks of the Irish clergy.

Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, told the Irish Independent that Pope Benedict had told all the Irish bishops during their meeting with him in Rome after the Ferns report of his abhorrence of child sexual abuse.

Scourge

The Pope had instructed the Irish bishops, headed by Cardinal Sean Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, to make every effort to cleanse the Irish church of the scourge of priestly paedophilia.

The Dublin commission’s report revealed that two letters seeking information from the Nuncio had not been answered, and that a similar request to the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had told the Department of Foreign Affairs that the commission should use normal diplomatic channels.

But the commission’s chairperson, Judge Yvonne Murphy, said that the commission was independent of the Government, and that she did not avail of the diplomatic post between the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Vatican.

Asked for a specific comment on this reference to the Nunciature and the congregation, a spokeswoman for Archbishop Leanza said: “It is not the practice of a Nuncio to comment in public on Church-State relations in the country in which he is working on behalf of the Holy Father.”