Displaying items by tag: teenagers

A 14-year-old girl has sustained serious, potentially life-changing injuries after an acidic substance was thrown at her and another teenager outside Westminster Academy in Westbourne Park, London. The incident, which took place after school hours, also injured a 16-year-old boy and a staff member who attempted to help. The suspect, described as a tall black male riding an e-scooter, fled the scene after the attack. The injured girl remains hospitalised, while the teenage boy's injuries are not life-threatening. The school was closed following the incident, with lessons moved online, and counselling support is being provided to students. The local council has also offered psychological support to the school community. Westminster City Council leader Adam Hug called the attack 'truly shocking': he said that the council would work with police to offer reassurance and assistance during this traumatic time.

Problematic smartphone use is linked to higher rates of anxiety, depression, and insomnia among teenagers, according to recent research. Teens exhibiting problematic use were twice as likely to report anxiety, with 44% of 13 to 16-year-olds and 56% of 16 to 18-year-olds affected, compared to their peers. While problematic use resembles addiction, it impacts a minority of teens. The study distinguished between screen time and problematic use, noting screen time itself was not directly linked to anxiety or depression but was associated with insomnia. The research, conducted between 2020 and 2022, involved over 700 teenagers. Many teens expressed a desire to reduce phone use, with nearly 90% of younger teens and two-thirds of older teens attempting strategies like silencing notifications. Effective strategies include turning off notifications, using 'do not disturb' mode, and keeping phones out of the bedroom at night.

Eating disorders and self-harming have been rising among children and young people for a number of years. Before the pandemic there was a gradual decline in mental health among teenagers and young people, and five children in every classroom had a probable mental disorder. Between 2020 and 2022 around 3,862 thirteen- to sixteen-year-olds had eating disorders. In the same age group, 9,174 cases of self-harm were recorded. During the pandemic, prolonged access to social media, more focus on body image and less face-to-face contact may have led to feelings of low self-esteem and psychological distress, particularly among adolescent girls. Nevertheless, the NHS is currently treating more children and young people than ever before, with healthcare professionals under huge amounts of strain. Tom Quinn, director of external affairs at charity Beat, says there is a postcode lottery for care and everyone needs to get the help they need as quickly as possible.

Abdullah al-Howaiti was 14 years old when he was arrested in 2017 on charges of murder and armed robbery. The Supreme Court had overturned his original conviction last year. He was first sentenced to death in 2019, after he was convicted by a court in Tabuk province of shooting dead a policeman while robbing a jewellery shop. Five other defendants were handed 15-year prison terms for allegedly aiding and abetting the crimes. All six had pleaded not guilty, telling the judge that interrogators coerced their ‘confessions’ through torture or the threat of it. The judge also ignored CCTV footage showing that Howaiti was not near the jewellers’ shop at the time of the crime. The court of appeal in Tabuk upheld the conviction in January 2021, but the Supreme Court threw it out in November and ordered a retrial.

Ioannis Dekas, a father of four sons, became concerned after he found one of his boys had accessed pornography. He said this was a wake-up call for him and his wife, making them confront the potential danger to their son and the impact on them all as a family. Mr Dekas wants the government to put in place the age verification requirements set out in part three of the Digital Economy Act - a law that was passed in 2017 but not acted on. Mr Dekas is seeking a High Court hearing to consider whether the government should tighten youngsters' access to pornography. He wants the government to implement proof of age in order to gain access. New research suggests the majority of 16- and 17-year-olds in the UK have recently seen porn. The government is currently preparing a new Online Harms Bill, which is expected to be put before Parliament later this year.

Twelve girls from southern England were in an Instagram chat group whose name refers to suicide. The group was discovered when three of the girls were found seriously unwell in a street and taken by ambulance to hospital for emergency treatment. One of the girls mentioned they had met online and discussed suicide. Police examined digital devices and found the group’s other members. Seven of the girls had self-harmed before being traced by the police. Children's social care services from seven different local authorities are involved in safeguarding members of the group. In November Instagram launched technology to recognise self-harm and suicide images and words in content on its app in the UK and Europe. Sadly, Instagram said it found no suicide or self-harm related content in this group. The police said that peer-to-peer influence increased suicidal tendencies amongst the children involved, to the extent that several escalated to suicidal crises and serious self-harm.

Among 17-year-olds in the UK, one in ten will have used hard drugs, such as ketamine and cocaine, a study by the University College London suggests. Nearly a third of 17-year-olds had tried cannabis and more than half admitted to binge-drinking alcohol. Almost 20,000 young people, born between 2000 and 2002, were surveyed as part of the Millennium Cohort Study. Drug-use rates were higher among white teens than black teens. A quarter of 17-year-olds had assaulted someone, including shoving, slapping or punching, over the previous 12 months. Levels of vandalism and weapon use were similar to when they were 14 but shoplifting rose from 4% in early adolescence to 7% a few years later. It remains to be seen how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected engagement in these behaviours.

In 2007, we launched a campaign called, Pray With Youth™. We believed God would bless this simple call-to-action to connect teens and adults in prayer to help young people discover their identity in Christ. And we were right...600,000 have participated. That's huge!

As we consider the spiritual crisis across the world, has there ever been a greater need to pray? And while we implore people to pray for our youth, we know that praying WITH them is better.

The 2019 Pray With Youth campaign will be observed on Sunday, September 22.

You will not see a massive marketing campaign for Pray With Youth. No popular spokesperson. No line-up of Christian bands. No huge media blitz. While that may work well, for others, that strategy has never been done in the last 12 years. This campaign has grown exponentially through grassroots efforts and word of mouth. And you can help keep the momentum going to help us reach 100,000 churches and 1,000,000 teens.

SO, HERE'S WHAT I AM ASKING FROM YOU TODAY:

1. Go to the Website
2. Read the Declaration
3. Register to Participate

Completing these steps will only take you 15 minutes. But your support to stand with us in this cause and spread the word to others will accomplish more than you can imagine!

Timothy Eldred

P.O. Box 601, Edmore, MI 48829

There is nothing more important your church can do for teens now. Nothing. Pray with youth. Change your church’s future.

A US study found that teenage suicide rates increased after the release of a Netflix drama called ‘13 Reasons Why' - a story of a high-school girl who kills herself. Researchers estimated an additional 195 suicide deaths among 10- to 17-year-olds in the nine months after its release, an increase of 29%. The additional deaths mainly affected boys. In New Zealand recently hundreds marched to Parliament for teen suicide awareness because the government has not done enough to stem the trend. The marchers pushed through barriers set up at Parliament to place photos of their loved ones at the top of the steps. They then sang a waiata (a traditional Māori song) as hundreds more watched and filmed. In England, Rachael Warburton said her 12-year-old daughter, Jessica, left a suicide note with six reasons to kill herself after watching a Netflix show. See:  and

The murders of two 17-year-olds in one weekend have catapulted knife crime back into news headlines. Jodie Chesney’s death stands out because she is the first girl out of ten teenagers who have been killed by knives so far this year. While most victims of murders know their assailant, reports suggest Jodie was stabbed in the back by a stranger in a London park, in a ‘random and unprovoked attack’. Last weekend’s other victim, Yousef Ghaleb Makki, was killed in an affluent Manchester suburb. He attended a private school, and was planning to train as a heart surgeon. These two deaths show that knife violence involving teenagers is not, as is sometimes suggested, a problem confined to boys on tough estates. The homicide rate and the number of teenagers killed with knives in England and Wales is at its highest for a decade.