All posts tagged: teenagers

Google-Backed AI Startup Announces Plans to Stop Grooming Teenagers

Google-Backed AI Startup Announces Plans to Stop Grooming Teenagers

Content warning: this story discusses sexual abuse, self-harm, suicide, eating disorders and other disturbing topics. Earlier this week, Futurism reported that two families in Texas had filed a lawsuit accusing the Google-backed AI chatbot company Character.AI of sexually and emotionally abusing their school-aged children. The plaintiffs alleged that the startup’s chatbots encouraged a teenage boy to cut himself and sexually abused an 11-year-old girl. The troubling accusations highlight the highly problematic content being hosted on Character.AI. Chatbots hosted by the company, we’ve found in previous investigations, have engaged underage users on alarming topics including pedophilia, eating disorders, self-harm, and suicide. Now, seemingly in reaction to the latest lawsuit, the company has promised to prioritize “teen safety.” In a blog post published today, the venture says that it has “rolled out a suite of new safety features across nearly every aspect of our platform, designed especially with teens in mind.” Character.AI is hoping to improve the situation by tweaking its AI models and improving its “detection and intervention systems for human behavior and model responses,” in addition to introducing new parental control …

Maths and English GCSEs are required for A-levels, college and university – so what happens to teenagers who don’t pass?

Maths and English GCSEs are required for A-levels, college and university – so what happens to teenagers who don’t pass?

Each year, around 200,000 pupils in state-funded schools in England do not achieve a grade four or above in both English and Maths GCSE at age 16: about one-third of all students. The Department for Education considers grade four a “standard pass” and grade five a “strong pass”. Grades below this are not considered a fail, but young people who do not achieve these grades often feel like failures. Most sixth forms and sixth form colleges require grade four or above in maths and English to study A-levels or new vocational qualifications such as T-levels. These GCSE grades are also required for entry into most UK universities. These 200,000 young people include those who achieve a pass in maths but not in English and vice versa, so it can include those who, for instance, have a four in English but two in maths. The key thing is that, getting below a four in one of these subjects, even if they pass the other, reduces students’ options after their GCSEs. Among these students are those who …

Smartphones are not the biggest problem facing teenagers | Young people

Smartphones are not the biggest problem facing teenagers | Young people

Lucy Foulkes makes an important point, having interviewed adults about their own past experiences: “adolescence is bewildering to live through” and smartphones are only “one piece of a large and complicated puzzle” (I’m an expert on adolescence: here’s why a smartphone ban isn’t the answer, and what we should do instead, 15 June). I work with teenagers, and they are fed up with the narrative that smartphones and social media are the cause of their mental health issues. It lets us adults off the hook. How much easier it is to blame phones and social media than to acknowledge the harm we do by taking away creative outlets in school such as art, music or sport, and focusing only on targets and rote learning. And how much easier it is not to take responsibility for fixing the other aspects of their lives that bring anxiety: the climate crisis; the lack of affordable housing; the cost of living crisis. Smartphones are a distraction from the real issue facing adolescents – they are fearful for their futures. …

It’s the Tories who broke Britain, but now they want teenagers to pay for it | Gaby Hinsliff

It’s the Tories who broke Britain, but now they want teenagers to pay for it | Gaby Hinsliff

Once upon a time, elections used to be all about kissing babies. But for parents of teenagers, this one has felt more like a smack in the teeth. Last weekend, our children were threatened with compulsory national service, for no obvious reason beyond keeping nostalgic pensioners happy. Now, just in the middle of their GCSE revision, Rishi Sunak is threatening to scrap one in eight degree places. “You don’t have to go to university to succeed in life,” tweeted the prime minister, who to be fair is currently proving that you can go to lots of universities – he has a degree from Oxford and a master’s from Stanford – and still see your career end in failure. The money saved by slashing 130,000 supposedly “Mickey Mouse” places would, he promised, fund 100,000 apprenticeships. Though given the enduring failure to get these off the ground over the past decade, it would be unwise to bin the Ucas form just yet. Meanwhile, the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, called the apprenticeship she did at 16 her “golden …

Teacher ‘planned date night with Ann Summers scratch card to reveal she was pregnant with teenager’s child’ | UK News

Teacher ‘planned date night with Ann Summers scratch card to reveal she was pregnant with teenager’s child’ | UK News

A teacher allegedly planned a “date night” with an “Ann Summers scratch card” and “rose petals” before revealing to one of her alleged teenage victims that she was pregnant with his child, a court has heard. Rebecca Joynes, 30, allegedly took the teenager’s virginity when he was 16, Manchester Crown Court heard, and had sex with him about 30 times before revealing she was expecting their child. Video interviews which boy B gave to the police after the teacher was arrested for a second time were shown to the jury, during which the youngster claims he was reassured he had been “great” after he lost his virginity to Joynes, the court heard. Joynes was already suspended from her high school job and on bail for alleged sexual activity with another schoolboy, boy A, 15, when she allegedly kissed and fondled the second, boy B, after sending him a photo of her bottom wearing just a thong, a jury heard. Joynes denies any sexual activity took place, has pleaded not guilty to six charges of sexual …

The pretty British town where teenagers carry machetes | UK | News

The pretty British town where teenagers carry machetes | UK | News

Residents living in the Somerset town of Bridgwater have warned that they fear for their lives in an area where teenagers are sometimes seen carrying knives. In recent months the situation has escalated to the point where the leader of the town council Brian Smedley has raised the issue with the local town wardens, police, and homeless department. What’s more, locals now say they’re afraid of teenagers between the ages of 14 and 16 and those in gangs who they claim carry machetes. They add that they pose a bigger problem than some of the drinkers who they don’t see as so much of a threat. Speaking to the Sun, manager of The Fountain Pub, Becky Webber, 35, said: “It’s the kids that hang around in gangs that are the main problem. They are in big groups of 14–16-year-olds, and it’s getting worse. “If I had to deal with the drinkers or the young kids I’d pick the drinkers because the young gangs are terrifying. They carry machetes, you see comments on social media, and we …

How do we protect teenagers from sextortion scams? – podcast | News

How do we protect teenagers from sextortion scams? – podcast | News

On the evening of 29 December, 16-year-old Murray Dowey was with his family in their home in Dunblane, Scotland. As they sat together watching TV, Murray talked about saving up money for a summer holiday with his friends. At about 9.30pm, he went up to his bedroom. “That was the last time I saw him alive,” says Ros Dowey, Murray’s mother. That night, he was targeted by a sextortion scammer, and took his own life. “He was duped into thinking he was talking to a young girl and shared an intimate picture with her,” Ros tells the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent, Libby Brooks. “As soon as he did that, it became very clear it wasn’t a young girl he was speaking to, it was criminals in Nigeria who immediately started to extort [him] … and threatening to share the picture with all his contacts.” Murray’s parents, Ros and Mark, are now raising awareness of the crime, in which young men are often targeted. They argue that more needs to be done by social media companies to …

Convicted sex trafficker was employed by charity for vulnerable teenagers | UK | News

Convicted sex trafficker was employed by charity for vulnerable teenagers | UK | News

A Nigerian convicted of trafficking women for prostitution in France was able to get a job at a UK charity that houses vulnerable teenagers, including girls, the Sunday Express can reveal. Peter Omoruyi, 36, was convicted in his absence of four offences of modern slavery and human trafficking in June 2022 and sentenced to six years in prison that he has yet to serve. Just five months after the conviction, Omoruyi got a job as a support worker at charity Streetz Ahead Creative Housing, in Stroud, Gloucestershire. He was able to secure the position thanks to a loophole that means “unregulated care homes” providing housing for older teens are not yet registered with Ofsted and therefore not subject to its stringent conditions such as overseas conviction checks on all staff. Streetz Ahead, which is in the process of registering with Ofsted, provides supported accommodation for boys and girls aged 16 to 18, sometimes from the care system, until they are found permanent homes. Omoruyi was hired by the charity via an agency and he did …

The Guardian view on YA literature: an adventure for teenagers, a comfort blanket for adults | Editorial

The Guardian view on YA literature: an adventure for teenagers, a comfort blanket for adults | Editorial

Childhood has meant many different things over the centuries. The transitional years of adolescence, in particular, have come a long way since they just meant smaller, cheaper, more biddable adults capable of factory work and helping out on family farms. It is only in the last 80 years or so that the teenager has come into existence, as a demographic with whole industries devoted to serving its interests – and mopping up its pocket money. One of those industries was publishing, which responded in the 1960s by developing a market that had been identified by librarians more than two decades earlier: young adult (YA) literature. This highly profitable sub-sector, aimed at filling the gap between childish and grown-up reading, has been around long enough now to offer valuable insights into shifts in social attitudes. So research released last week, which suggested that 74% of YA readers were over 18 years old – and that 28% were over 28 – is worthy of attention. The report puts the continuing appeal of YA down to reading for …