In a recent post on our blog, we wrote about risk. It was our contention that, in the main, young people aren’t exposed to it enough. It’s far better, our argument goes, to climb a tree (and risk falling out) than it is to spend days on end glued to a screen, watching the TV,...Read More

Let us be clear about this right from the start. Our intention is not to criticise, to denigrate or to find fault. There has been much finger pointing – in the main at police forces in England and Wales – in response to the Inspectorate of Constabulary’s report on how child abuse investigations are conducted....Read More

Perfect bodies. They’re everywhere. In adverts. On Instagram. Television. Magazines. They’re impossible to avoid. Last month, Protein World’s ‘Beach Body’ billboards hit the headlines after being plastered all over the London Underground. These have since been banned. Taken down. Never to be seen again. Yet damage has been done and there are countless other offending...Read More

Could YOUR child climb a tree? Many, we contend, would have no idea how, while others, it’s fair to say, would have little or no inclination. Give them an Xbox (or something similar) and it’d be a different matter . . . That children have, in general terms, become so detached from the great outdoors...Read More

This means that, right across the country, young people are, at this precise moment, under the most extreme pressure imaginable.   The resulting stresses and strains have been much discussed in the media in recent times. This is good and bad. Good in that talking about such problems is always the all-important first step to...Read More

Is YOUR child overweight? There is, it appears, a reasonable chance of it. You see, according to figures that have been released in recent days, almost one in four under-fives in Britain can be considered as such. This is, for obvious reasons, quite a concern. Research that is due to be presented at a congress...Read More

Think about men in the media and the picture that is painted often isn’t the prettiest. Operation Yewtree. Domestic abuse. Violent celebrities. Sexual Predators. From Savile to Clarkson, Ched Evans et al. From arrogance to abuse and all stops in between. The media does so much to shape our perceptions. That being the case, those...Read More

Does YOUR child use the internet to access pornographic images? No? You’re sure now? The reason for asking (and for asking again) is that research has been released in recent days that makes for uncomfortable reading. The subject is online porn. The findings are troublesome. You see, thanks to the internet, young people have never...Read More

Earlier this month, we found ourselves at odds with Sir Richard Branson. You see, not long after publishing a blog post outlining the dangers that smoking skunk can pose to teenagers, the Virgin supremo made comments that left us staggered. The headline in The Telegraph read: ‘No harm in skunk for most of us, says...Read More

Young people today don’t know the difference between right and wrong. This is something that we hear said quite often. Certain sections of the media, in particular, would have us all believe this to be beyond question. The problem is that – in our experience, at least – it simply isn’t the case. Some young...Read More