Children

Sixty-four percent of female and 66 percent of male public school students say they have experienced being ridiculed or teased in school—whether by their peers or by their teachers and other school authorities.

MANILA, Philippines—Sen. Edgardo Angara has filed a bill that would start compulsory education to as early as the infancy stage.

Child Protection Unit (CPU) Philippines will help 10,000 maltreated children annually as child abuse cases reached an alarming rate of 9,787 last year.

WASHINGTON DC, United States—Hiding the TV remote and games console controller is a good thing to do to kids if it’s the only way to limit the time they spend in front of a screen, according to a study published Monday.

MANILA, Philippines – The cities of Caloocan and Manila have recently formed councils for the protection of children. In Caloocan, the council will focus on curbing the incidence of child abuse. Mayor Enrico Echiverri said in a statement that the city government has also put up the Yakap Bata holding center to take care of…

The Child Protection Unit (CPU) Philippines yesterday said emotionally abused children are likely to lead troubled lives during adulthood. “History of child abuse was linked with higher rates in adult life of depressive and anxiety symptoms, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorders,” CPU executive director Dr. Bernadette Madrid said.

NEW YORK, United States—Four million children have died in the past decade because governments have not spread major medical advances to the poor, a leading aid group said Tuesday.

Editor’s Note: The first part identified some factors on why the government has failed to attain the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set forth by the United Nations.

MANILA, Philippines – A senior lawmaker has filed a measure mandating the immunization of newborn infants against Hepatitis B virus to protect them from the deadly disease and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

MANILA, Philippines – The days of viewing pornography through e-mail attachments and USB flash drives for minors may soon be over.

Cultural differences play a role when it comes to physically disciplining children Thirty years ago, the United Nations ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child – a document that spells out the basic human rights of children, and states that children need special protection and care.

JESSICA KNOWLES, an American Fulbright Scholar with a sponsorship grant from the Philippine American Educational Foundation, prepared the stirring video-documentary No Place for a Child. The images in the production, while not new or unfamiliar, continue to horrify: children lying on the dirty floor of prison cells, packed like sardines; tattooed young bodies scarred with…

IN A DISTANT town in Laguna, the day-care center is a cramped portion of the village hall half the size of a regular room. Every day, the day-care worker has to bring home her teaching tools on a wagon, since leaving them at the village hall will eat up space of the government office.

MANILA, Philippines—Schoolchildren in 48,000 state-run daycare centers across the country will have daily hot porridge of surplus rice from the National Food Authority, NFA administrator Lito Banayo said Tuesday.

(Part 2 of a series on Reproductive Health) In 1901, Dr. Maria Montessori gave up her medical practice to go back to school and travel to France and England, to pursue her vision of extending her initial discovery of the scientific education she discovered working with deficient children to normal children. It was the Instituto…

It’s a big deal when children reach the age of seven. Here in the Philippines, a more festive than usual birthday celebration greets a seven-year-old boy or girl. Old folks say that it is upon the seventh year that a child becomes less vulnerable to sickness or any other external threat.

The Catholic Church Hierarchy in the Philippines is strongly opposing the introduction of sex education in the public schools. They say it will encourage youth to engage in premarital and promiscuous sex, learn about contraception and lead immoral lives. Sex education, they say, is the duty and responsibility of the parents not the governments. It…

The collection of Southeast Asian countries known as ASEAN has, collectively, some of the most prolific child trafficking in the world. Why are Southeast Asian children so much more vulnerable to forced prostitution, slave labor, domestic servitude, and other forms of exploitation? Possibly, because ASEAN is failing to properly address the problem.

Sen. Edgardo Angara proposed yesterday to amend the provision of Articles 27 and 88 of the Revised Penal Code which mandates imprisonment or house arrest of one to 30 days for minor offenders.

The Department of Education (DepEd) is urging the next Congress to act on the Special Education Act of 2010 as it stands to benefit some 5.49 million children with special needs (CSNs) in the country.

MANILA, Philippines – From January 2007 to March 2009, the Commission on Human Rights found 120 children aged 12 to 17 detained in 11 different police precincts nationwide.

WASHINGTON—Children who are spanked frequently at age three are more likely to be aggressive when they’re five, a recent study has found.

Rising poverty, driven by population growth and other issues, leads to increasing hunger and subsequently rising diseases (and death) caused by malnutrition, unsanitary living conditions and limited access to drugs and medical care. The ones that suffer the most from poor diet and nutrition are children, especially street children.

Berlin, Germany: The gathering in Berlin this week is for child protection experts and defenders of abused and sexually exploited children. I am here to represent the dedicated Filipinos and all others who have worked to protect children and bring their abusers to justice. The meeting, organized by ECPAT Germany has brought together experienced people…

MANILA, Philippines – A government think tank worries that the series of natural and economic calamities that visited the country last year has led to an increase in poor children that it now estimates to be higher than the 2006 estimate of 12.8 million. It did not give any dimension of the rise.

MANILA, Philippines – A child’s environment plays a crucial role in his or her growth. Kids’ rapid physical and mental growth makes them vulnerable to the physical and natural factors of their surroundings. Thus, it is important for parents to make sure that their homes are healthy and kid-friendly.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) will start the training of elementary and high school teachers to teach “personal safety lessons” (PSL) to make public schools and even homes safe for children.

WASHINGTON DC, United States—Immigration enforcement takes a heavy toll on children, according to a recent study by the Urban Institute.

CEBU, Philippines – Reports on increasing number of children involved in child labor, sexual abuse and commercial exploitation, family violence, child trafficking, and armed conflicts have alarmed an official of a government group working for children.

Like many working parents, Beverly Flaxington armed her 11-year-old daughter with a cell phone in fifth grade when the time came for her to venture out alone. At first, it was a great way to stay in touch.