Daily roundup: self-harm, child pornography, and apprenticeships

Cyberbulling on social media sites is to blame for an 11 per cent increase in children and teenagers being admitted to hospital for self-harming last year, say experts. The Telegraph reports that more than 22,000 children and teenagers aged between 10- and 19-years-old were admitted to hospital after deliberately harming themselves. Lucie Russell, YoungMinds policy director, blamed cyberbullying, ‘sexting’ and a “society obsessed with body image” for creating a “negative environment”.

The former leader of Kingston upon Thames Council faces up to five years in prison after admitting to possessing 5,000 indecent images, including child pornography. The London Evening Standard reports that Judge Alistair McCreath told Derek Osbourne, 59, that a prison sentence is a “virtual certainty” after the former Liberal Democrat pleaded guilty to seven counts of making indecent photographs, two counts of possessing indecent images of children, two counts of possessing extreme pornography and six counts of distributing indecent images.