Vulnerable British children are being targeted by paedophiles overseas who hack into their Facebook and Twitter accounts, a top police officer has warned. Peter Davies, chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, said foreign predators access children’s social networks then blackmail them into carrying out sexual acts while they watch via webcams. The prevalence of the internet has created the risk of forms of child abuse that did not previously exist, said Mr Davies, who has emphasised the need for parents to be vigilant of their children’s online activity.

James Bulger was two years old when he was killed on February 12, 1993 Here his father Ralph tells his version of the events for the very first time I love to watch the damselflies skimming the water like low-flying helicopters above the ocean. Today is no exception as I sit on the river bank […]

On his blog on Friday, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony said he was ill-equipped to deal with sexually abusive clergy when he took over the archdiocese in 1985 and quickly sought to develop policies and consult with leaders in other dioceses.

LOS ANGELES — The public rebuke of retired Cardinal Roger Mahony for failing to take swift action against abusive priests adds tarnish to a career already overshadowed by the church sex abuse scandal but does little to change his role in the larger church.

The perpetrator believed that his son wasn’t a real person. Jeremiah Wright, 31, of Thibodaux, LA, is due to attend a hearing that will deem whether or not he is fit for trial. According to The Daily Comet, Wright had decapitated his 7-year-old son in 2001 and has since been under mental health evaluation.

A real-life, sick version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. A Georgia high school teacher, DaNita Wilson, 32, was accused of having sex with seven of her students; and one of them was only 15-years-old. Wilson was arrested and charged with seven counts of sexual assault with more charges pending.

Jackson County authorities have accused a 30-year-old woman of second-degree murder, child abuse and first-degree child endangerment in the death of a 3-month-old infant whom she baby-sat during an overnight visit. Prosecutors charged Sonya Nerissa Perry of Grandview on Monday in the death of Stephon McCoy, who was taken off life support by his parents on Jan. 17. A physician at Children’s Mercy Hospital told police that Stephon suffered multiple injuries consistent with being shaken, according to court records.

LANSING, MI — The rate of confirmed cases of child abuse and neglect in Ingham County jumped 92 percent from 2005-2011, according to a report released Thursday. Kids Count in Michigan, an annual report compiled by the Michigan League for Public Policy, ranks child well-being in each county and in the state as a whole.

A jury on Wednesday convicted a priest and teacher in a pivotal church-abuse case that rocked the Philadelphia archdiocese and sent a church official to prison for child endangerment. The verdict supports accounts by a 24-year-old policeman’s son that he was sexually abused by the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and sixth-grade teacher Bernard Shero in about 1999, when he was 10 years old. The accuser’s 2009 complaint describing abuse by two priests and the teacher led to Monsignor William Lynn’s landmark conviction last year for endangerment. Lynn is serving three to six years in prison for his role transferring an admitted pedophile priest to the accuser’s parish in northeast Philadelphia.

He’s been plagued by stories and rumors about the strict upbringing of his nine children for most of his life. But Joe Jackson has now admitted to physically disciplining son Michael and the rest of his family, claiming that he doesn’t regret ‘being tough.’ Speaking during Piers Morgan Tonight, which aired on Wednesday, the Jackson patriarch also claimed that he doesn’t believe that there’s any such thing as beating a child but that they ‘will remember’ being punished.

A 36-year-old mother faces up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to allowing her daughter, six, to be sexually abused by different men for drugs and money. Authorities say Dalina Nicholas, from Jacksonville Beach, is charged with four counts of child neglect and faces a minimum of 15 years in prison. Nicholas agreed to testify against four other people charged in the case. She won’t be sentenced until those trials conclude.

A father has gone on trial for allegedly beating and starving his three-year-old daughter to death – three years after her bruised, malnourished body was found at his home. Donald Lee Cockrell, 30, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Alexis Marie Pounder with his fiancee, Michelle Nicole Smith, in Sandy, Oregon in January 2010. Smith pleaded guilty to the killing last year and faces a minimum of 30 years behind bars, and as part of the plea deal she will testify against Cockrell.

Imagine the trauma of being a child separated from all you know – parents, possessions and home – and not having anything to cling to for comfort. Sadly, each year, hundreds of thousands of children here in the United States must be rescued from severe abuse, neglect or abandonment. Traumatized and facing an uncertain future, they frequently enter shelters and foster care with nothing – no favorite stuffed animal, no special blanket. They are afraid, disoriented, and desperate for comfort. That’s where we come in.

An eight-minute segment on Monday night reached a turning point when CNN host Erin Burnett exclaimed: “That baby was 8 pounds, 2 ounces. He was going to be born in a couple of days. How could you not define that as a person? That is a viable life.” Burnett covered the story of Heather Surovik, who was days away from giving birth to her son, Brady. She was returning from her final prenatal checkup when a drunk driver on his fifth DUI smashed into her car. Although Heather and her other family members survived, Brady did not. Since Colorado law does not recognize pre-born children as persons, state prosecutors could charge the drunk driver only with destroying Heather’s vehicle, not with Brady’s death.

This kid was no killer — but some callous Bronx cops sure treated him like one. Instead of earning himself a simple trip to the principal’s office, a terrified 7-year-old boy was hauled out of class, handcuffed like a hardened criminal and “interrogated” by police for a grueling 10 hours — all over a playground dispute involving $5, his family is charging. “My son was crying, ‘Mommy, it wasn’t me! Mommy, it wasn’t me!’ I never imagined the cops could do that to a child. We’re traumatized,” Wilson Reyes’ distraught mom, Frances Mendez told The Post last night.