The “age of anxiety” confronting young people today did not suddenly materialise (News, Aug 31). Its roots are in the 2023 exam period, when GCSE and A-level students displayed record levels of distress. More than 60 per cent described themselves as overwhelmed and some reported self-harm, panic attacks or suicidal thoughts. Teachers have reported students leaving exam rooms in tears, and telephone helplines have had to deal with a significant increase in calls.

Universities reported all-time highs in the number of students in crisis in 2024. And by this year, according to surveys, one young adult in four was diagnosed with a mental health issue. The crisis has now overtaken pressures around exams. Young people say they are bombarded day and night with global news, money worries and even fears about having children because of climate change.

The pandemic has been blamed, and rightly so. Schooling was disrupted and resilience diminished systematically at critical points. But worry has lingered far, far longer than did lockdowns. High-stakes tests, social media pressures, economic uncertainty and climate anxiety continue to drive it. It is not a phase. What started in the exam halls of 2023 has escalated into a challenge for an entire generation. Reform and investment are needed, and young people need their issues to be taken seriously.
Michael Robinson
Gosport, Hants

Sir, Your finding that 34 per cent of girls aged 16 and 17 are struggling with anxiety is evidence of a mental health epidemic that shows no sign of abating. Our own research into “generation isolation” has shown that even younger children are struggling. The proportion of children aged 11 to 18 who report high or very high feelings of anxiety has averaged 49 per cent every year since 2022.

As was found in your focus groups, young people tell us that they want to put down their smartphones and stop wasting time on unsatisfying social media, but they don’t know how to end their addiction.

Part of the solution lies in paying attention to what children themselves say works. Nine out of ten young people say that attending a youth centre makes a positive difference to their lives. Of those who attend OnSide Youth Zones, 88 per cent tell us that their attendance increases their ability to manage their feelings. The government must hear this message and ensure that its forthcoming National Youth Strategy increases access to aspirational, inspiring and affordable youth clubs that help build confidence, increase social interaction and give children back the chance to be children, in real life.
Jamie Masraff
Chief executive, OnSide

Sir, It is widely recognised that social media — where the fear of missing out, a gasping for “likes”, poor body image and unkindness prevail — is a cause of the significant increase in anxiety among teenage girls. Schools work hard to manage this, but they cannot do it alone. Until the government works effectively with educators to agree on a robust solution, the shocking reality of the statistics outlined in your article will continue. This solution must be not about making a difference to the polls but about what is right for the next generation, and it must be a priority.
Samantha Price
Head teacher, Cranleigh School

Small boats suggestion

Dominic Lawson highlights (Comment, Aug 31) the frustration that many people feel about the small boats crisis. When the UK left the European Union we lost the power to return migrants to Europe using the Dublin convention.

The British public now see French vessels escorting migrant boats to the middle of the Channel, where they are met by Border Force and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution acting effectively as taxis. This is a big selling point for people smugglers and there is little risk for the migrants that they will fail to reach the UK. The French even demand life jackets back as the illegal migrants are “rescued”.
The Italians, Greeks and Spanish do not routinely patrol the Mediterranean as we do the Channel. We should withdraw Border Force vessels closer to our shores to detain those who approach our coastline. This would create a dilemma for the French: prevent the boats from being launched or rescue the migrants themselves.

Many people now want a radical solution to this crisis. “One in, one out” will not cut it.
Ray Carver
Whitstable, Kent

Free speech on campus

Matthew Syed invites us (Comment, Aug 24) to “imagine a working-class kid starting at Oxbridge and expressing sympathy with the policies of Reform”, risking ostracism by his peers. I was at Oxford from 1977 to 1980 when, under the “no-platforming” mantra, few dared to openly support Margaret Thatcher or espouse the Tory views that became policy throughout the 1980s. It appears that not much has changed.
George Davidson
Little Shelford, Cambs

Misapplied shame

Sir, Your article “Mother and baby homes in England forced teenagers to give up their children” (News, Aug 31) is harrowing. That British governments as recently as 1964 were aware and complicit is shameful, as was the last government’s refusal in 2023 to apologise.

Although an inadequate apology was offered by the Catholic Church in 2016 (nothing in your article hints at a similar offer from the Church of England), absolutely nothing has been or could be offered by way of explanation for the appalling treatment meted out to these frightened and vulnerable young mothers for the way they were shamed and exploited by those who managed and operated the mother and baby homes on behalf of the church. The depth of the hurt experienced over so many years by the victims of both churches is unfathomable.
Tony Adams
Deal, Kent

Sir, Blaming mother and baby homes for the forced adoptions of teenagers’ babies overlooks the real source of pressure on these girls. The main pressure that was applied to remove the baby and the attendant shame came not from institutions but from the girls’ own families.

Had the parents of these girls accepted and nurtured their own grandchildren, there would have been no need for institutional intervention.
Jan Manning
West Chiltington, W Sussex

Cycling safety paradox

Barbara Burford suggests making helmets compulsory for cyclists to improve road safety (letter, Aug 31). In Australia, which has that law, cycling accidents have increased per kilometre cycled. This has been attributed to “risk compensation”: those wearing helmets feel more protected and inclined to take more risks, and motorists drive less carefully around them. The other effect of the law has been that the number of people cycling — which can help people to avoid heart disease and strokes — has fallen.
Chris Day
Marsh Baldon, Oxon

Pension unfairness

Sir, The pension triple lock is seen as an easy target, as in Johanna Noble’s article (Money, Aug 31), but in the same edition you report that benefits can be more than the minimum wage (Tom Calver, Comment). The pension is less than half the minimum wage. Council tax and utilities take a big chunk, leaving little for rent. I would like to return to the UK, but my pension goes far further outside.
Jonathan Youens
Bucharest

Sticking power

Chris Haslam scoffs at fridge magnets (Travel, Aug 31), but I started my collection not to brag about where I had been but to stop my children (now in their forties) wasting money on holiday. Asked what I wanted them to bring me, I said magnets. When my children call, the magnets are a source of conversation.

So much pleasure from so little.
Celia Hayward
Corwen, Denbighshire

Majestic cheese

I agree with Charlotte Ivers on almost everything, but calling a burrata a non-event cannot be right (restaurant review, Magazine, Aug 31). A burrata is always an event.
Phoebe Humberstone
Nottingham

AI chatbot friends

Sir, Kathleen Stock warns us (Aug 31) against believing that AI chatbots are sentient beings with whom we can build relationships, but I fear the genie is out of the bottle. In the not too distant past, yanking the plug out of my sat-nav before journey’s end gave me a thrill, albeit tinged with guilt as it felt rude. Now I say: “Thank you, good night and maybe see you tomorrow.” I believe we are bonding.
Alan Jones
Pewsey, Wilts

Degree of realism

Further to Roger Newark’s letter (Aug 31) about errors by those constructing faux Downing Streets, I wonder if the zero on the mock door is at 37° anticlockwise, as it is on the door of the real No 10.
Max Denny
Lowestoft, Suffolk

Early bird special

Regarding pigeon coos (letters, Aug 17, 24 & 31), when I was a child my grandma told me the pigeons said: “Milk t’cow clean, Peggy.” Obviously in this part of the world, they coo with a Yorkshire accent.
Malcolm Gudgeon
Little Ouseburn, N Yorks

Sir, Every morning in our house there is a bit of shoving to persuade my partner to make a cup of tea before we get up, always serenaded by the call: “Oh please, DO make tea. Oh please, DO make tea.”
Isla Robert
Solihull, W Midlands