Bill in works to make domestic violence a factor at sentencing - but first, the beach.

We are a conservative society. Minority groups with abnormal inclinations are often frowned upon, writes Peter Lyons.

A drinking game played through social media which has caught on in NZ has been labelled "incredibly foolish" and "very, very harmful" by an alcohol-harm advocacy group.

Three people have been charged with giving alcohol to a 9-year-old who was filmed, apparently drunk, at a Hamilton skatepark.

It is an unlikely setting from which to launch a fightback against Egypt's new military rulers.

Mandy and Clair Cordo share the hard lessons they have learned on their journeys in this third story on love in the 21st century.

A video of a drunk boy stumbling and slurring at a Hamilton skate park has been reposted to YouTube despite an earlier attempt by police to have Google remove it.

Words can hardly express the harm inflicted on a 9-year-old boy in Hamilton this week by someone who gave him enough alcohol to get very drunk.

Three people have been charged with giving alcohol to a 9-year-old who was filmed, apparently drunk, at a Hamilton skatepark.

A video of an apparently drunk Hamilton boy has been removed from YouTube - but not before more than half a million people watched the uncensored footage.

The mother of a Hamilton boy filmed celebrating his ninth birthday drinking at a skatepark says she was shocked and angry to discover he'd been consuming alcohol.

Police say they are appalled that adults supplied a young boy with alcohol and concerned he was re-victimised when footage of his antics was posted on YouTube.

Child care law changes sought by lobby group after children denied right to family life.

Graphic images of a couple taken after they were shot on a Libyan beach have been removed from Facebook after site administrators were inundated with angry emails.

Ill-prepared families are dumping elderly relatives at hospitals before going on their holidays in a practice known as "granny dumping".

An Indian IT worker wonders if it was racism that made a bouncer stop him and his friends from entering a bar at Auckland's Viaduct Harbour on New Year's Eve.

Most societies are hard on their youth, writes Peter Lyons.

So, rich fulla, enjoy your throbbing car, but also be aware that not being a dickhead takes constant, painstaking, vigilant effort, writes Deborah Hill Cone. Also: don't drive through zebra crossings.

Australian, Queensland and Broncos league star Sam Thaiday is lending his weight to fundraising efforts for a charity helping at-risk South Auckland teenagers.

The measurement of child poverty is complex, hard to understand and has become a highly polarised matter, says John Dew.

Next year is election year and all the parties have an opportunity to show us their commitment to children, writes Russell Wills, Children's Commissioner.

Children's Commissioner, Dr Russell Wills, wants motorists, the well-off and the elderly to take less from taxpayers so that more public funding can go into tackling child poverty.

Many unsavoury events that have occurred in New Zealand over the past few decades can be attributed to our faith that free markets, writes Peter Lyons.

As a teenager, there is a huge pressure to accept the cool pragmatism of "this is how it is" when it comes to binge drinking, writes Verity Johnson.

Minister rejects 'nanny state' intervention as health survey shows NZ is getting fatter, with three in every 10 adults now regarded as obese.

Our house prices are high, our wages are low - so why is the world coming home to New Zealand?

A return to South Africa triggers deep thoughts - can one person have two homelands?