Yvette Cooper says today’s teenagers have it ‘much, much harder’

Exclusive: Home secretary cites knives and pressures of social media as she announces plans for young futures' unit to prevent crime

• We fear the police': young people share concerns with Cooper

Teenagers have it much, much harder" than previous generations because of knives, mental health pressures and social media, Yvette Cooper has said, as she announced plans for a new unit to prevent violent crime among young people.

After the deaths of young people in stabbings in Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Croydon, Cooper told the Guardian she was initiating a new cross-government young futures" unit to be based in the Home Office, as part of the ambition to halve violent crime in a decade.