Daily Safeguarding Update - Safer Schools NI

UK must protect child influencers from exploitation

According to MPs, the government must introduce legislation to protect child social media influencers from exploitation.
The government must investigate adult pay standards in the industry and do more to force influencers to flag paid-for content to make ads more transparent.
MPs raised concerns about child influencers or “kidfluencers” who earn income through sponsorships or brand partnerships, and whose content is often aimed at children despite social media’s minimum age of 13.
You can read the full story on The Guardian’s website.

A police special constable from Wakefield has been given a two-year suspended sentence for posting online messages fantasising about abusing children and possessing child sexual abuse images.
He was identified by National Crime Agency investigators after he used the app to send encrypted content.
Officers found 2,263 indecent images of children on his mobile phone in categories A-C (A being most severe) and 13 extreme bestiality images on his laptop.
You can read the full story on the National Crime Agency’s website.

WhatsApp has launched the first stage of its ‘Communities’ update by adding Reactions to messages in group chats.
WhatsApp is also gradually rolling out the ability to add up to 512 people to a group chat – currently the limit is 256.
For more information on WhatsApp, check out our article.
You can read the full story on Social Media Today’s website.

Twitter has expanded the testing of a new format for the Explore page to highlight the top content matched to a user, based on popularity and interests.
The updated layout includes the main ‘Trending’ page where users can select ‘Personalised’ or ‘Top Trends’ and a ‘For You’ feed.
The ‘For You’ feed includes a full-screen display of tweets, primarily focusing on video tweets but also integrating text tweets.
You can read the full story on Social Media Today’s website.

A foster mother has been convicted of sexting and grooming a teenage girl but has narrowly avoided jail.
She was convicted of six offences including sexual communication with a child, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and meeting a child following sexual grooming.
The judge decided against a jail sentence as a result of exceptional circumstances.
These exceptional circumstances related to her family, since she has a disabled child who would go into the care system if she was jailed.
You can read the full story on the Belfast Telegraph’s website.

The NASUWT teaching union will begin industrial action in schools from today, the 9^th of May.
The industrial action will affect 20 duties including overseeing exams, lesson plans, inspections and school meetings.
It was announced following teaching unions rejecting a pay offer from their employers.
More than 80% of NASUWT members voted for strike action and almost all voted for action short of strike.
You can read the full story on the BBC’s website.