Daily Safeguarding News - Safer Schools NI

Meta moves to next stages of full messaging encryption

Despite concerns from various authorities, Meta is going ahead with its full messaging encryption plan.
This will see the expanded testing of encrypted messages on messenger.
Opponents say that this offers more protection for criminals, since they will have another means to hide activity from law enforcement.
In September, the UK Home Affairs Secretary called on Meta to reconsider its’ plans as it could impede the abilities of police to investigate and prevent child abuse, labelling full encryption as “catastrophic”.
This was reinforced by Meta’s own findings, which highlighted that in 2021, Meta found and reported 22 million pieces of child abuse imagery.
For the full story, please visit the Social Media Today’s website.

Police have issued a warning to help protect people from romance fraud.
Romance fraud is when a victim thinks they’ve met their ideal partner online either through an online dating app or social media platform, but the user is hiding behind a fake profile.
The person gains the trust of the victim and extorts money or personal information from them.
Some warning signs for these scams include a person starting to ask for money very early on, they avoid showing their face in pictures or using video chat, or they use stock photos that don’t match their identity.
For more on this story, please visit Yahoo’s website.

Fortnite was removed from the iOS and Mac app stores and Google Play in August 2020, which resulted in those versions of Fortnite missing out on many updates.
Starting from the 30^th January, players who downloaded Fortnite from those platforms will have to be older than 18 years of age to play.
Users will also not be able to spend V-Bucks to buy in-game items.
These restrictions are an attempt from Epic to step up its safety features for younger players.
For more please visit the Verge website.