Daily Safeguarding News - Safer Schools NI

IWF and EU partners march in Brussels to demand action on vital child sexual abuse regulation

On Tuesday 19th September, the IWF joined child protection organisations, child sexual abuse survivors, young people and other advocates from across Europe to ask EU leaders to ‘clean up the internet’ from sexual predators and to better protect children online.
The action came as new data from the European Commission’s Eurobarometer found that Europeans are strongly supportive of protecting children online.
92% agree that children are increasingly at risk online.
82% agree that tools like parental controls are not enough to protect children.
78% support or strongly support the Commission’s proposal to fight child sexual abuse.
Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is something that the EU is at the heart of and the IWF among other child protection organisations have vocalised the need for EU lawmakers to finish negotiations on the regulation aimed at fighting CSAM.
For more, please visit the IWF’s website.

The ‘Growing Up Online’ report was written by academics from Stranmillis University College’s Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement (CREU) and funded by the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland (SBNI).
It aimed to find out about children’s online activities and their safety online.
A total of 3,800 children aged 8-13 and 2,650 aged 14-18 took part.
The research found that nine in 10 of those 8–13-year-olds surveyed said they had their own phone, compared to 99% of 14–18-year-olds.
YouTube, WhatsApp, Snapchat and TikTok were the most popular social media sites for both age groups, but more than three quarters of 14–18-year-olds also used Instagram.
One in five 14–18-year-olds said they spent more than seven hours a day online at weekends.
One in five children and young people said something nasty or unpleasant had recently happened to them online.
There was a gender difference between boys and girls when it came to the type of nasty online experience they had.
The full report can be found on the SBNI’s website.
For more, please visit the BBC News website.

Northern Ireland’s new Commissioner for Children and Young People (NICCY), Chris Quinn has more than 25 years of experience working in the community sector, including serving as the Director of the NI Youth Forum since 2008.
He is the fourth commissioner to be appointed since the establishment of NICCY in 2003.
He stated that “the cost-of-living crisis and lack of an executive in Northern Ireland is exacerbating existing problems for young people in mental health, homelessness, education and poverty”.
Mr Quinn says he is looking forward to “continuing the vital work of the NICCY office and engaging with children, young people and everyone in Northern Ireland concerned with their rights and wellbeing.”
For more, please visit the Yahoo News website.