Daily Safeguarding News - Safer Schools NI

Meta’s AI chatbot plan includes ‘sassy robot’ for younger users

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Meta has plans to develop ‘dozens’ of chatbot personas.
Among these, it plans to release a generative AI chatbot called “Gen AI Personas”, aimed at younger users.
It is set to launch during the Meta Connect event which begins on Wednesday.
Meta has also done some work on a chatbot creation tool to enable celebrities to make their own chatbots for their fans.
For more, please visit the Verge website.

X (formerly Twitter) is reportedly making it easier to report rule-breaking content in the app.
It is doing so with an improved reporting flow which makes it easier for users to specifically highlight their concerns with a few clicks.
X will give users more specific violations to choose from when reporting a post, for example concerns around child safety or suicide or self-harm.
Once the user has selected the type of issue they are issued with a screen with more specific issues.
Users can then submit their concern and a screen with more actions to limit further harm is displayed.
For more, please visit the Social Media Today website.

It is not clear whether Northern Ireland (NI) will receive extra money from the UK government to fix public buildings affected by crumbling concrete.
The Department of Finance has asked its Stormont counterparts to notify it of buildings affected by Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac).
The information will help identify areas of high risk.
Concerns that Raac can be prone to collapse have led to the closure of some school buildings in England.
In NI, around 120 schools are being surveyed for the concrete on the base of their age and type of construction.
For more, please visit the BBC News website.

An alleged sex offender has been remanded into custody after police caught him with a mobile phone with Snapchat on it.
The 20-year-old appeared in court via video link on Saturday.
Defence solicitor Ronan McCourt accepted it was the second time the 20-year-old had breached bail by having the Snapchat app.
The accused had previously been on bail accused of 14 offences allegedly to have been committed between July 23rd and 25th last year.
He now faces an array of charges, including six charges of causing or inciting a girl aged 13-16 to engage in sexual activity, four counts of sexual activity involving penetration with the schoolgirl.
For more, please visit the Belfast Telegraph website.