Snapchat not removing enough under 13 children off app in the UK
- Ahead of the UK’s Online Safety Bill, Ofcom asked TikTok and Snapchat how many suspected-under 13 accounts they had removed from their platforms in the past year.
- According to this data, TikTok told Ofcom that they had blocked an average of 180,000 suspected underage accounts in UK per month.
- Whereas in the same timeframe, Snapchat disclosed that it had removed roughly 60 accounts per month.
- Snapchat require users to be at least 13 years old in order to protect the safety and privacy of young children online.
- An anonymous source within Snapchat has said, “It makes no sense that Snapchat is blocking a fraction of the number of children that TikTok is.”
- For more on this story, please visit Reuters website.
TikTok ‘acting too slow’ to tackle self-harm and eating disorder content
- The NSPCC and the Molly Rose Foundation have urged TikTok to strengthen its content moderation policies surrounding suicide and eating disorder content.
- Both groups have stated that TikTok had acted too slowly following research which suggests the app’s algorithm pushes self-harm and disordered eating content to teenagers.
- The organisations wrote a letter to TikTok’s head of safety asking the app to take “meaningful action”.
- They wanted TikTok to improve moderation of suicide and eating disorder content, offer more support to user and work with experts to develop an approach to remove content.
- The letter also asked for the platform to regularly report on the steps they are taking to carry out these actions.
- For more on this story, please visit the Guardian’s website.
NI human trafficking cases double, figures reveal
- Home Office statistics revealed that nearly 550 people were potentially trafficked into Northern Ireland last year – an increase of 50% from 2021.
- Belfast and Lisburn Women’s Aid are helping 260 women and 150 children who have potentially been trafficked into Northern Ireland.
- Modern slavery is a complex crime involving multiple forms of exploitation.
- Many victims are often not aware they are being trafficked or exploited and have often ‘consented’ to elements of their exploitation.
- Many women leave their country due to war, conflict and fear of persecution, paying smugglers to help them flee but those same people often become their traffickers.
- Traffickers operate in groups and are a highly organised trade, the movement of women is “extensively organised” with domestic and international connections.
- For the full story, please visit the BBC’s website.
