Reading Time: 1.8 mins

June 7, 2023

2023 release of Keeping Children Safe in Education

  • Updated statutory guidance from the Department of Education, ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (KCSIE) has been released.
  • This guidance applies to all schools and colleges and sets out the legal duties staff must follow to safeguard and promote the welfare of pupils under the age of 18 in schools and colleges.
  • All school and college staff must read part 1 of the guidance.
  • The 2022 version is still in force and the 2023 version will come into force on 1 September 2023.
  • For more, please see the UK Government website.

Twitter failing to deal with Child Sexual Abuse Material, says Stanford Internet Observatory

  • Researchers at the Stanford Internet Observatory have reported that Twitter have failed to deal with 40 items of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) over a two-month period between March and May this year.
  • The team of researchers used Twitter’s API to gather the metadata of 100,000 tweets and scanned it for images containing CSAM using Microsoft’s PhotoDNA tool.
  • PhotoDNA automatically hashes images and compares them with known illegal images of young people held on the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NMEC).
  • In January 2023, Twitter Safety had suspended around 404,000 accounts that created or engaged with CSAM material.
  • NMEC discovered problems with CSAM detection mechanisms and reported the issue in April this year, however, the problem is still persisting.
  • For more, please visit Forbes website.

New requirements for Relationship and Sexuality education curriculum in NI

  • The UK Government is updating the requirements for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) curriculum in NI.
  • The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris is under a statutory duty under the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019.
  • The regulations will make age-appropriate, comprehensive, and scientifically accurate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
  • A compulsory component of curriculum for adolescents will cover issues including prevention of early pregnancy and access to abortion.
  • The regulations will also place a duty on the Department of Education to issue guidance on the content and delivery of the education to be provided by January 2024.
  • For more, please visit the Government’s website.