Daily Safeguarding Update - Safer Schools NI

Tweets with racial slurs soar after Musk takeover

New research from the Center for Countering Digital Hate found the number of tweets containing one of several different racial slurs soared in the week after Elon Musk bought Twitter.
This came despite assurances from the platform that it had reduced hateful activity.
A racial slur used to attack Black people was found more than 26,000 times, 3 times the average for 2022.
The use of slurs to target trans people increased by 53%.
To learn more, go to the Independent’s website.

A study from the University of Vermont analysed 1,000 TikTok videos under popular hashtags related to body image and eating and how they may influence disordered eating behaviours.
#WhatIEatInADay had 3.2 billion views and #WeightLoss had 10 billion views at the start of the study.
Less than 3% of the nutrition-related videos were weight-inclusive.
Many of the videos also assigned ‘good’ or ‘bad’ labels to different foods and most nutrition advice was not provided by experts.
The study highlighted a particular concern about the number of young women who interacted highly with the content.
Over 60% of the videos were made by female-presenting people, and more than half were users in their teens or college-aged.
For the full study, go to the CNBC’s website.

A research paper from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) has said that academic selection perpetuates divisions in wider society of Northern Ireland.
They found transfer tests and the grammar school system “disadvantages the already most disadvantaged”.
The QUB academics were critical of the NI Executive and education ministers who they said have “resisted intervening in the transfer test system”.
To find out more go to the BBC’s website.