Daily Safeguarding Update - Safer Schools NI

TikTok updates Safety Centre resources following internal research on harmful challenges

TikTok released the results of its own internal research into how young people engage with potentially harmful challenges and hoaxes online.
A survey was completed by more than 10,000 teens, parents, and teachers from various countries including the UK.
Young people rated the risk level of recent online challenges with almost half (48%) being described as safe, fun, and light-hearted.
32% of challenges were rated as involving ‘some risk’ but still safe, 14% described as risky and dangerous and 3% as very dangerous.
Only 0.3% of young people reported attempting a challenge they described as very dangerous.
The report also explored the impact of ‘false warnings’ alleging that children are being encouraged to commit self-harming acts or suicide.
31% of young people exposed to false warnings experienced negative impacts and 65% of those young people reported their mental health was negatively impacted.
TikTok has released a new set of resources to give parents and children more information on online challenges and hoaxes.
These include advice on how to assess risk and a prompt encouraging them to visit the Safety Centre if they search for hoaxes linked to suicide or self-harm.
Full story, here.

According to new research, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has kept its algorithm to track children and young people’s activity.
The data is then used to inform which ads are targeted to young people to maximise engagement and boost ad revenues.
In response, Meta has denied that it is using the data for ad personalisation on its platforms but made no comment on why it’s still monitoring and collecting data on young users.
The research by Fairplay, Global Action Plan and Reset Australia found that Meta continues to optimise algorithms for young users.
This follows an announcement that Facebook has removed ‘sensitive’ ad categories preventing advertisers from targeting users based on sexual orientation, religion, and political beliefs.
Plans to amend EU’s draft legislation to include the ban on all surveillance advertising has been backed by privacy advocates and advocacy groups including the Tech Transparency Project.
Full story, here.

Twitter is rolling out improved labels for misinformation in tweets.
The new labels will be displayed with different messages and alert colours for different kinds of potentially misleading elements in tweets.
The labels will help explain why the tweet has been flagged and to make users aware of misleading claims that don’t otherwise violate its guidelines.
This follows the initial release of misinformation tags in February, but these were criticised as too small and unclear.
Twitter has been criticised in the past for playing a part in the spread of harmful misinformation often originating from the platform, before spreading to other networks.
For more on misinformation, check out our blog.
Full story, here.

Officials from the Education Department are outlining anti-bullying measures being taken in schools.
In response to questions from MLAs, the Education Department reports that cyberbullying is an increasing problem in schools and requires a dedicated response.
The role of educating parents and carers on the impacts of cyberbullying and raising awareness about the issue has been reported as a priority.
The Education Department outlines that young people need more education on the impact of racial bullying and abuse.
Co-operative approaches with the community have been highlighted as important in creating a positive and safe learning environment in schools.
In honour of Anti-Bullying Week, an anti-bullying act was introduced in schools and staff were given training.
The Education Department highlights the importance of giving support to young people being bullied and to those displaying bullying behaviour.
The Department of Education says there are legislations being brought forward that can help tackle online bullying, like the Online Safety Bill.