Daily Safeguarding Update

Church of England Failed to Protect Children From Sexual Abuse

The Church of England failed to protect children from sexual abuse, and created a culture where abusers “could hide”, a report has concluded
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse’s (IICSA) report says the Church’s failure to respond consistently to abuse victims added to their trauma, adding that alleged perpetrators were often given more support than victims
The report, which is the latest in a series of publications from the IICSA, said 390 clergy members and other church leaders were convicted of abuse between the 1940s and 2018
The report added that the Church defended alleged perpetrators instead of protecting children and young people from sexual predators

A report backed by Democratic lawmakers has urged changes that could lead to the break-up of some of America’s biggest tech companies
The recommendation follows a 16-month congressional investigation into Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple
“These firms have too much power, and that power must be reined in,” Democratic lawmakers working on the probe wrote
Republicans involved in the effort did not agree with the recommendations
In a statement, one Republican congressman Jim Jordan dismissed the report as “partisan” and said it advanced “radical proposals that would refashion antitrust law in the vision of the far left.”
Others have said they support many of the report’s conclusions about the firms’ anti-competitive tactics but that remedies proposed by Democrats go too far

Facebook has banned all accounts linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory movement from its platforms
“Starting today, we will remove Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts,” the company said on Tuesday
The move is a significant escalation to Facebook’s earlier decision to remove or restrict groups and accounts sharing and promoting QAnon material
QAnon is a conspiracy theory that says President Trump is waging a war against elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles
In a statement released on Tuesday, Facebook said its staff had begun removing content and deleting groups and pages, but that “this work will take time and will continue in the coming days and weeks”
“Our Dangerous Organizations Operations team will continue to enforce this policy and proactively detect content for removal instead of relying on user reports,” the statement added

A ban on residential school trips risks an “economic, social and cultural disaster” and the loss of 15,000 UK jobs unless it is lifted by spring, ministers are being warned
The ban would risk a generation of children missing out on often life-changing benefits of visits unless there are changes to Covid-19 restrictions that have left outdoor education centres dormant since March, according to companies, schools and parents
Some of Britain’s poorest pupils – including those from city communities – are among those who stand to lose most
The school travel sector has been closed by since March and wants a change to continued advice preventing overnight educational visits
“It is a bitter pill to swallow keeping our sites closed while we see hotels, boarding schools and hostels delivering the same overnight experiences unabated,” said Jim Whittaker, the Chair of the Association of Heads of Outdoors Centres and a member of the trade body UK Outdoors
In a letter to Johnson on Monday, UK Outdoors said “an existential threat” loomed over the sector, which ranges from the small independents and local authority providers to larger international organisations