Successful Campaign Makes Instagram Chance Policy on Nudity  

  • Instagram and its parent company Facebook will be updating their  policy on nudity in order to help end discrimination of plus-size black women on its platforms and ensure all body types are treated fairly after a successful campaign 
  • In August, Instagram was accused of censoring and silencing the plus-size model Nyome Nicholas-Williams alongside a wave of content creators, which confirmed the platform was repeatedly discriminating against black people, plus-size users and other marginalised communities, by deleting their photos or failing to promote them in the same way it did for white users 
  • Nicholas-Williams photos were repeatedly deleted and taken down, with warnings that her accounts could be closed down, which caused fans to protest and post pictures of the model 
  • The photo-sharing app that is owned by Facebook was accused of hypocrisy and racism in allowing an abundance of photos of semi-naked skinny white women on its feeds but deleting those posted by black women in similar poses 

Child Sexual Exploitation is a Problem in all Parts of Scotland  

  • Children are being sexually exploited in all parts of Scotland, according to the first national study of the problem 
  • The abuse is happening in the islands, rural communities and urban areas, with cases identified in all but five of Scotland’s local authorities and suggested that the abuse of boys is often overlooked 
  • The findings come from the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration and the charity Barnardo’s Scotland  
  • ‘Sexual exploitation of children involved in the children’s hearings system’ is the first national study of child sexual exploitation in Scotland 

    Laptop Numbers for Poorer Pupils Cut  

    • Access to government-provided laptops in England has been cut at some schools, head teachers have said 
    • The government pledged to offer the devices to disadvantaged pupils who are at home because of coronavirus and do not own a computer 
    • However, on Friday some schools were told the number of laptops they were promised had been cut by 80% after the government allocation process changed 
    • The government says the devices will be sent to the areas of greatest need 
    • One head teacher told the BBC he was “flattened” when he learned his school’s allocation had been cut from 61 laptops to 13 

     

    Coronavirus Epidemic Sees Rise in Number of Children Referred to Social Services 

    • There has been an increase in the number of children referred to social services since last year, Northern Ireland’s health minister has said 
    • There was also an increase in children on the child protection register and more children in care, according to Robin Swann, who said data collected during the pandemic had built a picture of “what is happening in families” 
    • It comes as measures to ensure that children’s services can continue to operate effectively were announced 
    • According to provisional figures released by the Department of Health (DoH), the number of children referred to social services rose from 646 per week pre-Covid to an approximate weekly average of 759 by October 
    • The number of children on the child protection register rose from 2,246 pre-Covid to 2,369, while the number of children in care rose from 3,362 to 3,439 

      Senior Tory Thinks Government Misunderstood Public Mood When Refusing to Extend Free Meals for Half Term