Snapchat to suspend 2 app integrations following allegations that they caused death

  • Snapchat will suspend two anonymous messaging integrations from the platform after a lawsuit sought to hold them responsible for a teenager’s death.  
  • “In light of the serious allegations raised by the lawsuit, and out of an abundance of caution for the safety of the Snapchat community, we are suspending both YOLO and LMK’s Snap Kit integrations while we investigate these claims,” a spokesperson for Snapchat said in a statement.  
  • YOLO and LMK are developed by third-party developers, and they integrate with Snapchat via its Snap Kit platform.  
  • LMK lets users create polls and Q&As for their Snapchat friends to answer, while YOLO is focused on Q&As.  
  • The suit alleged that both services let users send messages anonymously which facilitates cyberbullying to such a degree that the apps should be considered dangerous.
  • For the full story, select here. 

Child sex offenders caught before they abuse minors could face tougher sentences

  • Child sex offenders who are caught before they commit an offence could face up to 14 years in prison under a proposed shake-up of sentencing guidelines. 
  • A three-month consultation on proposals to treat would-be offenders based on the offence they intend to commit has been launched by the Sentencing Council, which sets out guidance to judges and magistrates in England and Wales. 
  • Many offenders are caught every year through police operations and citizen groups posing as children or as adults offering to traffic children for abuse.
  • For the full story, select here. 

     

    Online safety bill ‘a recipe for censorship’, say campaigners 

    • Long-awaited proposals to regulate social media are a “recipe for censorship”, campaigners have said, and fly in the face of the government’s attempts to strengthen free speech elsewhere in Britain. 
    • The online safety bill, introduced to parliament on Wednesday, hands Ofcom the power to punish social networks that fail to remove “lawful but harmful” content. 
    • The proposals were welcomed by children’s safety campaigns but have come under fire from civil liberties organisations. 
    • “Applying a health and safety approach to everybody’s online speech combined with the threat of massive fines against the platforms is a recipe for censorship and removal of legal content,” said Jim Killock, director of the Open Rights Group. 
    • For the full story, select here. 

    Calderdale child sexual exploitation: 29 men charged 

    • Twenty-nine men have been charged in connection with the sexual exploitation and rape of a girl over a seven-year period in West Yorkshire. 
    • The offences are said to have taken place in and around Calderdale and Bradford between 2003 and 2010 when the victim was aged between 13 and 20. 
    • The men are due to appear at Bradford Magistrates’ Court on 7th and 9th July. 
    • Eight other suspects arrested during the West Yorkshire Police investigation have been released without charge. 
    • For the full story, select here.