• The United Nations Internet Governance forum took place in December to discuss steps needed for an open, secure, and free digital space for all.
• Since 2019 internet users have increased by 19%, with concerns raised about digital violence during the pandemic.
• In Europe, 44% of children who had been cyberbullied prior to COVID-19 reported that the abuse had increased during lockdown.
• Women and girls were 27 times more likely to be harassed online.
• Calls were made for increased transparency, understandability, and accountability of technologies and in the policies that govern technology.
• Full story, here.

• Melvyn Roffe, head of George Watson’s College in Edinburgh, is calling for the appointment of a whistleblowing officer.
• An independent national whistleblowing officer (INWO) would help protect those who come forward with information about children’s wellbeing.
• Roffe claims that public bodies “close ranks and protect themselves” and that whistleblowers “face blatant intimidation” when neglect or abuse is reported.
• He proposed extending whistleblower protection powers to the Children and Young People’s Commissioner.
• Full story, here.

• Rises in child poverty fuelled by benefit cuts was associated with more than 10,000 more children being taken into care between 2015 and 2020.
• Research conducted estimates that almost 22,000 additional children were placed on child protection plans.
• Almost 52,000 had been identified as children in need.
• The findings add to the “growing evidence of the contributory causal nature” between poverty and children’s social care involvement.
• Between 2015 and 2020, a 1% increase in child poverty was associated with an additional five children entering care per 100,000 population in England.
• Full story, here.

(The following story contains descriptions of distressing material)

• A mother who was “fixated” on suicide for more than a decade fatally drugged her two young daughters before committing suicide.
• Tiffany Stevens feared her 3-year-old and 18-month-old daughters would be placed in care after her death.
• She had spent five years in care herself as a child and endured a “traumatic” upbringing after her father died of a drug overdose when she was five.
• Both children were known to social services but there had “been no grounds for removal” of the children.
• Stevens has been referred to mental health treatment on at least eight separate occasions between August 2011 and April 2017.
• Full story, here.

• Some older pupils in England are refusing to take lateral flow tests and wear face coverings in classrooms.
• Charities are concerned about the effects this could have on vulnerable pupils.
• Pupils in England secondary schools have been advised to wear masks and test regularly, but this is not mandatory.
• The Department for Education (DfE) stressed that pupils should not be “denied education” based on whether they wear a mask.
• Full story, here.

• More than a third (36%) of schools in England are struggling with staff absence rates in excess of 10%.
• A survey showed that 4% of heads have had to send classes or year groups home for online learning and 7% have combined classes or year groups.
• Half of school leaders are dependent on supply teachers to cover classes but 37% can’t source the supply staff they require.
• Full story, here.