Daily Safeguarding Update

Snapchat announces new parental controls

Snapchat has announced new parental controls for the platform.
The controls will include options to limit friend suggestions
Snapchat will no longer show 13- to 17-year-old users’ accounts as suggestions to other users unless they have multiple friends in common.
This aims to make it harder for older users to find young users’ accounts.
This move comes as part of Snapchat’s efforts to combat the fentanyl sales on the platform.
More details on the parental controls are due to be released in the coming months.
Full story, here.

New laws to legislate crypto-asset promotions will be passed to deal with misleading promotion.
Within these laws, crypto assets will be subject to Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules in the same way as other financial promotions, such as for stocks.
Crypto assets such as Bitcoin (a cryptocurrency) are largely unregulated, and investors lack protection.
Approximately 2.3 million people in the UK own a crypto asset but the government is worried that consumers may not understand what they are buying.
While non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are also unregulated, they will not be covered by the new rules.
To find out more about NFTS, check out our blog post.
Full story, here.

According to UK’s senior scientific academy, calls for social media sites to remove misleading content should be rejected.
Misleading content includes false information about vaccines, climate change and 5G.
The Royal Society investigated sources and the impact of online misinformation and concluded that removing accounts would “do little to limit harmful effects”.
Bans could drive misinformation “to harder-to-address corners of the internet and exacerbate feelings of distrust in authorities”.
Full story, here.

The return of face masks in secondary school classrooms has left deaf students struggling to communicate.
The National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) urges parents to contact England’s education secretary about the impact of face coverings on their children.
Deaf children are “falling behind” with schoolwork and struggling to communicate with friends.
Masks make lip-reading “impossible” and cover-up “crucial facial expressions”.
The NDCS urges the government to provide clear face coverings to schools and colleges with deaf students and set up a dedicated support fund.
Full story, here.

Thousands of homeless children in London are being placed in “uninhabitable” accommodation that violates their rights.
Human Rights Watch and the Childhood Trust claim that the UK government are failing their duty to ensure the right to adequate housing.
Families are living in “severely crowded conditions” and unhygienic rooms.
Consultant paediatrician Monica Lakhanpaul described the children as “invisible” and said their situation had worsened due to the pandemic.
Full story, here.

A commissioner is to investigate the state of a council’s children’s services after a damning Ofsted report.
Services in North-East Lincolnshire had “significantly deteriorated” since 2017 and were rated as inadequate in November 2021.
The commissioner is to decide if the council is to be temporarily removed from control of childrens social care in March.
The authority is looking after 582 children, double the number that were in its care five years ago.
Full story, here.

The Scottish Education, Children and Young People Committee is to examine the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on children’s attainment.
The examination will determine how successful the Scottish government has been in closing the gap between students from different backgrounds.
This follows as coronavirus has disrupted schools, with pupils learning at home during two Scotland-wide lockdowns.
The pandemic has adversely affected young people across Scotland, “but no group has been hit harder than those from deprived backgrounds”.
Full story, here.