UK Government issue advice on challenging victim blaming behaviours online

  • The UK Government have issued guidance for professionals on how to effectively challenge victim blaming language and behaviours.
  • The guidance aims to help professionals to understand that children can never be expected to predict, pre-empt or protect themselves from abuse.
  • Practical steps to help professionals practice and advocate for an anti-victim blaming approach are also provided in the guide.
  • For more on this please visit the UK Government website.

Scientific report finds gaming can trigger undiagnosed heart issues

  • A scientific report, published in the journal ‘Heart Rhythm’ has found that playing video games could cause life threatening cardiac arrythmias in children with undiagnosed heart conditions.  
  • Investigators have said that they uncovered an uncommon but distinct pattern among children who lose consciousness whilst playing electronic games.  
  • They warned that Call of Duty-style multiplayer war games were the most frequent trigger for these episodes.  
  • For more on this story please visit the Sky News website.  

TikTok profits from livestreams of families begging

  • A BBC investigation has found that displaced families in Syrian camps are begging for donations on TikTok. 
  • The investigation found that the trend was being facilitated by “TikTok middlemen” who provided families with equipment to ‘go live’.  
  • They have found that TikTok take up to 70% of the proceeds.  
  • After the BBC contacted TikTok directly for comment, the company banned all of the accounts. 
  • For more on this story please visit the BBC News website.  

Twitter is asking users to use their birthdate to view sensitive content

  • Twitter is asking users to verify their birthdates in an attempt to prevent users under 18 from viewing inappropriate material. 
  • Twitter confirmed that it’s rolling out this feature as a part of its user safety efforts. 
  • Twitter’s sensitive content policy includes a wide range of categories including adult content and hateful imagery.   Whilst the company does not ban adult content, it asks people posting this type of content to mark it as sensitive and change account settings.  
  • For more on this story please visit the Tech Crunch website.  

Netflix UK will release viewing figures for every TV series

  • For the first time ever, Netflix UK will unveil its viewing figures. 
  • In the past, Netflix kept the majority of its ratings a secret. 
  • They previously selected which shows they released its viewing figures for with a view to highlighting successes. 
  • The streaming service is officially set to sign up as a member of ‘Barb’, which is a British ratings agency designed to monitor viewing figures for shows on channels including BBC One, ITV and Channel 4.  
  • For more on this story please visit the Independent website.