Mobile phone app created to help children overcome lazy eye
- Eye specialists at the University of Southampton have teamed up with mathematicians and designers to create an app to help children with “lazy eye”.
- Around one in 50 children are affected by the visual impairment called amblyopia, which can often be treated through patching therapy.
- Patching therapy works through wearing a patch over the unaffected eye to help correct vision.
- The success rate for therapy is only 50% as children often struggle to wear the patch properly and households are too busy to help.
- Using complex programming the app checks if the person playing is using their patch correctly through the device’s camera.
- A prototype of the app, called the Amblios Club is now available on Google Play Store for Android and is hopefully rolling out for iPhone devices in the coming months.
- For more, please visit the Independent’s website.
Government response to IICSA inquiry weak and at times disingenuous
- Professor Alexis Jay, chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has said that the Government’s response to the report was “weak” and ministers failed to understand the need for action.
- This comes following the Government’s response to the inquiry’s 20 recommendations.
- In their report the Government claim to accept 19 of the recommendations, however Professor Jay feels that “action will be deferred indefinitely” due to conflicting political priorities.
- For more, please visit the Yahoo News website.
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Teacher sacked over Facebook posts after youths ‘threatened to murder his family’
- A teacher in Twydall Primary School was dismissed from his job after being accused of breaking the school’s social media policy following a Facebook post.
- He posted after teenagers tried to steal a bicycle from their garden, before one of them threatened to stab his wife, and involve others to rape her and murder the family.
- Mr Flynn took to Facebook and wrote a message asking the parties involved to contact him or he would “sort this out my way”.
- Twydall Primary School stated they parted ways because of safeguarding worries.
- The school’s spokesman stated that incidences that are brought to their attention are dealt with following their policies and procedures which are in line with the Department of Education’s guidance.
- Mr Flynn has reported his distress with how the incident has been handled, stating “I am the victim of a crime, yet I am being punished”.
- For more, please visit the Yahoo News website.
South Wales Police officer used Snapchat to blackmail young girls into sending him graphic images
- A South Wales Police Officer was caught by his own force, posing as a teenager on Snapchat asking girls as young as 12 to send him photos and videos.
- He used the images and videos to blackmail his victims into sending increasingly graphic images.
- Edwards was caught after police intelligence uncovered, he had accessed and downloaded indecent images of children from the dark web.
- He has admitted to 106 child sexual offences, and is due to be sentenced on the 23rd August 2023.
- South Wales Police have reported that twelve victims have been identified so far, and they will continue to identify and support those involved.
- Mr Edwards was “immediately suspended from duty and resigned”, and has been added to the barred list, meaning he can never return to policing.
- Lucy Dowdall, a Specialist Prosecutor in the CPS’s Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit, stated that Edwards engaged in “sustained abuse”, and wrongly believed he would not be investigated and told victims this would be the case.
- For more, please visit the ITV News website.
