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September 27, 2023

Teenager caught with CSAM hidden in fake calculator app

  • A teenager in England admitted to making indecent images of children after he was found with hundreds of category A, B and C images and videos on his mobile phone.
  • The images were hidden in a mobile phone app disguised as a calculator, otherwise known as a decoy app.
  • In total there were 48 category A pictures and 78 videos showing children aged four and 12.
  • These images were only found after messaging into a Snapchat group labelled ‘horny chat’ under the guise of a 15-year-old female.
  • The offender was issued a two-year community order, where he must complete 30 rehabilitation activity days, 120 hours of unpaid work and made subject to the sex offender’s register and placed under a sexual harm prevention order for five years.
  • The judge stated , “I’m not banning him from using Snapchat. I just don’t think it’s enforceable nor do I think it will be entirely fair. He won’t be using Snapchat for this kind of thing again.”
  • For more, please visit the Gazette Live website.

EU reports disinformation is most active on X

  • A European Commission study on disinformation on social media platforms has been carried out by TrustLab, a disinformation monitoring start-up, as part of work to support the EU’s code of practice on disinformation.
  • The study examined over 6,000 unique social media posts across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X and YouTube.
  • Findings have suggested that social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) has been reported to have the biggest proportion of disinformation of six big social media networks.
  • X withdrew from the code but will however be subject to the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) which regulates the conduct of the larger tech platforms.
  • The EU intends to turn the voluntary code into a code of conduct under the act.
  • For more, please visit the BBC News website.

Vapes ‘95% safer’ than cigarettes messaging backfired

  • Top health expert, Dr Mike McKean has reported the message that vaping is 95% safer than smoking has backfired, causing some children to vape.
  • Dr McKean treats children with lung conditions and is vice-president for policy at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
  • He states that the 2015 public messaging should have been clearer and that vapes are only for adults addicted to cigarettes, not children and young people.
  • He goes on to say that the 95% safe messaging was a “very unwise thing to have done and it’s opened the door to significant chaos”.
  • The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak is expected to announce measures soon aimed at addressing youth vaping in England.
  • For more, please visit the BBC News website.

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Pupil abused by Suffolk science teacher Mark Langford ‘haunted’ by his confessions

  • The investigation began in November 2021, when Google sent a report that he had stored CSAM on its platform.
  • National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators identified the former teacher and arrested him at his home.
  • Inquiries revealed he had groomed and sexually abused a 15-year-old pupil he taught at a school in the mid 2000s.
  • He taught in secondary schools from 1996 until just after his arrest, at which point he was employed by a free school’s trust which runs schools in Beccles, Bury St Edmunds and Saxmundham, said the NCA.
  • He had 2,718 indecent images of children on his devices, along with 199 prohibited images and 109 extreme images.
  • There was also evidence of Langford discussing child abuse with others online and offering advice about abuse.
  • For more, please visit the ITVX News website.

School absences: The school picking kids up from home to boost attendance

  • Recent statistics for the school year 2022/23, show that 22.3% pupils were “persistently absent”, meaning they missed more than 10% of their lessons.
  • A new report by the Commons Education Select Committee warns mental-health problems and cost-of-living pressures on families are among the complex reasons.
  • The report says the kind of intensive support some parents have received, such as the school’s family liaison worker designated to bringing children to and from school, should be more widespread.
  • A Department for Education spokesperson said most children were now in school, but it “remained focused on ensuring no child falls through the cracks”.
  • For more, please visit the BBC News website.