Instagram announce new ways to verify age in partnership with Yoti

  • In addition to uploading ID, Instagram have partnered with Yoti, a company that specialises in age verification software using artificial intelligence.
  • Users are asked to take a video selfie, which is then analysed by Yoti, basing age on facial features and age markers such as wrinkles or grey hair.
  • The third option is ‘social vouching’, where friends can confirm how old another user is.
  • For more on this update, visit the Instagram

Children in care are made to move between placements ‘a thousand times every week’

  • A coalition of 7 charities found that children’s care placements were changed more than 220,000 times between 2018 and 2021.
  • This is an estimated 1,059 changes every week, with 64% of these as a result of abuse or neglect in 2021.
  • To mark ‘It’s Our Care Day of Action’, hundreds of young people with experience of being in care gathered at Parliament yesterday to urge MPs to fix the social care system.
  • To read more on this story, visit the Independent website.

NHS warns of scam Covid-test texts

  • In a tweet, the NHS warned followers to be aware of a text scam about ordering Omicron Covid-19 test kits.
  • The organisation confirmed that they never ask for bank details and to be aware of suspicious emails and texts.
  • In an interview with the BBC, The National Cyber Security Centre called cyber-criminals ‘opportunistic’ and that they are exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic for financial gain.
  • For further information on this story, visit the BBC website here.

New government scheme fines parents for taking their child on holiday during term time

  • The new scheme would see parents face a maximum of two ‘fixed penalty notices’ per child per school year.
  • If this maximum were reached, then parents may be prosecuted.
  • Education Secretary Nadim Zahawi hopes the scheme would help combat ‘persistent abstinence’ and the announcement has been supported by Children’ Commissioner, Rachel de Souza.
  • For more detail on this story, go to the Proper Manchester