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June 27, 2023

Image based abuse laws to be overhauled to help victims in new crackdown

  • So called, ‘Revenge porn’ is defined as “revealing or threatening to share private explicit images or videos without the consent of the person with the aim of provoking distress”.
  • It was made a criminal offence in 2015.
  • Victims subjected to intimate image abuse will no longer have to prove their perpetrators intended to cause distress, under a new amendment to the Online Safety Bill.
  • The change will make it easier to charge and convict offenders, with those found guilty being charged with a maximum of six months in jail.
  • In cases where the offender sought to cause distress, alarm, or embarrassment, or shared the material for sexual gratification purposes, they could face a two-year sentence.
  • Perpetrators who have distributed the image for sexual gratification, could also be placed onto the sex offenders’ register.
  • The changes will also criminalise the sharing of “deep fakes”, which are explicit images or videos manipulated to look like someone without their consent.
  • From April 2015 to December 2021, the police have documented 28,000 reports of disclosing private sexual images without consent.
  • For more, please visit the Independent website.

 

TikTok’s family pairing tool now gives parents personalised control over the content their young people see

  • TikTok is bringing its content filtering tool to Family Pairing, which lets parents link their account to their young person’s to enable content and privacy settings.
  • Content filtering allows users to filter out videos with words or hashtags they don’t want to see in their feeds.
  • By bringing content filtering to Family Pairing, TikTok says it will enable parents to help reduce the likelihood of their young person “viewing content they may uniquely find jarring”.
  • TikTok liaised with experts, including the Family Online Safety Institute, on how to strike a balance between families choosing how to tailor their young person’s online experience, whilst respecting young people’s rights.
  • Young people by default, can view the keywords their caregiver has added.
  • TikTok has also announced the launch of a global Youth Council later this year to listen to young people’s experiences to create safer experiences.
  • For more, please visit the Tech Crunch website.

The following stories may be regionalised. 

Thousands of pupils missing from school and authorities don’t know where they are

  • Local authorities in England, have reported an estimated 24,700 children missing education (Children Missing Education [CME]).
  • In 2021/22, 94,900 children went missing at some stage in the academic year.
  • The council staff in England whose job it is to monitor school absences, have been cut by nearly half in the last 10 years.
  • The Department for Education stated that the government is committed to making sure that all children are safe and have an “excellent” education.
  • The number of missing children has risen significantly since the pandemic, as is now regarded as a national crisis.
  • More than 1.7 million children are missing from school more than 10% of the time, which has increased by 108% since the pandemic.
  • The government has sent up attendance “hubs” in areas with high absence rates, as well as “mentors” to support families and schools to get children back into class.
  • For more, please visit the MSN website.

One in three children in Kent have experienced online bullying

  • A new survey commissioned by Kent’s Police and Crime Commissioner has showed that almost one in three young people have been abused online.
  • The Youth Survey was completed by 4,400 children which revealed that 29% have been bullied online, which is up 18% from five years ago.
  • 11% of respondents admitted to cyberbullying themselves.
  • 26% have been bullied on their way to or from school and 33% said they had been frightened.
  • Only 53% who had been scared told a caregiver and 30% told no one.
  • Of those who had been bullied online, 90% still used the app where the abuse took place and only 56% said they knew the culprit.
  • The Kent Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott says that as a result of this survey, the police force are expanding their Online Harm and Healthy Relationship school programme, provided by Collaborative Digital.
  • For more, please visit the ITV News website.