Young-looking porn users may face extra age-checks
- Porn users could have their faces scanned to prove their age, with extra checks for young-looking adults, draft guidance from Ofcom suggest.
- The average age children first view pornography is 13, a survey suggests.
- Ofcom now enforces the Online Safety Act, which recently became law, and requires social media platforms and search engines to protect children from harmful content online.
- Ofcom reports that age checks must be “highly effective at correctly determining whether or not a particular user is a child.”
- However, they have stated that the biggest concern amongst porn-using adults about proving their age is over the safety of their data.
- The draft guidance says sites must follow the data protection rules set out by privacy watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
- Draft codes of practice to cover pornography on social media platforms will be published in 2024.
- For more, please visit the BBC News website.
The following stories may be regionalised:
Pisa: Wales slumps to worst school test results
- Wales performance has fallen to its lowest level ever in maths, reading and science taken by 15-year-olds.
- The tests were taken in 81 countries in 2022 and are seen as an important measure of education systems.
- Education Minister Jeremy Miles said the pandemic had derailed some improvement in literacy and numeracy.
- He reported that plans have been launched to raise the standards.
- In maths, Wales’ average score was 466, down from 487 in 2018. In reading, the score fell from 483 to 466, and science dropped from 488 to 473 which was a much larger fall than in other UK nations.
- The Welsh government said there would be a “renewed national focus” on reading, numeracy and science.
- For more, please visit the BBC News website.
Head of Surrey school named best in UK says no phones and ‘special community’ is secret to success
- Independent school Guildford High has been awarded Independent ‘School of the Year’ amongst all schools nationally.
- Pupils play a version of the Harry Potter game Quidditch on the lacrosse pitch, and there are hundreds of clubs from coding to football, or rowing to crochet.
- Mobile phones are handed over in the morning, and locked away until home time.
- Headteacher Karen Laurie says she hopes to create an environment that feels like “being at school is “the best years of their life” with a “sense of joy and excitement.”
- “My aim is to offer our pupils a plethora of opportunities, both academic and co-curricular, which instil a love of learning and a daily dose of wellbeing. School should be fun and life at GHS is never dull.”
- The guide found that conversations around mental health are now ingrained in the top schools with many offering mentoring systems and techniques to help with stress and anxiety.
- For more, please visit the ITV News website.
