December 2015
Is violent new Star Wars too disturbing for under-12s? Parents urged to consider if they should take children to see the film because of violent scenes
A battalion of stormtroopers marched on the West End last night from their galaxy far far away. But as the stars and their starry-eyed fans gathered for the premiere of the latest Star Wars movie, there were fears that the £2bn blockbuster may be too frightening for the young audience its 12A rating will target. With villagers slaughtered, characters tortured and an entire planet obliterated in one shot, The Force Awakens paints a picture of a very violent universe. Vivienne Pattison, director of Mediawatch UK, said: ‘Many parents will remember the original Star Wars films of the 1970s and 1980s, which were lower ratings. Of course, what made a PG then is very different to what makes a PG now and I think that’s part of the problem actually. ‘They would have been under a lot of pressure actually to get a 12A because it means they will be able to sell more tickets. It means that as a parent you are expected to go a see a film first to decide whether it’s suitable for your child.’
The Daily Mail 17/12/2015
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Porn filters not widely used in UK says Ofcom
The vast majority of UK internet users are not taking advantage of net censors designed to filter out pornography and other content, according to the communications regulator Ofcom. Parental controls are offered to users to prevent children seeing unsuitable material. Sky customers were most likely to implement the filters and BT customers least likely, Ofcom reported. Some 97% of those who had adopted filters said they were useful. The UK’s largest internet service providers (ISPs) are required under a semi-voluntary agreement with the UK government to adopt network-level filtering via a scheme known as Active Choice Plus.
BBC News Online 17/12/2015
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As ITV prepares for The Sound of Music Live, are we watching TV’s future?
On Sunday night, in a studio close to one of east London’s most car-clogged arteries, a fake Alpine hill will be alive with the sound of music in a £2m production that marks the first time a musical has been broadcast live on national television in the UK. ITV’s two-and-a-half-hour transmission of The Sound of Music Live faces not just the logistical challenge of a live recording with a cast and crew of more than 400 and 177 costumes; there’s also the challenge of remaking one of the best-loved and most commercially successful films of all time. Scheduled for the financially important Sunday night before Christmas, the show is part of a much bigger trend for commercial television to show live events in a bid to attract mass audiences and avoid the increasing trend towards catch-up television. Elaine Bedell, ITV’s director of entertainment and comedy, said: “Live shows are increasingly important to channels like us. Providing unmissable big events which don’t feel the same if you don’t watch it live.”
The Guardian 15/12/2015
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Why social media doesn’t trump TV news
Jeremy Corbyn and Donald Trump may be poles apart politically, but their rise to prominence this year has united those who believe the mainstream media just doesn’t matter any more. Over the course of 2015 these two men have shown that a political power base can be built without a foundation in the news media. Trump has become the Republican frontrunner in the US while spending next to nothing on broadcast TV ads, while Corbyn can speak directly to 500,000 people who want to hear what he has to say either via email or Facebook. Trump’s continued success in the polls leaves US reporters with a conundrum: treat his extreme views seriously and risk legitimising his position, or ignore him and feed into his narrative of speaking for working people against the snooty media elites. Here, political pundits were left floundering by not just the Labour party’s win in the Oldham byelection but its increased share of the vote. Most had, after all, predicted at least a bit more support for Ukip.
The Guardian 13/12/2015
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Teenagers under 16 will need parental consent to use Facebook and email under EU laws
Teenagers under the age of 16 could be banned from Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and email if they don’t have parental permission, under last-minute changes to EU laws. The European Union is on the verge of pushing through new regulations that would raise the age of consent for websites to use personal data from 13 to 16.
Officials quitely amended proposed data protection laws last week to increase the age and put the EU out of step with rules in other parts of the world.It would mean that millions of teenagers under 16 would be forced to seek permission from parents whenever signing up to a social media account, downloading an app or even using search engines.
The Daily Telegraph 14/12/2015
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The 10 worst parental crimes on social media
A guide for adults who don’t want to shame teenage family members in front of their friends, or make themselves look stupid
The Guardian 12/12/2014
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UK to have ‘tech-savvy TV Christmas’, says Ofcom
British viewers are more likely than those in other developed nations to watch on-demand TV this Christmas, a report by the UK’s telecoms regulator Ofcom predicts. Its survey indicates 70% of UK adults, 31 million, watched TV via free catch-up services such as BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub in September and October. Meanwhile, 16% of web-connected adults viewed catch-up TV on a tablet. Traditional live TV remained the most popular way of tuning in, however.
Of the 9,000 individuals surveyed, more used these tech-savvy television services in the UK than in the US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia, Spain or Sweden. “UK viewers won’t be tied to the TV schedule this Christmas,” Ofcom director of research James Thickett said.
BBC News Online 10/12/2015
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UK most advanced TV-watching country in world, research finds
The UK is the most advanced TV-watching nation in the world, with more people using catch-up services and tablets to get their fix of television than in the rest of Europe, Japan, Australia or the US, according to Ofcom research. Over September and October, 70% of UK adults said they watched free-to-air catch-up services such as iPlayer or All4, well ahead of the next most enthusiastic streamers in France and Spain, where only 52% do so. The research also found that more than four out of five in the UK watch some kind of online TV or film service once services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime are included, more than the 76% who do so in Italy and Spain.
The Guardian 10/12/2015
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Explicit adverts seen by children in app ‘irresponsibly placed’
“Sexually explicit” adverts which appeared in an app used by children breached industry code, the advertising watchdog has ruled. Plymouth Associates “irresponsibly placed” two adverts of naked women in the app My Talking Tom, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said. Two parents complained after children aged seven and three saw the adverts while playing the game. The company denied responsibility for placing the adverts in the mobile app. My Talking Tom features an animated cat, which players can adopt and look after.
The subject of the ASA complaints were two pop-up ads that appeared in the My Talking Tom app between 6 and 9 August 2015. The adverts promoted Affairalert.com – which is the name Plymouth Associates trades under – and featured “a selfie of a naked woman sitting in front of a mirror”. The adverts asked the viewer if they wanted to have sex with the woman, giving them options of “yes”, “no” and “maybe”.
BBC News Online 9/12/2015
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Daily Telegraph censured for seventh time by press regulator
The Daily Telegraph has been adjudged guilty of breaching the editors’ code of practice for the seventh time since the formation of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso). It means that the newspaper has fallen foul of the regulator more often than any other newspaper. In the latest instance, Ipso’s complaints committee decided a Telegraph headline asserting that “a gipsy camp” drove a couple to take their own lives was not supported by the evidence.
The Guardian 9/12/2015
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New Star Wars sequel gets a 12A rating because of scenes of ‘moderate violence and threat’ and ‘mild bad language’ meaning youngest fans won’t be able to see it without their parents
Parents hoping to win a few hours of peace by packing the kids off to see the new Star Wars movie may be out of luck. Star Wars: The Force Awakens was given a 12A rating by the BBFC due to its scenes of ‘moderate violence and threat’ and ‘mild bad language’. The Force Awakens is only the second film in the George Lucas series to receive a 12A after Revenge of the Sith in 2004. Moderate violence: Star Wars the Force Awakens was given a 12A, pictured, a still from the film’s trailer
The Daily Mail8/12/2015
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Revenge porn is not part of ‘everyday life’. Something has gone terribly wrong with our teens
In only one generation, the art of flirting has changed drastically. For better or worse, smiling at someone during class or hoping to run into him or her at the gym, has been replaced by electronic communications: text messages, likes, shares, tweets, emojis and, in some cases, sexting. It should not surprise anyone that teenagers have taken up sexting.
Cameras on phones are constantly at hand: food is photographed before it is eaten, baby scans are shared when they’re still in the womb, and the pet next door has its own YouTube channel. On top of this is the heavily gendered hypersexualisation pushed on children via TV, advertisements, websites and pornography (which starts reaching them on average at age 12, but can be as early as eight as one woman just admitted).
The Daily Telegraph 7/12/2015
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Net neutrality has its day in court – with lawyers, Christians and the Cheshire Cat
Net neutrality is on trial, and everyone from white-shoe-firm lawyers to Christian internet activists showed up to watch oral arguments in the US Telecom Association v the FCC on Friday in a packed Washington DC courtroom, where an exasperated bailiff threatened to toss out reporters who wouldn’t stop using their phones to access the technology in question. From the moment in February when the FCC voted to reclassify internet providers as “common carriers”, paving the way for net neutrality protections, a bitter fight in the courtroom was inevitable.
The Guardian 5/12/2015
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The 19-year-old woman who has been addicted to porn since she was eight – and the devastating impact it has had on her relationships
A woman, 19, has been battling a porn addiction since she was just eight and says an early desire for ‘vanilla’ porn that eventually turned hardcore led to a string of abusive and violent relationships. Rebecca has spoken of her 11-year addiction to pornography which she says she first sought out when she saw a movie where a young girl had been kidnapped. Rebecca, who only wanted to be referred to by her first name, said she was confused by the ‘deep feeling’ the movie brought, and went searching for that feeling again, the now 19-year-old told Tom Tilley for Australians on Porn, to air on Monday at 9.30pm on ABC 2.
The Daily Mail 7/12/2015
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‘Spell-check for hate’ needed, says Google’s Schmidt
Technology companies should work on tools to disrupt terrorism – such as creating a hate speech “spell-checker” – Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt has said. Writing in the New York Times, Mr Schmidt said using technology to automatically filter-out extremist material would “de-escalate tensions on social media” and “remove videos before they spread”. His essay comes as presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton again called on Silicon Valley to help tackle terrorism, specifically seeking tools to combat the so-called Islamic State. “We need to put the great disrupters at work at disrupting ISIS,” she said during a speech in Washington DC. In the wake of the Paris attacks, companies and governments have clashed over how to handle the terrorism threat.
BBC News Online 7/12/2015
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Google denies claims it broke child-data promises
Google has denied it broke its promises on using children’s personal data.Civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) accused Google of collecting and storing data from children using its products at school.It asked the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate.But Google said it used the data only to improve its products and services and not to target adverts – in line with its commitments.
In a complaint filed with the authorities earlier this week, the EFF said Chromebooks supplied to schools as part of its Google Apps for Education (GAFE) project came with a feature designed to synchronise the Chrome browser across devices, which transferred students’ data without permission.It said the data collected included “records of every internet site students visit, every search term they use, the results they click on, videos they look for and watch on YouTube, and their saved passwords”.
BBC News Online 3/12/2015
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Almost two-thirds of people feel UK ad industry doesn’t represent them
Advertising and marketing is failing to reflect the UK’s multicultural, diverse society, according to a new poll. Research commissioned by trade magazine Marketing Week found that almost two-thirds of people in the UK feel the ad industry does not represent them, and almost two-fifths say advertising characters and messages fail to reflect British society as a whole. Religion, gender identity and physical ability were the areas most commonly identified as having seen the least progress on representation over the last decade. while, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation were more likely to be identified as areas where there had been the most progress.
The Guardian 3/12/2015
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Transgender people to get same protections from press as other minority groups
The press has introduced new rules to give transgender people the same protections from “prejudicial and pejorative reporting” as other minority groups in society. The change to the discrimination clause of the Editors’ Code of Practice followed by the vast majority of newspapers, magazines and news websites, follows an extensive review conducted on the recommendation of Lord Justice Leveson after his inquiry into the press.
The Independent 3/12/2015
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Google ‘stores children’s data’ – civil liberties group
Google collects schoolchildren’s personal data, including internet searches, a civil liberties group says. In a complaint to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said the alleged practice broke both Google promises and trade rules. It said Google products used in schools sent data to the company without first seeking parental permission. Google said its tools complied with the law. Google provides schools with Chromebooks and its Google Apps for Education (GAFE) products – a suite of cloud-based productivity tools. It promises not to serve adverts on the apps and says that “users own their data, not Google”. The products are designed to be a safe place for students to learn.
BBC News Online 2/12/2015
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BBC impartiality ‘absolutely critical’ as it covers EU referendum, MPs told
BBC Trust chair Rona Fairhead has told MPs that impartiality is “absolutely critical” at the corporation as it covers the EU referendum. Both Fairhead and trustee Richard Ayre pointed out that BBC staff are receiving training on the issue when they gave evidence to the European scrutiny committee on Wednesday. Fairhead said: “We think it’s fundamental that a reasonable person looking at this will say that the BBC has absolutely done everything it could to make sure that it was broadly balanced.” She said from what the trust has seen the BBC is actively working at making sure the training is fit for purpose, and is working on the assumption that the referendum could happen at any time.
The Guardian 1/12/2015
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UK porn laws a year on: A porn actress and a dominatrix on destroyed businesses and censorship
It was stranger than fiction: women dressed in leather gimps masks and black PVC lingerie squatted over men’s faces outside Parliament, outnumbered by press photographers attempting to capture every eye-opening moment. Braving the late-autumn weather, hundreds of protesters across the country – including at a “spankathon” in Manchester – rallied against laws which brought niche internet porn in line with rules binding DVDs sold in UK sex shops.
The Audio Visual Media Services regulations (AVMS) banned sex acts that were deemed morally damaging or life-threatening, including strangulation, face-sitting and fisting. Spanking beyond what was deemed to be a gentle level, humiliation, full bondage and restraint (which involves a gag and all four limbs), female ejaculation, and depictions of non-consensual sex were also forbidden under the laws enforced by the Authority for Television on Demand (Atvod).
The Independent 1/12/2015
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Cloud storage providers to face investigation by regulators
An investigation is to be launched into whether internet users are being charged unfairly when they use cloud storage services. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said some providers may be breaching consumer laws. It will look into complaints that prices can go up after a customer has taken out a contract – or that the amount of data storage can be changed. Earlier this year the ONS reported that 40% of UK adults now use cloud storage. Users of lap-tops, mobiles and tablets are increasingly taking advantage of such services, to store photos, documents, TV programmes and films.
BBC News Online 1/12/2015
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