July 2015
Cameron tells pornography websites to restrict access by children or face closure
David Cameron is to give pornography websites one last chance to produce an effective voluntary scheme for age-restricted controls on their sites or he will introduce legislation that could see them shut down. At the election the then culture secretary, Sajid Javid, said the party would act to ensure under-18s were locked out of adult content and the Conservative election Facebook page in April promised legislation to achieve this.
It followed a Childline poll that found nearly one in 10 12-13-year-olds were worried they were addicted to pornography and 18% had seen shocking or upsetting images. In a consultation to be launched in the autumn, the government will seek views on how best to introduce measures to further restrict under-18s’ access to pornographic websites.
Guardian 30/7/2015
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Prime Minister warns internet giants that he will take action if under-18s are not locked out from adult content
Pornography websites will be forced to introduce age checks or face being shut down, David Cameron has said. The Prime Minister has given internet giants a final warning that if under-18s are not locked out from viewing adult content he will take action. He has ordered a review of plans to create an independent regulator the power to force internet service providers (ISPs) to block sites without effective age restriction controls and fine those that do not.
MailOnline 30/7/2015
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One in every five minutes on a mobile phone is spent on Facebook
Facebook now accounts for one out of every five minutes people spend on mobile phones in the US, the social network revealed, as it unveiled second-quarter results. Users also spend an average of 46 minutes a day on Facebook’s apps, excluding the massively popular messaging service WhatsApp, with people making 1.5bn searches a day on the site. It has also indexed more than two trillion posts.
Telegraph 29/7/2015
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Children should be able to delete photos from the web
Children should have the option of deleting incriminating information or photographs of themselves posted online, ministers believe. A series of internet rights for under-18s has been proposed in order to avoid embarrassment or compromised job prospects in later life. Businesses and groups are being urged to sign up the iRights plan, which also calls for expiry dates for data relating to the under-18s.
Telegraph 28/7/2015
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Committing teenage shenanigans to memory is becoming a lost art, thanks to Facebook
I sometimes wonder what my Facebook page would have looked like had the site been around in my youth. And immediately feel thankful that it wasn’t, because I’d probably have abused it to such an extent I’d no longer be around to tell the tale. As it is, my parents didn’t feel compelled to murder me before I reached adulthood because all my teenage shenanigans are committed to memory – which appears to be something of a lost art these days.
Telegraph 28/7/2015
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Artist Creates Video Of Kids Reacting To Iconic Fashion Images, And They’re Not Impressed
Some of the images from fashion campaigns can seem bizarre even to the adult eye. So for kids, they must seem like the weirdest photographs ever. That’s why artist, Yolanda Dominguez, asked a group of eight-year-olds to describe what they see in a series of fashion editorial shoots and adverts for her unintentionally hilarious video, ‘Children Vs. Fashion’. The artist’s experiment found that while women in fashion campaigns are usually mocked by the kids for looking disheveled or “almost dead”, the male models were compared to “superheroes”.
Huffington Post 28/7/2015
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#Curvy Is Back
Last week, positive body image campaigners were up in arms after it was revealed that Instagram had blocked the hashtag #Curvy. The hashtag had been disabled along with others including #Thinspo, which glorifies emaciated frames in a bid to inspire others to lose weight, because it collated “inappropriate content” such as pornography. Now, after a tidal wave of complaints, Instagram has backtracked and have reinstated the hashtag. “We want people to be able to express themselves, and hashtags are a great way to do that,” a spokesperson for Instagram said in a statement.
Huffington Post 24/7/2015
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Ofcom could take on BBC regulation but not governance, says Sharon White
Ofcom chief executive Sharon White has said the watchdog could take on the wider regulation of the BBC but ruled out absorbing the governance role of the BBC Trust, saying she would ‘draw a line in the sand’ over the issue. With the future of the BBC under review by the government and the trust widely expected to be axed, chancellor George Osborne has indicated that he would like to see its regulation pass to the media regulator.
White said Ofcom already regulated various aspects of the BBC’s output, including issues around decency and harm and offence, and said if the government wanted it to extend its responsibilities to bias and impartiality “we will do the best possible job”.
mediaGuardian 21/7/2015
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Man convicted of new ‘revenge porn’ offence
A 21-year-old man from Romford is one of the first people to be convicted of the new “revenge porn” offence. Jason Asagba pleaded guilty to disclosing sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress.
BBCNewsbeat 20/7/2015
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John Whittingdale: BBC could be part-funded by subscriptions in future
The BBC could be part-funded by subscriptions on top of a licence fee in the future, the culture secretary has said, stressing that every option would be open to discussion in the government’s forthcoming review of the corporation. John Whittingdale said such a funding model could not be introduced at present because there were no mechanisms available to switch off certain BBC channels to people who had not subscribed to them.
mediaGuardian 19/7/2015
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Underage pornography measures backed by new poll
The Government should impose age verification checks on all websites which offer pornography and “18-rated” entertainment such as Fifty Shades of Grey and Game of Thrones, according to a new poll. The ComRes poll found 74 per cent of the public said the Government should require sites offering pornography in the UK to put age verification checks in place. A further 73 per cent also said that age verification should apply to 18 rated films streamed online.
Telegraph 17/7/2015
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ATVOD acts to protect children from hardcore porn on UK VOD services
Tough action aimed at protecting children from hardcore porn videos on line has been revealed by one of Britain’s media regulators. The Authority for Television On Demand – co-regulator of editorial content in UK video on demand services – has today published its annual report detailing steps taken by ATVOD in the year to 31 March 2015 to protect children from hardcore porn on regulated video on demand (“VOD”) services.
Twelve services – operating across 137 websites – were found to be in breach of the statutory rules in 2014-15 because they featured hardcore porn material which could be accessed by under 18’s.
ATVOD 16/7/2015
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Children as young as 11 have become victims of revenge pornography amid a surge in cases, an investigation has found
Pupils are having their lives ruined by classmates who upload explicit images of them to the internet. Adults are also being blackmailed by threats to post their naked photographs online.
MailOnline 16/7/0215
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Biggest BBC shakeup in a decade as Tories put corporation under review
Culture secretary John Whittingdale has announced a fundamental review of the size of the BBC, what it does and the way it is funded and questioned whether the corporation should continue to strive to be “all things to all people”.Unveiling the government’s green paper on the future of the BBC on Thursday, Whittingdale said the scale and scope of the BBC had grown exponentially in the last decade and said the time was right to question “whether this particular range of services best serves licence fee payers”.
mediaGuardian 16/7/2015
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BBC organised stars’ protest letter to David Cameron
Michael Palin has confirmed that the letter from dozens of celebrities urging David Cameron not to “diminish” the BBC was organised by the corporation’s senior executives.
mediaGuardian 16/7/2015
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Why is everyone talking about the BBC?
Once upon a time the BBC was affectionately referred to as “Auntie”. For some though it’s become more like a mischievous uncle, with lots of people having their say on the broadcaster. A government document has been released looking at issues like the corporation’s size and its activities, while a report into the licence fee is also due on Thursday. But why now? What is this “document”? And why has Grimmy signed a letter to the prime minister?
BBCNewsbeat 16/7/2015
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You Can’t Search For #Curvy On Instagram Anymore
While there is a certainly an appetite for body confident, plus size models on Instagram (just check out Tess Holliday’s 900K+ followers), any user searching for the hashtag “curvy” will be sadly disappointed. If Instagram are attempting to protect users from potentially harmful content, many believe that deleting the hashtag #Curvy may be barking up the wrong tree.
HuffingtonPost 15/7/2015
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Poltergeist posters cleared despite more than 70 complaints over clown image
People afraid of clowns have failed in a bid to get “distressing” posters for the film Poltergeist banned. More than 70 coulrophobics and parents complained about posters and bus ads featuring the head of a scruffy, smiling clown doll with the tagline “They know what scares you”. They asked the Advertising Standards Authority whether the ads for the 15-rated horror film – a remake of the 1982 classic – were suitable for outdoor display.
mediaGuardian 15/7/2015
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BBC1 comedy output falls by 25%
The amount of comedy on BBC1 fell by a quarter last year, while music and arts programming fell by a fifth.
The number of entertainment shows also fell, but the amount of drama, current affairs and religious output rose.
mediaGuardian 14/7/2015
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Seven in ten Sky internet users block out porn: Now rival providers face pressure to follow suit
- Company announced an automatic block on harmful sites six months ago
- Users must opt out of default family-friendly filter to access adult material
- Seven in ten homes that were forced to choose have kept the filters
- This will heap pressure on rivals BT, TalkTalk and Virgin to follow suit
The Daily Mail 13/7/2015
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It’s time to declare war on the pornification of childhood
Personally, I think Rihanna’s new video is puerile, sexist, race-bait nonsense. It’s the millionth in a long line of calculated-to-shock schlock videos. It’s like someone made a big list of bad-taste-boxes to tick and then ticked them all.
My wife does her morning training in front of whatever music channel it is she watches and, recently, after she’d finished with the yoga mat and the Swiss ball, she forgot to turn the TV off and left BBHMM on. I walked past it and found myself transfixed. It was like watching porn. Actually, it wasn’t like watching porn. It was porn.
Telegraph 13/7/2015
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Big Brother cleared by Ofcom despite 2000 complaints
Big Brother will not be investigated by watchdog Ofcom, despite more than 2,000 complaints about bullying in the 24 June episode of the Channel 5 show. Former winner Helen Wood compared Brian Belo, another former winner, to a rapist and murderer. Belo promptly quit the show, escaping over a wall, saying he felt “degraded”. Ofcom said it had assessed the 2,024 complaints about “offensive” language, but felt they did not warrant further investigation.
BBCOnline 13/7/2015
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BBC let off for presenter swearing
The BBC has escaped censure for Dermot O’Leary’s use of bad language during his 24-hour danceathon for Comic Relief. Ofcom said the presenter’s pre-watershed use of a ‘most offensive’ swear word contravened the broadcasting code, but the regulator took account of the circumstances and deemed the matter ‘resolved’.
BBCAriel 13/7/2015
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One in four watching porn are women
More young women than ever are watching pornography, a survey has revealed. Almost one in four users logging onto the world’s biggest porn site are women, with the under-35s said to be the biggest users. They account for 24 per cent of the people watching films on the Pornhub site, which boasts 78 billion views of its videos. One of the factors behind the rise is said to be the explosion in popularity of smartphones, with young women preferring to use their mobile devices to access the material.
MailOnline 12/7/2015
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Even teenage boys are sick of sexist video games, survey finds
Many teenage boys are tired of the sexualised depiction of women in video games, according to the findings of a new survey. In the study of about 1,400 US youths, 47% of middle-school boys and 61% of high school boys agreed that women are treated as sex objects too often in games. The findings, gathered by education consultant Rosalind Wiseman and games writer Ashly Burch, counter familiar assumptions that boys will voraciously consume media images of scantily clad women without a second thought.
Guardian 10/7/2015
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Porn on Twitter: network builds robots to find and eradicate offensive pictures
Twitter has built highly-intelligent robots that can recognise porn, in an attempt to stop it spreading on the network.
Independent 9/7/2015
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Gamer Drugged Girlfriend So He Could Play Undisturbed
A man has been fined after admitting he drugged his then-girlfriend so that she wouldn’t interrupt him while he played computer games with a friend.
There is a broad consensus among medical professionals that video games can be compulsive, in a broad sense, and that like most pursuits when taken to extremes can potentially be detrimental.
Huffington Post 9/7/2015
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Is Rihanna’s latest video too grim?
Rihanna’s latest video has sparked a debate about whether it is too violent, too sexist, too misogynistic and just too grim. The seven-minute long film, which has had nearly 16 million hits in five days, shows Rihanna trying to get money back from an accountant she thinks has defrauded her. To extract revenge she kidnaps his wife, graphically torturing her, and almost drowning her.
BBCOnline 6/7/2015
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Rihanna video is boycotted by big advertisers
Two companies are stopping their adverts appearing before Rihanna’s latest explicit music video online. Travel firm Kuoni and the Co-operative Group are the first to say they will stop their adverts playing before the singer’s track B***h Better Have My Money on video streaming website Vevo. The controversial song, which has been viewed more than 18million times since it was uploaded last Wednesday, has shocked fans by depicting bloody murder, sexualised violence and nudity.
Vivienne Pattison, of pressure group Mediawatch-UK, said: ‘It is fantastic that advertisers have begun to take responsibility and withdraw their support for this unbelievably shocking video. I hope that more follow suit.’ She also expressed her concern over the lack of restrictions in place on Vevo to prevent children from watching the film.
MailOnline 7/7/2015
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BBC considering move to make news channel online only
The BBC is considering making its news channel online only following a similar cost-cutting move for its BBC3 TV channel, it has emerged.
mediaGuardian 7/7/2015
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BBC director general defends licence fee deal
The BBC’s director general has defended the corporation’s decision to take on the cost of free TV licences for people over the age of 75. “It gives us financial stability and the ability to plan for the future,” Tony Hall told BBC Radio 4’s Today. He rejected comments by former culture secretary Ben Bradshaw that the deal effectively made the BBC “a branch of the department of work and pensions”. But he acknowledged misgivings over the process that led to the arrangement. “There are issues to do with the independence of the BBC which will be examined at the charter review,” said Lord Hall.
BBCOnline 7/7/2015
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Cuts to the BBC would threaten the whole TV industry, says Pact chair
Cuts to the BBC would threaten the rest of the TV ecosystem and the UK’s entire creative sector, according to the chair of the trade body representing independent TV producers. Speaking before Whittingdale’s statement, Mansfield added: “When we’ve looked at the numbers before, it is the BBC that is the real pillar of the public service broadcast system. If you reduce the BBC spend it has a mirror effect across the other broadcasters and you see not just a reduction of spending, but you see a potential reduction of quality.
mediaGuardian 7/7/2015
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BBC’s Jonathan Dimbleby told off for plugging cancer charity on Radio 4
BBC presenter Jonathan Dimbleby has been censured by the BBC Trust for a serious breach of the corporation’s guidelines after he used an appearance on Radio 4’s Today programme to plug the cancer charity set up in memory of his father.
mediaGuardian 7/7/2015
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How to find out if someone has deleted you on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
Ever been searching for an old friend, colleague or ex on Facebook, only to realise they’ve quietly unfriended you? Well now you can be alerted when you someone has pressed the dreaded “unfriend” button. Who Deleted Me, a new app and Google Chrome extension, will alert you when someone removes you as a friend.
Telegraph 7/7/2015
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Rihanna and a video that should turn all mothers’ stomachs
When I first watched Rihanna’s repulsive new video for her repulsive single, B***h Better Have My Money, it had only had a couple of million views. It was last Wednesday, in fact, shortly after Nick Grimshaw had mentioned it on his Radio 1 Breakfast Show. Not out of some desperate, sad-sack desire to keep up with the young, you understand. But as the mother of a 12-year-old girl, I need to know about these things. As I watched, I actually felt my pulse quicken in anger.
By the time it had finished, I wondered whether I ought not to report her to the police. Charges: pornography, incitement to violence, racial hatred. Deep breath now: I shall try to describe it without completely ruining your Monday morning.
MailOnline 6/7/2015
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BBC bows to pressure over Wimbledon 2Day show complaints
The BBC has bowed to pressure and changed the controversial format of its Wimbledon highlights programme after mounting criticism. Wimbledon 2Day, hosted by Clare Balding, saw presenters mingle with a live audience and included funny home-video clips alongside daily highlights. In its review, the Guardian said: “The whole show is a mess.” A BBC spokeswoman said: “Of course we listen to audience feedback and that helps to shape the changes we make.”
BBCOnline 6/7/2015
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BBC ‘must pay for free TV licences’ for over-75s
The chancellor is planning to announce in Wednesday’s Budget the BBC will have to meet the cost of free TV licences for over-75s, BBC News understands. George Osborne wants the BBC to have “a strong future” but told the Andrew Marr Show that the corporation should make a “contribution” towards the deficit. The move is reported to cost the BBC £650m, or one-fifth of its budget.
BBCOnline 5/7/2015
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Rihanna’s success is inspiring – but her new video is violently misogynist
Rihanna’s music video for Bitch Better Have My Money came out recently. It’s been 12 hours since I saw the video and I still don’t know what to make of it. After trying (and failing) to watch the whole video the first time I watched it again with one eye closed because I couldn’t stomach the violent misogyny.
NewStatesman 3/7/2015
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BBC3: producers call on culture secretary to launch review into closure
The independent producers who offered £100m to save BBC3 have called on culture secretary John Whittingdale to step in and scrutinise the decision to scrap the TV channel.
mediaGuardian 3/7/2015
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BBC should not be impartial on Isis, says Chris Grayling
The BBC should not seek to be impartial when it reports on Isis, the leader of the House of Commons, Chris Grayling, has said in response to the broadcaster’s decision to continue referring to the terror group as Islamic State. On Wednesday the director general of the BBC, Tony Hall, rejected demands from a cross-party group of 120 MPs including Boris Johnson and Alex Salmond to use the term Daesh in its coverage, arguing that it would breach the organisation’s commitment to impartiality.
BBCOnline 3/7/2015
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Smartphone porn use set to rise dramatically by 2020
The public’s appetite for online porn is set to continue to grow at a dramatic rate, according to research published this week, with phones becoming porn users’ favourite medium. A study by digital analysts Juniper Research has concluded that adult smartphone users will each watch an average of 348 porn videos on their devices in 2015.
In total, the researchers estimate that 136 billion sexually explicit videos will be watched on smartphones this year. If that sounds like a lot, they go on to predict that the number will increase by a further 55 per cent over the next five years, to 193 billion videos.
Telegraph 2/7/2015
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Only half of young people’s viewing is live TV
Young people are shunning live TV and watching their favourite shows online, Ofcom revealed yesterday. The broadcasting regulator said just half of all viewing among 16- to 24-year-olds is now through traditional scheduled TV. The rest of the time, they prefer to stream shows via online services such as Netflix and Amazon, watch short video clips on YouTube or use catchup services such as the BBC iPlayer and All 4.
Guardian 2/7/2015
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WARNING EXPLICIT CONTENT: Rihanna fully nude and bloody on quest for revenge in ‘B**** Better Have My Money’ music video
Rihanna released a new explicit video on Wednesday night for her single B**** Better Have My Money. The seven-minute video was rated for mature audiences for its language, nudity and violence.
MailOnline 2/7/2015
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Google is ‘ruining our memories’, study claims
The UK population is suffering from ‘digital amnesia’, brought on by over-reliance on smartphones and Google to summon up information people no longer retain as memories. Just under half of connected adults cannot recall their partner’s phone number, while 71 per cent can’t remember their children’s, a study from Kaspersky Lab has found.
Over half of 16-24 year-olds surveyed said their smartphone held almost everything they need to know or remember, as people increasingly store contact information and important details only in their digital devices.
Telegraph 2/7/2015
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The BBC is worried about upsetting terrorists. How disturbing
On Monday, David Cameron argued on the Today programme that instead of calling them Islamic State, the BBC should refer to them as they are known in much of the Arab world – by the name Daesh. The BBC’s response to that letter takes the breath away. Lord Hall, the director general, told the MPs that the BBC had to be fair to the terrorist organisation’s own wishes (the use of the word terrorist is, of course, mine, not his) in order to “preserve the BBC’s impartiality”, and that it would be “pejorative” to call it Daesh.
Telegraph 2/7/2015
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Highlighting TV licence loophole ‘risky’
The BBC has announced it is cutting 1,000 jobs because of a £150m shortfall in its licence fee income. An unexpected increase in the number of households saying they do not watch live TV and so do not need to pay a licence fee is blamed for the downturn.
BBCOnline 2/7/2015
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Channel 4 should get prime slots for its other channels, says Ofcom
Channel 4’s regulations should be reviewed to consider giving channels including E4 and More4 special status that would allow them to leapfrog rivals and win prime slots on the electronic programme guide, according to Ofcom.
Guardian 2/7/2015
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New Commons culture committee is all male and all white
The members of the new Commons culture, media and sport select committee have emerged – and there isn’t a single female or non-white MP among the 11 successful candidates.
Guardian 2/7/2015
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