May 2015
Internet overtakes TV as most complained-about advertising medium
The internet has overtaken television as the most complained-about advertising medium in the UK, with a surge of 35% in the number of consumers registering concerns over digital campaigns last year. The Advertising Standards Authority said that the total number of complaints about all UK advertising rose by a fifth last year to a record 37,073 complaints.
mediaGuardian 27/5/2015
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UK pornography industry proposes user ID checks for adult websites
Britons may soon face identity checks to access adult material on the internet, according to discussions between Whitehall and the private sector. A scheme proposed by the pornography industry would see adult sites verifying visitors’ identity with organisations such as banks, credit reference agencies or even the NHS.
It comes ahead of an expected new law demanding age checks for online pornography and threatening a block on any sites which don’t comply. It is a key Conservative pledge and has widespread support.
Guardian 26/5/2015
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Half of UK homes turn to tablets – in just five years
The tablet computer has established itself as a must-have device in just five years with more than half of UK homes now owning one. According to Ofcom research, seven in ten (71%) children aged 5-15 had access to a tablet at home by the end of 2014, up from just over half (51%) in 2013. And many kids do not even have to share a tablet with their parents.
One in three children (34%) aged 5-15 have their own device – up from one in five (19%) in 2013. Tablets are also proving popular with toddlers – one in ten (11%) of 3-4 year olds now have their own tablet to keep them entertained.
Ofcom Research 27/5/2015
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Automatic anti-porn filters to protect children could be OUTLAWED under new EU rules
Attempts by Britain to keep children safe online are facing a ‘sneaky’ challenge from Brussels. David Cameron’s push for families to be automatically opted-in to porn filters could be scuppered by the European Union. A leaked document from Brussels dated May 17 proposes to make it illegal to try to ‘manage’ web traffic, including by automatically applying parental controls.
Instead, officials want internet service providers to have to ask parents or account holders to opt-in to pornography filters. Campaigners for greater safety online warned that the move would endanger children by putting another barrier in the way of parents wanting to keep internet usage at home free from hardcore material.
MailOnline 24/5/2015
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Sexting: How young children deceive parents to share porn
A new guidebook is offering parents a glimpse into the world of teenage text-speak in a bid to help prevent children getting into trouble for “sexting” or viewing illegal pornography. The internet safety guide helps adults decode the language of online technology, including some jargon used by children in a bid to evade parental scrutiny.
The guide published by the Lucy Faithfull Foundation stresses the importance of parents familiarising themselves with the technology, apps and websites their children are using.
Telegraph 22/5/2015
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David Cameron backs plans for Ofcom to block ‘extremist messages’ on TV
David Cameron has backed plans to give Ofcom stronger powers to prevent the broadcast of “extremist messages” despite concerns from one of his own cabinet ministers that this could amount to state censorship. The prime minister appeared to support Theresa May, the home secretary, after the Guardian revealed a split in the cabinet over her counter-extremism measures. Sajid Javid, who was then culture secretary and is now business secretary, wrote to May before the election saying the plan would move Ofcom from a regulator “into the role of a censor” and involve “a fundamental shift in the way UK broadcasting is regulated” from post-transmission to pre-transmission monitoring.
The Guardian 22/5/2015
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Theresa May’s plan to censor TV shows condemned by Tory cabinet colleague
A plan by the home secretary to introduce counter-extremism powers to vet British broadcasters’ programmes before they are transmitted has been attacked in the bluntest terms as a threat to freedom of speech by one of her own Conservative cabinet colleagues, the Guardian has learned. Sajid Javid wrote to David Cameron to say that, as culture secretary, he was unable to support Theresa May’s proposal to give Ofcom the new powers to take pre-emptive action against programmes that included “extremist content”, in a letter sent just before the start of the general election campaign.
The Guardian 21/5/2015
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Does Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 predict the terrifying future of warfare?
It will probably seem odd to some people: a writer from gaming’s answer to a Michael Bay popcorn flick, notionally advising policy makers on the future of armed conflict. But Treyarch, the creator of the Call of Duty: Black Ops titles, is very serious about its research. Forthcoming title Black Ops 3 is set 30 years in the future.
Guardian 21/5/2015
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Four in 10 think there’s too much swearing on TV: Third also believe sex scenes should be banned from screens
There is too much swearing on TV say four in ten viewers, while a third believe that explicit sex should be banned from screens. Research carried out by broadcasting watchdog Ofcom after a raft of complaints found that older viewers are most concerned about bad language and sex scenes. Ofcom’s report – entitled UK Audience Attitudes To The Broadcast Media – suggests that millions of viewers are concerned about the content that is allowed to air.
Two-thirds of over-65s claim bad language has gone too far, compared to just a fifth of those under 25. But Vivienne Patterson, director of campaign group Mediawatch-UK, believes that younger people have simply become immune to foul language on TV from over-exposure. ‘You have to ask why that is. Is it because there has been so much swearing allowed on television for a number of years that it has been normalised?’ she said.
MailOnline 20/5/2015
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Schoolboy arrested after indecent images of female pupils were ‘circulated on Snapchat after they sent them to him’
A schoolboy has been arrested after indecent images of under-age girls were circulated on photo-sharing app Snapchat. The teenager was questioned by police following reports he enticed a number of girls to post ‘risque’ photographs to him via the social media site.
MailOnline 20/5/2015
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Why smart phones should be illegal for under-16s
Barely a day goes by without another report pointing to how mobile phones are ruining our children’s lives. The latest comes from the London School of Economics, which has established that mobile phones have a seriously detrimental effect on the performance of children aged 14 to 16, especially those from less advantaged backgrounds.
MailOnline 20/5/2015
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Call of Duty increases risk of Alzheimer’s disease
Millions of boys could be at increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other mental illnesses in later life through playing action video games such as Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed, according to new research. Scientists say players navigate the screen using a key area of the brain called the caudate nucleus, which leads to loss of grey matter in the hippocampus.
Previous studies have shown reduced volume in the hippocampus, which controls memory, learning and emotion, is associated with neurological and psychological disorders including dementia and depression.
Telegraph 19/5/2015
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YouTube Kids app draws complaints about content
An app designed to make surfing on YouTube safer for children has come under fire for linking to “inappropriate” content. Two child advocacy groups have flagged up videos that they say “would be extremely disturbing for young children to view”.
BBCOnline 19/5/2015
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One in ten UK employees ‘watch porn at work’
One in 10 workers in the UK admit to watching pornography at work, putting their employers at serious risk of cyber attacks, according to new research conducted by Vanson Bourne. The UK ranked higher than the global average, with nine per cent of employees admitting to viewing adult content at work despite typically being fully aware of the risks to their companies, compared to five per cent in France and two per cent in Germany.
Meanwhile, one in three UK respondents said they use new applications without IT’s permission, one out of five open email attachments from unverified senders and two out of five use social media sites for personal reasons at work.
Telegraph 19/5/2015
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Twitter could delete 10 million accounts in porn purge to satisfy advertisers
Twitter could be about to purge 10 million accounts in an attempt to clean up the network, which could lead to users losing hundreds of followers. The site could delete the accounts of up to 10 million “pornbots” — accounts set up to post sexually explicit images — according to one analyst.
Twitter’s advertisers, through whom it makes most of its money, are said to be worried about the prevalence of porn on the site, where there marketing content can appear next to the posts.
Independent 19/5/2015
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Virtual reality porn is here to stay
Owners of virtual reality headsets will be free to experience pornography on their devices, according to the founder of the firm behind Oculus Rift. Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus VR which is now owned by Facebook, said the firm had would not aim to prevent the adult entertainment industry from using its technology. And the decision would mean that watching porn could become one of the most popular uses of virtual reality.
MailOnline 19/5/2015
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Jeremy Paxman: BBC TV licence fee clearly can’t last
Former Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman has said the TV licence fee “clearly can’t last” but said there was no alternative funding model for the BBC at present. Paxman said the £145.50 fee was unsustainable in the long term but said people had to ask themselves “would the world be a better place without the BBC?”
mediaGuardian 19/5/2015
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Facebook criticised for creating ‘two tier internet’ with Internet.org programme
Internet.org, Facebook’s initiative to expand internet access to the “next billion” people across the developing world, has come under attack from 67 digital rights groups worldwide for not doing enough to promote net neutrality alongside expanding access.
Guardian 19/5/2015
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TV licence loophole exploited by viewers – and the BBC’s critics
Hot on the heels of last week’s hyperbolic press reaction to John Whittingdale’s appointment as culture secretary, the Sunday Times reported that “1,000 a day stop paying for TV licence”. The story was followed up by the Daily Mail on Monday. Yet it seems fair to say that very little of that is strictly true. The 1,000 figure comes from a Barb survey which measured the number of households that claim to have no TV, or say they haven’t watched it in the past six months.
mediaGuardian 18/5/2015
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BBC Radio Norfolk’s Nick Conrad faces no action over rape remark
A BBC presenter who said women should “keep their knickers on” during a live debate about convicted rapist Ched Evans will face no action by Ofcom. BBC Radio Norfolk’s Nick Conrad made the comments during a phone-in about the ex-Sheffield United footballer.
The comments provoked 46 complaints and the BBC and the presenter apologised. Watchdog Ofcom said his comments “were offensive” and “not justified by the context of the show” but the BBC had taken steps to limit the offence.
BBCOnline 18/5/2015
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Number of TV licences rises despite more households giving up sets
More people are paying the BBC licence fee than two years ago, despite claims that the growing number of households going without a TV means 500,000 have decided to avoid the charge.
mediaGuardian 18/5/2015
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Good Morning Britain to be investigated over Nigel Farage interview
ITV’s Good Morning Britain is to be investigated by media regulator Ofcom over a possible breach of due impartiality rules after Ukip leader Nigel Farage was asked about his chances of winning the Thanet South constituency in the run-up to the election.
mediaGuardian 18/5/2015
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‘Impartial’ UKIP drama cleared by Ofcom
A Channel 4 docudrama that imagined a future where the UK Independence Party won the general election has been cleared by broadcasting watchdog Ofcom.
BBCOnline 18/5/2015
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Is your daily social media usage higher than average?
Social media swallows more than a quarter of time spent online and a third of all internet usage is now happening via mobile, a new global report has found. The average person has five social media accounts and spends around 1 hour and 40 minutes browsing these networks every day, accounting for 28pc of the total time spent on the internet.
Telegraph 17/5/2015
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Mobile phone bans ‘improve school exam results’
Banning mobile phones from schools has the effect of giving pupils an extra week’s education over the course of an academic year, researchers say. The study, published by the London School of Economics, looked at schools in four English cities and found test scores increased by more than 6% in those which banned phones.
BBCOnline 17/5/2015
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Are you addicted to your mobile phone?
According to the latest report by Ofcom, the communications industry regulator, which released figures this week, the average amount spent online has more than doubled from 9.9 hours a week 10 years ago to 20.5 hours. Meanwhile, a separate report suggests that the average Briton checks their phone 50 times in one day. And, in America, researchers have released a 20-point questionnaire to establish quite how addicted you are to your phone. To the first question – “How strongly do you agree with: ‘I would feel uncomfortable without constant access to information through my smartphone?’ ” – I answer “Very”.
Telegraph 13/5/2015
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Perfect son who admits watching explicit internet porn as a child warped his attitude towards women, and left him feeling depressed, anxious and mentally disturbed
The moment you meet Jonny Adams, he stands out as an exceptionally polite, thoughtful young man. With a first-class degree in motor sport engineering and with wholesome boy-next-door good looks, he is everything you would hope your son or future son-in-law might be. But it is testament to the pervasiveness of pornography that, by 12, Jonny was addicted to hard-core internet filth. Having grown up in the first generation of children with free access to internet porn, he is speaking out to say that not only must we warn our sons about the corrosive effects of porn — we must also tell our daughters.
The Daily Mail 13/5/2015
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Information Commissioner’s Office to review privacy in children’s apps
Children’s apps and websites are in the spotlight on privacy grounds again, after the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) announced a review of how these services collect data on their young users.
The ICO will review 50 sites and apps to find out what information that collect, how they explain it to children, and how they seek parental permission. Its study will be part of a wider, global review involving 28 other privacy bodies from around the world.
Guardian 12/5/2015
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Tony Hall tells BBC staff to be ‘bold and inventive’ as licence fee battle looms
Tony Hall has said that the BBC should be “bold and inventive about the future” in a note to all staff, which comes amid rightwing criticism of anti-Tory bias during the election and fears over the future of the licence fee.
mediaGuardian 12/5/2015
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BBC licence fee: Tories to try again to decriminalise non-payment
Plans to decriminalise the non-payment of the BBC licence fee are to be revived by the government, Downing Street said as it mapped out part of David Cameron’s second-term agenda.
mediaGuardian 12/5/2015
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Depression linked to rise in sexting and cyber-bullying, says psychiatrist
A leading psychiatrist is warning the rise in cyber-bullying and sexting among teenagers could lead to more adults with mental health problems. Dr Natasha Bijlani says a growing number of her adult patients have depressive or anxiety disorders linked to earlier online experiences.
Charities working with teenagers have told Newsbeat they’re seeing a rise in cases of cyber-bullying and sexting. Dr Bijlani says the consequences of that are “very worrying”. “Things that happen to adolescents carry on emotionally to their early adulthood and I’m seeing the repercussions of cyber-bullying and online harassment with patients who are over the age of 18,” she says.
BBC Newsbeat 11/5/2015
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Seven in 10 UK internet users happy to give away personal information
One in five people in the UK would never use their credit card online despite just under 70% of internet users saying they’re perfectly happy to give away their personal information, according to Ofcom. Over a quarter of those surveyed also said that they were unwilling to provide their mobile phone number online, but that they believed that giving away other personal information benefitted them in some way.
The UK’s telecoms regulator conducted a survey of 1,890 adults over the age of 16 and found that the average weekly internet usage has doubled in under 10 years and that less are concerned about it now standing at 51% down from 70% in 2005.
The survey also revealed that 60% of internet users felt they should be protected from inappropriate or offensive content, up nine percentage points in a year. One in five also felt concerned around fraud, security and privacy, where 28% were concerned by mobile apps.
Guaridan 11/5/2015
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We’re shunning TV sets to watch online as our internet use doubles in only a decade
You might think a cosy night in would see the family slumped on the sofa in front of the TV. But according to a survey, our rising internet use means we are less and less likely to watch shows on a traditional living room television set.
The poll, carried out by industry regulator Ofcom, revealed that Britons now spend twice the amount of time on the internet as they did a decade ago. Adults are surfing the web for an average of 20 hours and 30 minutes every week, with the biggest growth coming from tablets and smartphones, which allow people to conveniently watch videos on the move.
MailOnline 12/5/2015
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Doctor’s examination of male and female breasts leaves viewers squirming
So more than a few loyal This Morning viewers were left spluttering into their tea yesterday when a woman disrobed on their screens. The morning show included a segment on breast cancer checks, which saw a topless female volunteer have her breast examined first by a doctor and then by herself.
MailOnline 7/5/2015
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John Whittingdale becomes UK culture secretary
John Whittingdale is to take over from Sajid Javid as UK culture secretary, Prime Minister David Cameron has said. Mr Whittingdale has been chair of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee for a decade. One of his first duties will be to oversee negotiations for the BBC’s charter renewal. Last October, he said the TV licence “was unsustainable over 20 to 50 years”, it was “worse than a poll tax” and must be “tweaked immediately”.
He will also face the prospect of cuts to his department – the Department of Culture, Media and Sport – as the new government seeks to eliminate the national budget deficit. And press regulation will be on his agenda. He has previously argued against statutory regulation of the press and said the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics “strayed” far beyond its remit.
BBCNews 11/5/2015
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Sexting and online bullying is fuelling teenage depression
Sexting and online bullying are fuelling a surge of anxiety disorders in teenagers, experts warn. The problem is particularly severe for girls who fall victim to cruel remarks about their appearance and weight. Figures from the Priory Group, the country’s largest organisation for mental health hospitals and clinics, show admissions for anxiety in teenagers has risen by 50 per cent in only four years.
Psychiatrists blame sexting, in which youngsters text explicit photos of themselves to friends who then comment. They say some see it as a ‘form of courtship’ and the chance to be noticed by the opposite sex. But the photos can provoke extremely unkind comments, particularly if unflattering images of someone are sent round behind their backs. They are also worried about online bullying on websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Ask.fm – often by anonymous ‘trolls’ they have never met.
MailOnline 11/5/2015
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Bus company pulls topless ‘ride me’ adverts after outcry
A bus company has come under fire for promoting a new route with a poster on the back of its vehicles showing an apparently topless woman holding a sign saying “ride me all day for £3”. The adverts, by Cardiff-based New Adventure Travel, prompted outrage in the city and on social media.
Guardian 11/5/2015
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Revenge porn: ‘Street tactics’ can stamp out this industrial scale sexual crime
Law firm, McAllister Olivarius, has been lobbying for new laws against revenge pornography both here in the UK and in the US. We hope the new Tory government will recognise its importance as an issue. The new UK law criminalising revenge porn, which was passed earlier this year, sends a clear message that society will no longer tolerate this behaviour. It’s an important first step. Revenge porn has become an industrial scale phenomenon.
Telegraph 11/5/2015
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UK internet use doubles in a decade
People in the UK are spending twice as much time online as they were 10 years ago, fuelled by increasing use of tablets and smartphones, according to new research by the communications watchdog, Ofcom. Internet users aged 16 and over spent an average of 20 hours and 30 minutes online each week in 2014, up from 9 hours and 54 minutes in 2005.
Ofcom’s Media Use and Attitudes 2015 report revealed that the biggest increase in internet use is among 16-24 year olds, almost tripling from 10 hours and 24 minutes each week in 2005 to 27 hours and 36 minutes by the end of 2014. The trend has been driven by an increase in the take-up of tablets and smartphones over the last five years, Ofcom said.
Telegraph 11/5/2015
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Tory victory comes at a critical time for media, especially the BBC
It seems a good moment, with a clear election victor agreed far earlier than anyone had forecast, to predict the winners and losers of the media industry now that the Conservatives have returned to power. For the impact of this election on the sector at a critical juncture could be seismic.
Although David Cameron and George Osborne are likely to be kept far busier with new austerity measures, it is clearly the BBC which has most to worry about from the Conservative mandate. With the royal charter set to expire at the end of 2016, there are just 19 months to agree the future funding and structure of the corporation.
Guardian 10/5/2015
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Psychologist Philip Zimbardo: ‘Boys risk becoming addicted to porn, video games and Ritalin’
In the UK today, a young person is more likely to have a television in their bedroom than a father in their house by the end of their childhood. And even if fathers are around, their sons don’t engage with them much: boys spend 44 hours in front of a TV, smartphone or computer screen for every half hour in conversation with their fathers.
Philip Zimbardo’s book Man (Dis)connected: How Technology Has Sabotaged What It Means To Be Male. Why do boys need fathers?, by Zimbardo and his co-author Nikita D Coulombe, is about why boys don’t man up as previous generations of males ostensibly did.
They argue that, while girls are increasingly succeeding in the real world, boys are retreating into cyberspace, seeking online the security and validation they can’t get anywhere else. They are bored at school, increasingly have no father figures to motivate them, don’t have the skills to form real romantic relationships, feel entitled to have things done for them (usually by their parents) and seek to avoid a looming adulthood of debt, unfulfilling work and other irksome responsibilities. As a result, they disappear into their bedrooms where, he argues, they risk becoming addicted to porn, video games and Ritalin.
Guardian 9/5/2015
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Is Wi-Fi making your child ill?
Six years ago, Dr Erica Mallery-Blythe moved to the country, stopped carrying a mobile phone and sacrificed a successful career in emergency medicine to focus on a new medical interest – radiation emitted by Wi-Fi, mobiles and other wireless devices. She is now one of the country’s few professional advisers on medical conditions related to radiofrequency (RF) radiation and other electromagnetic fields (EMFs).
Telegraph 9/5/2015
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Can excessive gaming lead to a ‘crisis of masculinity’?
The excessive use of video games and free online pornography can cause a ‘crisis of masculinity’ for young men, according to a US psychologist. This leaves them bored in school, disinterested in human contact, and opting out of society, argues Dr Philip Zimbardo in his new book Man (Dis)connected.
Dr Zimbardo said he was “sounding an alarm” about the dangers of excessive use of video games – which he qualified as more than five hours a day – and free online porn.
BBC Radio4 Today 7/5/2015
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Teens are using Twitter to pester their parents
What’s happened to “pester power” in the modern day? How do teenagers hint about gifts to parents or show them the brands they admire? ResearchBods, an independent research firm, undertook a UK study with a group of just over 1,000 people. The sample included 506 young adults aged between 14- and 21-years-old, and 505 parents of kids in that particular age range. All were active Twitter users (in this case, defined as using the site once a month or more) who claimed to have an interest in sportswear – a specific topic chosen for the report.
Guardian 7/5/2015
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Online videos can cause post-traumatic stress disorder
Social media users risk suffering symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder from viewing violent news events such as school shootings and suicide bombings, warn psychologists. Almost a quarter of those who had seen graphic images – often uploaded from bystanders’ phones – had lasting effects such as flashbacks, anxiety, insomnia and nightmares.
Previously it had been assumed PTSD symptoms could only be experienced by those who had personally witnessed violence or shared the experiences of the victims, said chartered psychologist Dr Pam Ramsden from the University of Bradford. But her research suggests that second-hand exposure through social media can be as harmful, primarily because it is un-edited and carries no health warnings.
The research will add to growing concerns about the proliferation of violent and explicit material on social media- including deliberately graphic videos of horrific violence posted by extremists.
MailOnline 7/5/2015
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My Facebook profile was stolen to get dates on Tinder – and there’s nothing I can do
When Lana Price* received a text from a friend in London saying he’d seen her photos on Tinder, she assumed it was a joke. It wasn’t until her friend sent her a screen shot of a girl named ‘Lilly’ on the dating app that she started to worry. The Cardiff-based 27-year-old had never opened a Tinder account and hadn’t been to London for months, so there was no mistaking that this was an imposter.
“This is a situation that many women can relate to and it is sadly more common than people may think” says Dr Laura Toogood, managing director at Digitalis, the online reputation and digital intelligence firm.
“It is a frightening reality that you can have your private photos, and other information, used and distributed without your knowledge or permission. The security issues surrounding this type of identity theft can be wide ranging.”
Telegraph 7/5/2015
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Miu Miu ad banned for appearing to sexualise a child
An ad campaign for fashion brand Miu Miu that ran in Vogue magazine has been banned for ppearing to sexualise a child. Miu Miu, which is owned by Prada, ran a double-page ad that appeared to be shot through a slightly open doorway revealing a young woman reclining on a bed.
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority received a complaint that the image looked as if a child had been dressed as an adult in a sexually suggestive pose which was irresponsible and offensive.
mediaGuardian 6/5/2015
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EU wants iPlayer access extended across Europe
UK citizens may be able to continue using catch-up services including the BBC’s iPlayer and Sky’s Now TV as they travel across the European Union. The proposal is part of a wider-ranging European Commission initiative for a “digital single market”. The regulator says it wants to boost the use of online goods and services by introducing new rules. But the technology industry has warned that some of the suggested changes could undermine that goal. The measure affecting internet catch-up services would become possible thanks to a pledge to reduce the differences between national copyright laws.
BBC News Online 6/5/2015
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Jessica Raine: I’ve had enough of watching women get abused
The former Call the Midwife star Jessica Raine has criticised the number of TV crime dramas in which “women get abused”. Asked about her own TV viewing habits, Raine, who shot to fame as nurse Jenny Lee in Call the Midwife, told Radio Times magazine that the schedules contained too much violence.
The Guardian 5/5/2015
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Top Gear investigated by Ofcom over Pike’s Peak pun
BBC Two’s Top Gear is being investigated by watchdog Ofcom over the use of the word “pikey” in an episode broadcast in February last year. The BBC Trust rejected the Traveller Movement’s original complaint in March, but the group have brought it to Ofcom. It was sparked by a placard featuring the words “Pikey’s Peak” which host Jeremy Clarkson put up after a race between 1980s hatchbacks. Clarkson has since been axed from the show, after a “fracas” with a producer.
BBC News Online 5/5/2015
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Sexting could see teenagers branded as sex offenders
Teenagers are being unfairly labelled as sex offenders for sending explicit messages to each other, campaigners have said. They say criminalising 16- to 18-year-olds for sending explicit pictures to one another shows how disconnected the political establishment is from changes to technology and social values. A teenager younger than 18 who takes a nude picture of themselves using a cameraphone is guilty of the serious offence of creating child pornography. This is the case even if they are over 16, the age of sexual consent.
Guardian 4/5/2015
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The second edition of Child Internet Safety Magazine is now available.
Issues covered include bullying, teaching e-safety, extreme content and social media.
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How Old Do I Look: another way to feel bad about yourself online
Microsoft’s new facial analysis tool How Old Do I Look has sent self-esteem levels spiralling down across the world since being released on Wednesday. Using “state-of-the-art, cloud-based algorithms” to recognise human faces, the tool takes a stab at guessing your age and gender from a photo alone, with the results ranging from flattering to decades out.
Guardian 1/5/2015
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Parents have duty to play with children, says Hunt
After his speech to the conference in Liverpool, Labour’s Tristram Hunt told reporters: “Whenever I talk to head teachers one of the big issues is the development and underdevelopment of speaking and listening skills, those motor skills, and what that comes from is playing and talking to children, getting down on all fours from goo-goo, ga-ga onwards.”
“I’m struck by how often head teachers say this has got markedly worse over the last decade, and whether that’s a story of technology, with TVs and smartphones, whether it’s poverty through both parents both working and not having enough time or whether it’s about a failure to understand the importance of this, I’m not sure, but it’s definitely a challenge in the education system.”
BBCOnline 1/5/2015
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Nigel Farage steps up attack on BBC after Question Time row
The BBC would lose funding and influence with Ukip in power, Nigel Farage has said. The Ukip leader has stepped up his battle with the broadcaster, accusing it of bias and undermining his party’s challenge for seats at next week’s general election. Farage was not invited to take part in the main Question Time-style programme with David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg on Thursday but did take part in an individual show broadcast separately in England and Wales.
The Guardian 1/5/2015
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YouTube: four of its five biggest channels are aimed at kids
Four of the five most popular YouTube channels in March are aimed at children, and they racked up nearly 1.5bn video views between them that month. The latest chart from online video analytics firm OpenSlate and industry site Tubefilter shows that US-based toy unboxing channel Funtoys Collector was the biggest YouTube channel by some distance in March, with 477.5m views.
The Guardian 1/5/2015
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Russia beefs up anti-piracy laws
Russia is beefing up the law it uses to tackle online piracy. The law was introduced in mid-2013 and gave the authorities the power to tell internet companies to cut off access to sites found to be pirating media. As first enacted, the law only applied to sites that shared pirated movies and TV shows. The updated law has been expanded to cover sites that share links to pirated music, books and software. It does not cover images.
BBC News Online 1/5/2015
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