Terrorist who killed 51 people in New Zealand sought information and inspiration on YouTube
- The Australian white supremacist who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand was radicalized by watching videos that were posted on YouTube, according to a 792-page report on the March 2019 shooting
- “What particularly stood out was the statement that the terrorist made, that he was not a frequent commentator on extreme right-wing sites and YouTube was a significant source of information and inspiration’,” said Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s Prime Minister
- The YouTube citations are part of a larger inquiry into the hate crime to see if it could have been prevented
- For more information on Algorithms, read our recent article here
Children’s Commissioner warns that encryption is putting children at risk
- Encryption of online messages could make it harder to police child abuse and grooming online, the Children’s Commissioner for England has warned
- End-to-end encryption is a privacy feature that makes it impossible for anyone except the sender and recipient to read messages sent online
- Commissioner Anne Longfield said it also prevented police from gathering evidence to prosecute child abusers
- Digital rights groups see it as an essential part of online privacy.
- Facebook, which is behind the most popular messaging apps children use, already offers end-to-end encryption for Whatsapp
- It has added an opt-in version to its Messenger service, with plans to make it the default for all its platforms. That could include Instagram, which does not yet have it
Call to provide laptops for all school children having to self isolate
- All school children should be given a laptop if they don’t have access to an electronic device at home, the shadow Children’s Minister has said, as concern mounts over a lack of access to online learning in England
- Tulip Siddiq called for urgent investment to ensure children having to self-isolate had access to laptops to enable them to learn remotely, as hundreds of thousands of pupils each day are unable to attend school due to coronavirus
- Speaking to The Independent, the Labour MP said digital access had become an “essential” part of children’s education, and that failing to ensure all pupils had an electronic device was creating a “huge gap” between the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and their peers
National Lottery player age to rise amid concerns for young people
- The age limit for playing the National Lottery is set to be raised from 16 to 18 from next October as the government moves to crack down on gambling
- The government has pledged a “major and wide-ranging review” of the sector, which may include limits on online stakes and restrictions on advertising
- Betting firms could also be banned from sponsoring football shirts
- The current legislation, established in 2005, was “an analogue law in a digital age”, according to the government
- Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said the aim of the review was to tackle “problem gambling in all its forms to protect children and vulnerable people”
- The age threshold for playing the National Lottery will rise from October 2021. Before that, online sales to 16 and 17-year-olds will stop in April 2021
- “We’re committed to protecting young people from gambling-related harm, which is why we are raising the minimum age for the National Lottery,” said sport minister Nigel Huddleston
