Social media giants ‘weighing up single method of reporting abuse’  

  • iNews has reported that the Web Foundation has held discussions with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google and TikTok to discuss a single, more coherent method of reporting abuse to reduce the onslaught of gender-based violence on social media 
  • The social media giants have been participating in talks with the Web Foundation, an organisation founded by Sir Tim and Rosemary Leith, in a new project alongside women’s rights groups created to devise new methods of curbing online harassment, starting with abuse against women 
  • Adrian Lovett, Chief Executive of the Web Foundation, said that while in the real world “everyone knows to call 999”, different abuse-reporting mechanisms across different platforms makes the process much less clear online, coupled with a lack of user awareness and clarity around how to flag abuse for moderation 
  • For the full story, select here 

 

     

    Paedophile jailed after grooming children he met playing online video games 

    • sex offender who groomed young boys he met during online video gaming sessions has been jailed 
    • The offender from Wigan, has been sentenced to six years imprisonment, at Bolton Crown Court 
    • The 28-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images, three counts of distributing indecent images, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, inciting a boy to engage in sexual activity, attempting to arrange sexual activity with a child, and possession of a bladed article 
    • On February 8, 2018, the offender contacted a 10-year-old boy that he had played online against, on Xbox One video game ‘Tom Clancy’s The Division’, prosecution Barrister Jonathan Savage told the court 
    • After persuading the child to download messaging app Kik, the conversation ‘very quickly became intimate’ 
    • For the full story, select here 

     

    Twitter Testing New Feature To Improve Image Sharing in Response To Racism Concerns 

    • Popular microblogging platform Twitter is currently testing a new image sharing feature for Android and iOS for single-image tweets 
    • Twitter said it is “now testing on Android and iOS: when you Tweet a single image, how the image appears in the Tweet composer is how it will look on the timeline –– bigger and better” 
    • Twitter said the new feature will allow single photos to be displayed in the original ratio while currently, Twitter algorithms automatically change image ratios in preview to display them in the users’ timeline 
    • For the full story, select here 

      Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee warns of widening digital divide  

        • The creator of the web says coronavirus has highlighted the importance of internet connectivity as a basic right 
        • Sir Tim Berners-Lee says too many young people do not have internet access and the digital divide has widened during the pandemic 
        • He called on governments to invest to provide universal broadband by 2030 
        • “We can’t afford not to do it,” he wrote in his annual letter to mark the anniversary of the world wide web 
        • For the full story, select here 

         

         

        Barman jailed after grooming and assaulting 12-year-old girl  

            • A Sutton Coldfield bar worker has been jailed after driving a sexual assault victim, aged just 12, to self-harm and suicide bids 
            • The offender, aged 33, groomed the 12-year-old in Northamptonshire before sexually assaulting her in a park in Irchester, East Midlands 
            • The registered sex offender conducted the vile assault on August 6, 2018 
            • The 33-year-old bar owner from Leicester has been given an extended sentence of 10 years and two months in prison 
            • Judge Adrienne Lucking told the court the defendant was already a registered sex offender having appeared before Birmingham Crown Court in November 2015 
            • He had previously received a community order after pleading guilty to making indecent images of children and possessing prohibited images of children 
            • For the full story, report here