Trinity Mount Ministries

Showing posts with label the guardian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the guardian. Show all posts

Thursday, September 19, 2019

YouTube’s Fine & Child Safety Online


YouTube for targeting adverts at children as if they were adults shows progress is being made on both sides of the Atlantic, writes Steve Wood of the Information Commissioner’s Office

The conclusion of the Federal Trade Commission investigation into YouTube’s gathering of young people’s personal information (‘Woeful’ YouTube fine for child data breach, 5 September) shows progress is being made on both sides of the Atlantic towards a more children-friendly internet. The company was accused of treating younger users’ data in the same way it treats adult users’ data.

YouTube’s journey sounds similar to many other online services: it began targeting adults, found more and more children were using its service, and so continued to take commercial advantage of that. But the allegation is it didn’t treat those young people differently, gathering their data and using it to target content and adverts at them as though they were adult users.

In response to the FTC investigation, the company is now making changes, and we expect that other major platforms are planning to learn from this complaint. That impetus for change is mirrored in the UK, where the Information Commissioner’s Office code to ensure online services are better designed with children in mind will be with the secretary of state in November. This will ensure a privacy-by-default approach is taken by online services likely to be accessed by children, including standards that will require features such as location tracking to be switched off by default. It is welcome progress. The internet has evolved in a way that makes too little distinction between adults and children. Few parents would disagree that change is necessary.

Steve Wood
Deputy commissioner, ICO

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

UK - Underfunding to blame for child protection 'crisis', says report


Often only option is to remove them from families, says ex-Tory children’s minister

Patrick Butler - Social policy editor

A former Tory children’s minister has blamed the government’s “woeful underfunding” of local authorities for a crisis in child protection that is putting the safety of vulnerable young people at risk.

The MP Tim Loughton, who served as children’s minister in David Cameron’s coalition government, said pressure on safeguarding services in some areas was so severe that often the only way to guarantee safety for children was to take them into care.

In some places, the pressure on children’s services is so acute it is leaving social workers feeling that the only tool available to them to keep a child safe is to remove them from their family,” said Loughton, who is the co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for children. 

Millions of children in England growing up in high risk environments

“As a result, families may look at these skilled and caring professionals with mistrust. But this is wrong. It is the woeful underfunding by government of a proper breadth of social care interventions that is to blame.”

This meant safeguarding interventions were becoming more invasive, rather than supportive, leading to families being broken up unnecessarily, the report said. “Social workers often feel that removing a child from their family is the only tool available to them to keep children safe.”

Social workers told the inquiry that the shift to a more invasive approach was driven by a risk-averse approach born out of fear of media scandal, by professionals’ lack of experience in supporting families, and a lack of resources.

The UK child protection system is laudable. Why risk it with reform? | Ray Jones

One social work team manager told the inquiry: “Local support services such as family centres, family support units, [and] parenting classes are no longer available ... social workers feel unable to manage and work with risk without those services and therefore seek to remove children from home.”

The report comes amid concern that growing pressure on children’s services, fuelled by increasing numbers of youngsters being taken into care, is overwhelming the family justice system and threatening the financial stability of councils already struggling with shrinking budgets.

The group said in 2016-17 local authorities in England overspent by £430m on children in care and by £172m on safeguarding. Funding for children’s services fell by 24% in real terms between 2010 and 2015, while a £2bn budget shortfall was predicted to open up by 2020.

“It is unacceptable that children’s safety is potentially being undermined by a lack of sufficient resources,” the report concluded.

Austerity will have cast an extra 1.5m children into poverty by 2021 

The inquiry called on ministers to tackle the funding shortfall for children’s social care and to consider introducing a legal duty on local authorities to provide early help services for children.

Loughton was under-secretary of state for children and families between 2010 and 2012. He led a previous AAPG inquiry on child protection in 2017 which concluded that nine out of 10 local authorities were struggling to meet their legal duties.

Anna Feuchtwang, the director of the National Children’s Bureau, which provides administrative support for the APPG, said: “It makes no moral sense that families are left to face crisis and children are put at risk of serious harm because services are chronically underfunded.”

Roy Perry, the vice-chairman of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, said: “This report is yet further evidence that children’s services are being pushed to the brink."


Sunday, March 25, 2018

Jehovah's Witnesses accused of silencing victims of child abuse:

Scores of alleged victims come forward and describe culture of cover-up in religious group in UK.

by Sarah Marsh

More than a hundred people have made allegations of mistreatment.

More than 100 people have contacted the Guardian with allegations of child sexual abuse and other mistreatment in Jehovah’s Witness communities across the UK.

Former and current members, including 41 alleged victims of child sexual abuse, described a culture of cover-ups and lies, with senior members of the organisation, known as elders, discouraging victims from coming forward for fear of bringing “reproach on Jehovah” and being exiled from the congregation and their families.

A Guardian investigation also heard from 48 people who experienced other forms of abuse, including physical violence when they were children, and 35 who witnessed or heard about others who were victims of child grooming and abuse.

The stories told to the Guardian ranged from events decades ago to more recent, and many of those who came forward have now contacted the police.

They told the Guardian about:

An organisation that polices itself and teaches members to avoid interaction with outside authorities.

A rule set by the main governing body of the religion that means for child sexual abuse to be taken seriously there must be two witnesses.

“I was sexually abused many times a week from the age of three until I was 12. Congregation elders knew that when I told them, at 12, what had been happening. No steps were taken to tell the police. I had to tell three male senior figures what had happened. Imagine that? A young girl telling a bunch of men what this man did to me. I wasn’t even allowed to have my mother there with me.”

After she went to the police about what had happened, the person who abused her pleaded guilty and was eventually convicted. “The Jehovah’s Witnesses should lose their charity status as they are not protecting children,” she added. She said she had mental health issues as a result of what happened and how it was dealt with.

Jason Munro says he was abused for 10 years.

Jason Munro, another alleged victim of sexual abuse who waived his right to anonymity, could not give details of his case due to a current investigation but said: “I am completely horrified by the Jehovah’s Witnesses ... I didn’t get support and I experienced 10 years of abuse. Elders knew in my teens about the abuse but it was never a case of ‘let’s get this person the professional help he needs’.”

When a Jehovah’s Witness experiences sexual abuse they are supposed to report it to elders, who are always men, who will take further action if there is a second witness to the offence. The perpetrator will then be called before a judicial committee if they admit abuse or if there is a second witness.

“This causes further trauma to the victim and coupled with the two-witness rule, is undoubtedly the reason that so many victims have never reported it,” said Kathleen Hallisey, senior solicitor in the abuse team at Bolt Burdon Kemp, who is currently acting on behalf of 15 alleged victims.

She also noted that the problem with the two-witness rule in the context of sexual abuse was that there were rarely witnesses to it, “meaning that [these] reports ... are usually dismissed”.

It has been reported that the headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the UK, the Watch Tower, holds a database of abuse allegations made within the organisation but has yet to hand it over to authorities.

The Charity Commission launched an investigation in 2013 looking into the Manchester New Moston congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, concluding that it did not deal adequately with allegations of child abuse made against one of the trustees.

READ MORE

Trinity Mount Ministries