A new application Samaritans Radar will help to identify potential suicides on Twitter. The application has been launched by the Samaritans charity.

The new app will notify Twitter users if people they follow on the site appear to be suicidal. Samaritans Radar uses an algorithm to identify key words and phrases which indicate distress. They include “tired of being alone”, “hate myself”, “depressed”, “help me” and “need someone to talk to.” Users who have signed up for the scheme will receive an email alert if someone they follow tweets these statements.

The app asks whether the tweets are cause for concern. However it does not yet identify sarcasm, according to the website.

Samaritans Radar was created by digital agency Jam and uses Twitter’s API. It is primarily aimed at 18-35 year olds.

“They are the most active age group across social platforms and spend an average of just over three hours daily on social networks,” said Patricia Cartes, global head of trust and safety outreach at Twitter.

Samaritans said it was looking at extending the service to other social media networks in the future.

Source: bbc.com

We have already published a piece of news about the Dutch non-profit organization for the prevention of violence against children, that created a virtual girl named Sweetie which tried to catch out paedophiles online asking children to perform sex acts on a webcam.

Recently, the Brisbane District Court found Scott Robert Hansen guilty of crimes of a sexual nature, who confirmed sending Sweetie his explicit photos and storing child pornography on his computer, thus breaking the law.

At the disposal of the BBC BBC there were recording online communication of Hansen and Sweetie, which shows that the defendant had really been committing sexual acts in the presence of the child.

Under court order, the fact that Hansen’s victim was virtual does not matter. It is enough that he believed Sweetie was a child.

Hansen has been sentenced to two years in prison, but is unlikely to serve the full term of his sentence as he has already served eight months in detention. He will have to serve an intensive correction order for 12 months.

He was sentenced to an intensive corrections order for 12 months as he committed sexual offences.

For the whole period of this project, tens thousands of men came into contact with Sweetie. Data on thousands of potential suspects have been transferred to Interpol and sent to 71 countries.

Source: bbc.co.uk

During the American Public Health Association meeting Jennifer Harris, the Director of Marketing Initiatives at the Rudd Center noted that technological progress plays a dual role. While the traditional television advertising becomes less attractive to younger gourmands, “diners have a lot of [other] ways to attract children’s attention.” One of these ways are social networks that have received so high popularity among children and youth that TV cannot gain the same results.

Researchers recommend to restrict advertising aimed at kids on television and in the web-space of fast food outlets. This industry should introduce age restrictions on access to their marketing facilities in social media and via mobile devices.

Researcher’s concern has already yielded results. Thus, child-oriented websites such as McDonald’s, Burger King and Dairy Queen stopped working. However, a big amount of advertising that was previously broadcasted on websites, has moved on Facebook. In 2012, the fast food advertising was broadcasted on “Facebook” 6 billion times.

Source: econet

Georgian Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani, together with her colleagues from over 50 countries, signed the ministerial declaration on combating child pornography and violence.

The Justice Ministry of Georgia reported that the 2^nd Ministerial Conference of the Global Alliance against Child Sexual Abuse Online was held in Washington, D.C. in the U.S.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom organized the conference.

The global alliance brings together over 50 countries. Its goal is to work to fight a growing criminal network, which is engaged in online trading of photos and videos of child sexual abuse.

In his address, Eric Holder spoke of coordination in this work and about the need to educate children with a view to prevention.

Source: AZERNEWS

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According to the State Department of the United States, besides the USA, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and Russia are among the five leading countries for the production of child porn. These states are on the black list due to their low standard of living and weak legislation against porn creators.

Although the United States holds the highest position in this list. According to ECPAT International, half of the world pornographic materials produced there. Analysts attribute their absolute leadership to the fact that this country is the oldest and most experienced global manufacturer of porn, and in American society there is a huge demand for these products. America is also the leader in the number of porn sites – there are more than 60% of the existing ones in the world.

However, more than 30% of child pornography on the Internet is placed by the providers from CIS, ECPAT claims. According to the IWF research, Ukraine is on the seventh place according to the dissemination of pornographic materials. According to an ECPAT consultant, Olga Swede, Ukrainian and Belorussian kids appear in pornographic commercials more often than any other children.

As the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, Gennady Moskal claims, Ukraine has already won the European leadership in the production of child porn. “Western European countries have adapted their legislation in the way that a pervert will not approach a child. And, due to the lack of laws in Ukraine the permissiveness is thriving, and the police can catch only 5-10% of pedophiles,” he told.

According to the survey done by the Institute of Sociology of NAS of Ukraine, more than 28% of young Ukrainians are ready to send their photos to online strangers, and 22% of young compatriots periodically visit adult sites.

In total, up to 15,000 Ukrainian children, who are mainly homeless or come from troubled families are involved in this criminal business. According to the International Women’s Rights Center “La Strada-Ukraine”, the age of most young actors vary from four to ten.

Source: Корреспондент.net

As Tengrinews.kz reports, Rauan Shaekin, the Member of Parliament, asked Karim Massimov, the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, to consider the request to ban synthetic drugs in Kazakhstan.

As Shaekin noted, synthetic drugs are not included in the summary table, which makes the prosecution for their distribution difficult, whereas the long-term use leads to psychological dependence, and after the cessation drug users suffer from psychosis, which has similar signs as the narcotic psychosis. Young people are disoriented in time, space, and even in their own personality. Usually it ends up in death.

According to Shaekin, synthetic drugs can be purchased in online shops, entertainment establishments, nightclubs. Private musical event organizations are also practiced, where synthetic drugs are freely spread among friends and confidants, previously invited to events through social networks.

The MP also links the growth in the number of suicide among adolescents and young adults with the use of synthetic drugs. He cited data from Russian studies which link the dependence of the use of this type of drugs with the number of suicides among teenagers.

Source: Tengrinews.kz

According to the press service of the city prosecutor’s office, pornographic materials have been found in the Children’s City Library of Alushta.

In the computer room of the children’s library, Internet filters, which are to block links to the “adult” resources, are not installed.

“During the surveillance activities it was revealed that among the library patrons are men who leave undesirable content on computers”, – the report says.

Police are verifying the compliance of the education legislation.

Source: газета.ru

The CTO of eBay, Inc., sent his children to school without computers. So did the staff of other world’s largest technology corporations, like Google, Apple, Yahoo, Hewlett-Packard. This school has a very simple old-fashioned look – board with colored chalk, bookshelves with encyclopedias, wooden desks with notebooks and pencils.

Proponents of learning without IT-technologies believe that computers inhibit creative thinking, mobility, human interaction and attention. These parents believe that when it is really necessary to acquaint children with the latest technology, they will always have the required skills and needed capabilities at home.

Paul Thomas, a former teacher and a current professor at Furman University, who wrote 12 books about educational methods in public institutions, claims that the educational process is better when less computers are used. “Education – is primarily a human feelings, gaining experience,” says Paul Thomas. “Technology only distracts when literacy, numeracy and critical thinking skills are needed.”

When technology-based learning supporters claim that computer literacy is needed to face the challenges of our time, parents, who believe that computers are not needed, wonder why children must learn to use computers promptly if it is so easy to learn? “It’s super easy. That’s almost the same as learning to brush their teeth,” says Mr. Eagle, a member of the Silicon Valley. “In places like Google we do technologies as stupidly simple as possible. I do not see the reason why children can not absorb them when they get older.”

Students themselves do not consider themselves deprived of high-techs. They sometimes watch movies, play computer games. Children say that they are even disappointed when they see their parents or relatives enmeshed in different devices.

Source: igor-grek.com

United Nations agencies, together with partners of the Child Online Protection Initiative, today released new guidelines to “provide the most accessible online tools for teens as well as to enable them to seek help and advice when they need it.”

“These guidelines, prepared in partnership with the Child Online Protection initiative, respond to substantial advances in technology to assess and respond to children’s needs in the online world,” said Hamadoun I. Touré, the Secretary-General of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

“The revolution in online communications have created tremendous opportunities for young people today, but at the same time they have been exposed to new risks in cyberspace,” Mr. Touré said.

The Guidelines for Industry on Child Online Protection provide advice on how the information and communications technology (ICT) industry can help promote safety for children using the Internet or any technologies or devices that can connect to it, as well as guidance on how to enable responsible digital citizenship, learning and civic participation.

The updated version provides guidance specifically aimed at companies that develop, provide or make use of ICTs.

One of the partners of the initiative, Simon Milner, Policy Director, Facebook, said in a press release issued jointly by ITU and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF): “Children’s online safety is a responsibility we all share: from those who care for and teach children, to the companies who provide online services, to policy-makers.

“Our goal at Facebook is to provide the most accessible online tools for teens as well as to enable them to seek help and advice when they need it,” Mr. Milner said. “The Guidelines provide a framework for company action on children’s online safety, so we appreciated the opportunity to contribute our expertise to their development. They are practical, evidence-based and should be impactful.”

The Guidelines call for a comprehensive response to the online risks facing children and partnerships across multiple stakeholder groups, including governments, companies, civil society, parents and educators.

“Innovation by the private sector has helped drive the digital revolution. The same spirit of innovation is key to expanding the reach of that revolution to the most disadvantaged children – and to keeping all children safer, more connected, and more engaged as digital citizens of the future,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.

Source: UN News Center