Samaritans Radar app will identify potential suicides on Twitter

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

There has been the first adjudication upon a case of sexual harassment in relation to virtual child

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

Social networks advertise fast food, which is mainly aimed at children

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

Georgia joins ministerial declaration on combating child pornography

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 2nd 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

Ukraine is among the top five countries for the production of child porn

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

 

Synthetic drugs as a cause of growth in the number of suicides among adolescents

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

Pornographic materials have been found in the Children’s Library in Crimea

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 leading members of IT-technologies send their children to school without computers

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

Safekaznet project has entered the social initiatives competition organized by “Reach for Change”

Safekaznet project has entered the social initiatives competition organized by “Reach for Change”. The creation of a website directed at searching for missing kids on the territory of Kazakhstan became the idea that has been represented on the competition. The idea arises from the fact that nowadays there is a database in our country which includes a few thousand of missing adolescents and young children. With the creation of the website, which will include photos and information about these children, members of civil society will be able to follow the information and quickly report if they have any data about a missing child. In addition, it is planned to implement the technology of the photo creation that allows to understand how a child may look like at the moment. This is especially actual for cases dealing with children who have gone missing for a long time.

Reach for Change is a non-profit organization founded by the group of companies Kinnevik. It aims to improve the quality of life of children and adolescents and observance of their rights. The Fund searches for and supports individuals, companies and organizations whose activities are aimed at improving the lives of children and adolescents. The Fund holds an annual competition for social entrepreneurs in order to find interesting ideas and choose one of the potentially successful ones.

Through information campaigns, Reach for Change increases the level of public awareness and promotes social entrepreneurship as the best tool for the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Press service of the “Internet Association of Kazakhstan”, ULE