Daily roundup 21 October: Sexual offences, charity administration, and FGM

The House of Lords has agreed to make "revenge porn" a criminal offence in England and Wales. Under the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill, the sharing of a private sexual image of someone without their consent and to cause distress will be punishable by up to two years in prison. The change, which still has to be approved by MPs, covers the sharing of physical and online copies, and text messages, reports the BBC.


Charity Beatbullying has gone into administrators owing to “significant financial difficulties”. The online counselling service for children, has closed down, with visitors redirected to the Samaritans and ChildLine, the Times reports. It received a £500,000 grant from the government last year to launch a new children’s mental health online service called MindFull, which has also been suspended.


The government will move to create new civil orders to protect potential victims of female genital mutilation following a consultation on the proposals. The idea was first mooted by Prime Minister David Cameron in July. The government will legislate for the orders through the Serious Crime Bill, which is currently going through parliament.


Numbers of children suffering from vitamin D deficiency has almost tripled in the space of four years, NHS figures show. The Telegraph reports that experts want parents to consider giving their children vitamin D supplements to avoid the risk of rickets.


Changes must be made to the child protection system to prevent children falling victim to sexual exploitation and abuse, a senior health professional has claimed. The Manchester Evening News reports that professor Andrew Rowland, a consultant in paediatric emergency medicine for Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, says better training for professionals and a new law making it a requirement for anyone working in an organisation caring for young people to report "any reasonable" suspicion of exploitation, must be introduced.


A professor from the University of Bedfordshire has been appointed to the panel of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse by the Home Secretary, Theresa May. Jenny Pearce, who researches child sexual exploitation, violence and trafficking at the university said it is “vital that the mistakes of the past are identified, and that lessons are learned so they are not repeated”.


Teenagers who are regular cannabis users by the age of 15 risk "impairing" their educational ability, suggests a study of young people in the UK. But the research shows occasional use does not seem linked to reduced achievement. It is based on a long-term study tracking the health of people born in the Bristol area in the 1990s, reports the BBC.