Daily roundup 27 October: Adult websites, term-time absences, and pocket money

Pornographic websites may be required to verify people using them are over 18 years of age, under plans being considered by the government. The Independent reports that due to fears about the ease with which children can access pornographic material on the internet, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is considering making owners of sites that feature adult content to employ tools to check users' ages, a system that is already in place on gambling websites.


New guidance for head teachers in England on the situations in which pupils can be given time off during term time have been drawn up. The BBC reports that a crackdown has seen a rise in parents being fined for unauthorised absences, but parents have said the rules are confusing. Guidelines drafted by the head teachers' union, the NAHT, state that funerals, weddings and religious events will count as acceptable "exceptional circumstances", but cheap holidays will not be a good enough reason.


Children’s pocket money has increased at twice the rate of wage inflation since the 1980s, research has found. The Daily Mail reports that a study by Halifax building society found that, on average, children aged between eight and 15 in the UK receive £6.35 a week pocket money – up from an average of £1.13, a rise of 462 per cent, since 1987. The typical annual wage has increased by 188 per cent, from £11,648 in 1987 to £33,511 in 2014.


Children as young as eight are to be steered away from radicalisation as part of a project being launched in Bradford. The Telegraph & Argus reports that the city’s police and crime commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson has rubberstamped funding for work intended to pluck children in the eight to 14 age group from the influence of those who seek to influence them with radical religious messages. The cash will allow specialist workers to work with up to 36 children.


More than one in three schoolchildren in Northamptonshire say they know someone who has had naked pictures of them posted online without permission. The Northampton Chronicle reports that a survey of 2,000 children by Northamptonshire Rape & Incest Crisis Centre revealed that 34 per cent 11- to 16-year-olds in the county know someone who had shared naked or sexual pictures with a friend via the internet or mobile phone – who then circulated them.


Residents in North Lincolnshire have criticised a children’s home for opening before planning permission has been granted. The Scunthorpe Telegraph reports that the home in Eastoft, run by the Cambian Group, is waiting for clarification on planning permission, but is already in use. Residents say the location is “wholly inappropriate” for a children’s home.