Daily roundup: Junk food, child porn and social work ethics
Tristan Donovan
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Food firms accused of bypassing ad rules, government summit to tackle child porn online, and a code of ethics for social workers, all in the news today.
The World Health Organisation has accused food manufacturers of trying to bypass rules designed to prevent the advertising of unhealthy products to children. The Guardian says that the UN health agency wants European countries to introduce tighter rules on the marketing of food and drink with high levels of fat, salt or sugar.
Tech giants including Google, Yahoo! and Facebook are to meet with culture secretary Maria Miller today to discuss ways to prevent people accessing child porn online. BBC News says the government wants internet firms to do more to stop people accessing images of child sexual abuse and to prevent children from viewing legal adult porn online.
The College of Social Work has published a code of ethics for its members. The college says that its code is more specific to social work than the Health and Care Professions Council code of conduct, which all social workers must follow.
Youth groups have joined forces to encourage young people to take social action. The Generation Change coalition brings together 13 organisations including BeatBullying, City Year and vInspired. Sophie Livingstone, chief executive of the youth group City Year, said: “Through Generation Change we hope to make social action a normal part of growing up in the UK today.”
Families should have a right to childcare for children aged from birth to 15, according to the Scottish Parliament’s Equal Opportunities Committee. The Scotsman reports that the committee has identified a lack of comprehensive childcare as a major barrier to women achieving in the workplace.
And finally, the first National Youth Film Festival will take place from 21 October to 8 November this year. The festival replaces the National Schools Film Week and will give youth groups and schools the opportunity to take children to the cinema free. The festival will also run activities to help young people learn more about film.