Protecting Victims of Domestic Violence — Have We Got the Balance Right?

That states should act to prevent domestic violence and protect victims is clearly acknowledged in international law. Yet international law confirms also that victims, perpetrators and their families have rights to privacy, to a family life and to a home. The extent to which rights to respect for private and family life should be interfered with in order to protect victims remains in dispute. With the aim of improving the protection afforded to domestic violence victims in England and Wales, in 2011–2012 the police and courts piloted the use of two new short-term protective measures; domestic violence protection notices and orders. Between 2012 and 2013 the police also piloted the domestic violence disclosure scheme, which saw prospective victims provided with information about their partner’s previous violent behaviour. The disclosure scheme and the domestic violence protection orders and notices were rolled out nationally in March 2014. In this article, consideration is given to the impact these two initiatives will have on the privacy of victims and perpetrators, an issue not considered in government evaluations of the pilots. This article analyses whether the roll-out of these new initiatives is justified, given their potential for interference in private and family life

Data protection, safeguarding and the protection of children's privacy: exploring local authority guidance on parental photography at school events

Should parents be allowed to take photographs at school events? Media reports suggest that increasingly schools are answering no to this question, either prohibiting or imposing stringent restrictions upon such photography. The legal justifications for such restrictions are, however, unclear. Accordingly, in 2013 freedom of information requests were sent to local education authorities across England, Scotland and Wales, the aim being to determine what advice local education authorities provide to schools in relation to parental photography at school events, and to identify how education authorities’ understandings of the law influence the advice they offer. That research reveals that local education authorities’ understandings of the law vary significantly and that where authorities do not fully appreciate the extent of the legal obligations arising this may have significant repercussions for the children concerned

Children, Public Sector Data-Driven Decision-Making and Article 12 UNCRC

Concerns are increasingly being raised about the routine collection and analysis of children’s data, about commercial data mining and digital profiling and about the datafication of children. To date, however, little attention has been given to how public sector bodies are using children’s data to make decisions that affect them, or to exploring children’s views about public sector collection, analysis and disclosure of children’s data. This article commences by outlining the findings of a small-scale study which sought children’s views about governmental use of data in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Seventeen children, aged between eleven and eighteen years, participated in this research. These children wanted and expected the UK Government to consider their views about matters affecting them, including how their data is used. Although the UK Government is now proposing to build on its data-driven pandemic response, arguing that the success of its data-driven approach obliges it to do still more with data held by the public sector, no-one has considered how such proposals will impact upon children. These proposals, outlined in ‘Data: A New Direction’ pay scant regard to children’s rights or interests. Children’s views regarding these proposals have not been sought. It is argued, that with the UK Government considering how best to reform data protection legislation, there is a pressing need to consider how children’s views can now be fed into UK data policy. The datafication of children, is, however, an issue affecting children not only in the UK but worldwide. At European and global levels academics and policy makers have begun to ask how children can be supported to understand how their data is used and to express their views and opinions about its use. The Council of Europe and the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child have both recommended that children should be actively involved in the design, implementation and evaluation of legislation and policy. This article argues that to comply with international obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and to meet the expectations of children themselves, governments must give more thought to ensuring data policy is informed by children’s views and that children’s best interests are treated as a primary consideration. This article explains how this can be achieved

Sharenting in a socially distanced world

For www.parenting.digital, Claire Bessant, Emma Nottingham and Marion Oswald discuss the impact of COVID-19 on family use of technology and the encouragement that families are receiving from businesses, schools, the media and others to share images of their personal life during lockdown. Are the COVID-19 response measures altering public attitudes and cultures towards the sharing of data and information about children? What are the possible future implications for children’s privacy

Evaluation of a combination of SIFT-MS and multivariate data analysis for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium bovis in wild badgers

The currently accepted gold standard tuberculosis (TB) detection method for veterinary applications is that of culturing from a tissue sample post mortem. The test is accurate, but growing Mycobacterium bovis is difficult and the process can take up to 12 weeks to return a diagnosis. In this paper we evaluate a much faster screening approach based on serum headspace analysis using selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS). SIFT-MS is a rapid, quantitative gas analysis technique, with sample analysis times of as little as a few seconds. Headspace from above serum samples from wild badgers, captured as part of a randomised trial, was analysed. Multivariate classification algorithms were then employed to extract a simple TB diagnosis from the complex multivariate response provided by the SIFT-MS instrument. This is the first time that such multivariate analysis has been applied to SIFT-MS data. An accuracy of TB discrimination of approximately 88% true positive was achieved which shows promise, but the corresponding false positive rate of 38% indicates that there is more work to do before this approach could replace the culture test. Recommendations for future work that could increase the performance are therefore proposed

“The internet: to regulate or not to regulate?” Submission to House of Lords Select Committee on Communications' inquiry

In early 2018 The House of Lords Select Committee on Communications' began an inquiry into how regulation of the internet should be improved, taking into consideration how the internet has transformed global interaction, information gathering and educational/entertainment consumption, and how it opens up new opportunities but also presents challenges. This is the written submission of University of Cumbria Lecturer in Law Ann Thanaraj (along with other members of NINSO, Northumbria Internet & Society Research Interest Group), in response to the invitation to submit written evidence to the inquiry