Hey- Red Violet here. Here’s the write up of this weeks news.

Facebook Messenger and Meta Pay are used to buy child sexual abuse material

Court documents show how Facebook Messenger and Meta's peer-to-peer payment system Meta Pay were allegedly used to facilitate the buying and selling of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

In one case, a woman allegedly sold CSAM videos/photos of children in her care to a man via Messenger and received payments for them via Meta Pay.

While Meta says it recognises and reports suspicious CSAM payments, former content moderators claim that many are likely to go undetected, particularly smaller transactions that are unlikely to be automatically reported.

Moderators were unable to report suspected CSAM payments to Meta Pay's compliance teams because they were isolated from other teams.

The moderators reviewing the transactions are not specifically trained on how to recognise the language/codes of traffickers.

Financial crime experts say that while Meta's new encryption of the messenger improves privacy, it could hide more evidence of illegal CSAM payments by removing the context of the message.

Child protection advocates warn that encryption makes it easier for predators to exploit children undetected on encrypted platforms like Messenger.

The cases highlight ongoing concerns about the ability and willingness of technology companies to recognise and prevent the misuse of their platforms/payment systems for the exploitation of children.

Not Just A Harmless Dick Pic

A UK legal first- a conviction for sending dick pics. N. Hawkes,39 was jailed for 66 weeks for sending pics to 15-year of girl and another woman.

He was also handed a restraining order for the woman and the girl lasting 10 years, and a sexual harm prevention order banning him from approaching women who he does not know on public highways and in parks for 15 years.

New Rules on Jailing Pregnant Women in the UK

The Sentencing Council in England and Wales has introduced a new mitigating factor that requires judges to explicitly consider the impact on pregnant women and new mothers when determining their sentences.

This replaces previous guidance that considered pregnancy only under the broader factor of being a caregiver.

The change aims to address the documented issues and risks that pregnant women face in prisons, such as higher rates of stillbirth, premature birth, and missed medical appointments compared to the general population. Judges must now weigh factors like medical needs, effects on the woman and child's health, difficulties accessing care in prison, and whether a custodial sentence is proportionate given the impact on dependents.

The amendment follows recommendations from research and advocacy groups campaigning against imprisoning pregnant women due to the potential harms.

This is a great win but unfortunately comes on a back of a tragic and potentially triggering case.

Japanese schools want to protect cheerleaders from wearing skirts that are too tight at sporting events

Upskirting is the practise of taking photos under a person’s clothes without their permission. In Japan, this is a major problem. 70% of flight attendants report that photos have been taken of them in secret.

In an attempt to protect students during the annual spring baseball tournament, several schools asked cheerleaders to wear shorts, while other schools placed teachers between the cheerleaders and spectators.

Sportswear manufacturer Mizuno has developed a special fabric designed to prevent voyeurs from secretly using infrared cameras that create a “see-through” effect. The company plans to launch the fabric for athletics uniforms, sports bras and swimming costumes, as reported by the Asahi Shimbun.

Although I welcome the move to protect schoolgirls, it also shows that perhaps the penalties for this crime should be harsher. It shouldn’t just fall to the teachers and essentially penalise the students.

Stigma around abortions returned in Argentina

Since taking office in December 2023, Argentinian President Javier Milei's anti-abortion rhetoric has led to more and more doctors across the country refusing to perform abortions, according to health professionals.

Milei has condemned abortion as a "tragedy" and "grave murder" in speeches to political leaders and schoolchildren, stigmatising the procedure even though it has been legal in Argentina since 2020.

Health experts report that more and more women are having secret abortions out of fear, do not want to disclose their names/details and are falsely told by doctors that abortion is now illegal.

Feminist groups accuse Milei of trying to delegitimise the right to abortion through his discourse and health budget cuts affecting the availability of abortion pills.

Although Milei has vowed to overturn the abortion law, he has yet to make any plans to do so,however, activists fear that his rhetoric will embolden pro-lifers and that he could roll back hard-won abortion rights if he takes up the issue to distract from economic failures.

[Read more]

Inventions by women

Admiral Grace Hopper

Invented the first compiler in 1949, which translated English instructions into machine code, revolutionizing programming by allowing code to be written more easily.

Played a key role in the development of the COBOL programming language in the late 1950s.

Pioneered work on standards for high-level programming languages and compiler verification while recalled to active military duty in the 1960s.

What to listen to

The first ever podcast from Bitchy!

Thanks for reading!

I appreciate you being here.

If you found it useful please share with a friend!

Received from a friend? Subscribe by clicking the button below!