NICOLA Sturgeon has insisted that “the right and precautionary actions” were taken after pornographic material was found on a social networking app used in Scottish schools.
The First Minister told MSPs an investigation was launched into the handling of the incidents after Education Secretary John Swinney was told about an image on the site at the end of April and a second was reported to her in June.
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard pressed Sturgeon on the developments at First Minister’s Questions in Holyrood yesterday. He said pornographic material had been viewed 100 times on the app, including by children.
Parents contacted the First Minister directly about the second incident in June and the Yammer app was removed for pupils’s use.
Sturgeon said: “There is an investigation and a review already under way being carried out by Education Scotland. Yammer remains offline for pupils, while the relevant issues are being examined in detail as part of the review that Education Scotland is undertaking and that’s because we take the safeguarding of children, information security and data protection very seriously....We are continuing to take a very precautionary approach to this because right now pupils cannot access Yammer.”
She added: “I think the right actions have been taken, the precautionary actions have been taken and I would hope all people across the chamber would understand as we do we have to strike the right balance between the educational benefits of online systems like this and the safety of young people.”
Earlier Ruth Davidson pressed Sturgeon on justice reforms and the rights of victims of violent crime.The Scottish Tory leader said the family of a man who was bludgeoned to death was told of his killer’s temporary release from prison on the anniversary of the murder.
She said Mike Mosey’s relatives were given the news in a letter from the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) six weeks after the authority wrongly told them John Mackie would not be let out of jail.
The Conservatives have been calling for a “Michelle’s Law” which includes an explicit requirement for the safety and welfare of victims and their families to be taken into account when parole and early release are considered.
They are backed by the family of Michelle Stewart, who was stabbed to death in the street in her home village of Drongan, Ayrshire, by John Wilson in 2008 when she was 17.
Meanwhile, Scotland’s Mental Health Minister is to meet with the family of a man who took his own life after contacting health services eight times in the week before he died.
Luke Henderson was found dead on December 29 last year at his home in Motherwell where he lived with his partner and two children.
Labour MSP Monica Lennon said lessons must be learned from the “catalogue of failures that led to his preventable death”.
She said: “A few days after celebrating Christmas with his partner Karen and their two young children, my constituent Luke Henderson completed suicide.
“Nothing will bring Luke back, but his family desperately want to know that lessons have been learned.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here