Latest news with #Dennington
ABC News
05-06-2025
- Climate
- ABC News
Warrnambool council abandons peer-reviewed flood study citing 'supposed science'
A south-west Victorian council has abandoned an independent and peer-reviewed flood study after councillors decided they did not trust the data. The South Warrnambool and Dennington Flood Investigation found high flood risks in the area and recommended changes to council planning schemes. But at a Warrnambool City Council meeting on Monday night, councillors voted that down, with some claiming they could not believe the "supposed science". Although the study will go no further, the data is already being used by state government agencies, insurance companies, and the council as the most up-to-date flood information. Emergency Management Victoria declined the ABC's request for comment. The southern Warrnambool flood study was a three-year endeavour commissioned and funded by the Victorian government to ensure climate modelling matched the latest rainfall and sea level rise estimates. The investigation was designed to update 2007 data and reassess the impacts of climate change and flooding through to 2100, including the likelihood of a one-in-one-hundred-year flood event. Warrnambool City Council was in charge of managing the study — putting it out to tender, conducting community consultations, and dealing with submissions. Councillors were then required to vote on whether to refer the flood investigation to the state government's planning panel for changes to planning schemes. On Monday night, they voted against doing so. Venant Solutions was the specialist consultancy company responsible for the peer-reviewed report. Principal environmental engineer and lead investigator Michael South said the team used national and localised rainfall inputs, and streamflow and water level data to assess flood risk to the area. Mr South told the ABC the findings were on the "upper end" of risk, but this was on par with statewide assessments and climate inputs. "The methodologies we used for the flood study are consistent with other studies and the trajectory of climate change," he said. "We've never used anything but that." In the last decade, Mr South said he had worked on around 20 flood studies, half of which he had led, and the push-back in Warrnambool was "a first". During Monday night's council meeting, four councillors opposed the flood study, claiming the science was "difficult to comprehend", based on "assumptions", lacked detail, and was unable to be validated. Councillor Vicki Jellie raised the motion against the referral of the study to the state government. "How do we, with the utmost certainty, know that we can believe this data and supposed science?" Cr Jellie said. "Some of this has been undoubtedly an assumption." Councillors were also concerned about loss of land value and crippled development prospects. Mayor Ben Blain was the only councillor to back the study and told the ABC that failure to formally integrate the flood investigation into the council's planning schemes was a loss for residents, prospective buyers, and the region in general. "There's now no obligation for sellers to tell buyers that land falls in flood zones, there will be houses built in floodways, and insurance premiums will sky-rocket."
The Independent
11-02-2025
- Business
- The Independent
TikTok wrongful death lawsuit: Children's data may have been deleted, exec says
Data from four TikTok accounts at the centre of a wrongful death lawsuit may have been deleted, according to an executive from the company. The families of four British children — Archie Battersbee, Isaac Kenevan, Julian Sweeney (known as Jools) and Maia Walsh — believe the young people died after attempting the 'blackout challenge' on the platform. They are now suing TikTok and its parent firm ByteDance in the United States in a bid to make the company release the data from their children's accounts. They want access to the data to get answers about their children's deaths, they said. But Giles Dennington, senior government relations manager at TikTok, told BBC Radio 5 Live that 'there are some things we simply don't have'. After the lawsuit against TikTok was filed last week, Ellen Roome, mother of 14-year-old Jools, told the PA news agency that she had been trying to obtain her son's data from TikTok as it was 'the only piece that we haven't looked at'. Ms Roome said she had been 'shocked' to learn that she 'wasn't entitled' to Jools' data, and was told by TikTok that a court order was required to release it. She is now campaigning for legislation to grant parents access to their children's social media accounts if they die. She told PA that it had been 'horrendously difficult' to 'not understand why' her son had died. Asked why parents in these cases had not been able to access data, Mr Dennington said: 'This is really complicated stuff because it relates to the legal requirements around when we remove data and we have, under data protection laws, requirements to remove data quite quickly. That impacts on what we can do.' He added that data protection requirements to remove data 'can impact on what is available' and that 'everyone expects that when we are required by law to delete some data, we will have deleted it'. He said: 'So this is a more complicated situation than us just having something we're not giving access to. 'Obviously it's really important that case plays out as it should and that people get as many answers as are available.' He said the social media firm has 'had conversations with some of those parents already to try and help them in that'. The lawsuit filed on behalf of the parents accuses TikTok of pushing dangerous prank and challenge videos to children to boost engagement time on the platform. According to TikTok, it does not allow content showing or promoting dangerous activity or challenges, and it proactively finds 99 per cent of content which is removed for breaking these rules before it is reported to the firm. Mr Dennington said the so-called 'blackout challenge' pre-dated TikTok and the firm has 'never found any evidence that the blackout challenge has been trending on the platform'. 'Indeed since 2020 (we) have completely banned even being able to search for the words 'blackout challenge' or variants of it, to try and make sure that no-one is coming across that kind of content,' he said. 'We don't want anything like that on the platform and we know users don't want it either.' He added: 'This is a really, really tragic situation but we are trying to make sure that we are constantly doing everything we can to make sure that people are safe on TikTok.'
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Yahoo
Data of dead British children may have been deleted, TikTok boss says
Data from the TikTok accounts of four British children who their parents believe died after attempting a challenge on the platform may have been deleted, an executive from the firm said. The families of Isaac Kenevan, Archie Battersbee, Julian 'Jools' Sweeney and Maia Walsh – all aged 12 to 14 – have sued TikTok and its parent firm ByteDance in the US in an effort to force the firm to release their children's data. The wrongful death lawsuit claims the four died attempting a so-called 'blackout challenge', and said they want access to their children's account data to 'get answers' about how they died. But Giles Dennington, senior government relations manager at TikTok, told BBC Radio 5 Live 'there are some things we simply don't have'. After the lawsuit against TikTok was filed last week, Ellen Roome, mother of 14-year-old Jools, told the PA news agency that she had been trying to obtain her son's data from TikTok as she 'just wants answers' about his death and the data was 'the only piece that we haven't looked at'. Ms Roome said she had been 'shocked' to learn that she 'wasn't entitled' to Jools' data, and was told by TikTok that a court order was required to release it. She is now campaigning for legislation to grant parents access to their children's social media accounts if they die. She told PA that it had been 'horrendously difficult' to 'not understand why' her son had died. Asked why parents in these cases had not been able to access data, Mr Dennington said: 'This is really complicated stuff because it relates to the legal requirements around when we remove data and we have, under data protection laws, requirements to remove data quite quickly. That impacts on what we can do.' He added that data protection requirements to remove data 'can impact on what is available' and that 'everyone expects that when we are required by law to delete some data, we will have deleted it'. He said: 'So this is a more complicated situation than us just having something we're not giving access to. 'Obviously it's really important that case plays out as it should and that people get as many answers as are available.' He said the social media firm has 'had conversations with some of those parents already to try and help them in that'. The lawsuit filed on behalf of the parents accuses TikTok of pushing dangerous prank and challenge videos to children to boost engagement time on the platform. According to TikTok, it does not allow content showing or promoting dangerous activity or challenges, and it proactively finds 99% of content which is removed for breaking these rules before it is reported to the firm. Mr Dennington said the so-called 'blackout challenge' pre-dated TikTok and the firm has 'never found any evidence that the blackout challenge has been trending on the platform'. 'Indeed since 2020 (we) have completely banned even being able to search for the words 'blackout challenge' or variants of it, to try and make sure that no-one is coming across that kind of content,' he said. 'We don't want anything like that on the platform and we know users don't want it either.' He added: 'This is a really, really tragic situation but we are trying to make sure that we are constantly doing everything we can to make sure that people are safe on TikTok.'
The Independent
11-02-2025
- The Independent
Data of dead British children may have been deleted, TikTok boss says
Data from the TikTok accounts of four British children who their parents believe died after attempting a challenge on the platform may have been deleted, an executive from the firm said. The families of Isaac Kenevan, Archie Battersbee, Julian 'Jools' Sweeney and Maia Walsh – all aged 12 to 14 – have sued TikTok and its parent firm ByteDance in the US in an effort to force the firm to release their children's data. The wrongful death lawsuit claims the four died attempting a so-called 'blackout challenge', and said they want access to their children's account data to 'get answers' about how they died. But Giles Dennington, senior government relations manager at TikTok, told BBC Radio 5 Live 'there are some things we simply don't have'. This is a really, really tragic situation but we are trying to make sure that we are constantly doing everything we can to make sure that people are safe on TikTok Giles Dennington, TikTok After the lawsuit against TikTok was filed last week, Ellen Roome, mother of 14-year-old Jools, told the PA news agency that she had been trying to obtain her son's data from TikTok as she 'just wants answers' about his death and the data was 'the only piece that we haven't looked at'. Ms Roome said she had been 'shocked' to learn that she 'wasn't entitled' to Jools' data, and was told by TikTok that a court order was required to release it. She is now campaigning for legislation to grant parents access to their children's social media accounts if they die. She told PA that it had been 'horrendously difficult' to 'not understand why' her son had died. Asked why parents in these cases had not been able to access data, Mr Dennington said: 'This is really complicated stuff because it relates to the legal requirements around when we remove data and we have, under data protection laws, requirements to remove data quite quickly. That impacts on what we can do.' He added that data protection requirements to remove data 'can impact on what is available' and that 'everyone expects that when we are required by law to delete some data, we will have deleted it'. He said: 'So this is a more complicated situation than us just having something we're not giving access to. 'Obviously it's really important that case plays out as it should and that people get as many answers as are available.' He said the social media firm has 'had conversations with some of those parents already to try and help them in that'. The lawsuit filed on behalf of the parents accuses TikTok of pushing dangerous prank and challenge videos to children to boost engagement time on the platform. According to TikTok, it does not allow content showing or promoting dangerous activity or challenges, and it proactively finds 99% of content which is removed for breaking these rules before it is reported to the firm. Mr Dennington said the so-called 'blackout challenge' pre-dated TikTok and the firm has 'never found any evidence that the blackout challenge has been trending on the platform'. 'Indeed since 2020 (we) have completely banned even being able to search for the words 'blackout challenge' or variants of it, to try and make sure that no-one is coming across that kind of content,' he said. 'We don't want anything like that on the platform and we know users don't want it either.' He added: 'This is a really, really tragic situation but we are trying to make sure that we are constantly doing everything we can to make sure that people are safe on TikTok.'
BBC News
11-02-2025
- BBC News
TikTok says data of four dead British teens may have been erased
A TikTok executive has said that data being sought by a group of parents who believe their children died while attempting a trend they saw on the platform may have been are suing TikTok and its parent company Bytedance over the deaths of Isaac Kenevan, Archie Battersbee, Julian "Jools" Sweeney and Maia Walsh - all aged between 12 and lawsuit claims the children died trying the "blackout challenge", in which a person intentionally deprives themselves of Dennington, senior government relations manager at TikTok, told BBC Radio 5 Live: "We always want to do everything we can to give anyone answers on these kinds of issues but there are some things which we simply don't have." Speaking on Safer Internet Day, a global initiative to raise awareness about online harms, Mr Dennington said TikTok had been in contact with some of the parents, adding that they "have been through something unfathomably tragic".In an interview on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the families accused the tech firm of having "no compassion".Ellen Roome, mother of 14-year-old Jools, said she had been trying to obtain data from TikTok that she thinks could provide clarity on his death. She is campaigning for legislation to grant parents access to their child's social media accounts if they die."We want TikTok to be forthcoming, to help us - why hold back on giving us the data?" Lisa Kenevan, mother of 13-year-old Isaac, told the programme. "How can they sleep at night?"Asked why they had not been able to access that data, Mr Dennington said: "This is really complicated stuff because it relates to the legal requirements around when we remove data and we have, under data protection laws, requirements to remove data quite quickly. That impacts on what we can do."Data protection requirements to remove data "can impact on what is available", he said, adding: "Everyone expects that when we are required by law to delete some data, we will have deleted it."So this is a more complicated situation than us just having something we're not giving access to. "Obviously it's really important that case plays out as it should and that people get as many answers as are available."The lawsuit - which is being brought on behalf of the parents in the US by the Social Media Victims Law Center - alleges TikTok broke its own rules on what can be shown on the platform. It claims that their children died participating in a trend that circulated widely on TikTok in 2022, despite the site having rules around not showing or promoting dangerous content that could cause significant physical Mr Dennington would not comment on the specifics of the ongoing case, he said of the parents: "I have young kids myself and I can only imagine how much they want to get answers and want to understand what's happened."We've had conversations with some of those parents already to try and help them in that."He said the so-called "blackout challenge" predated TikTok, adding: "We have never found any evidence that the blackout challenge has been trending on the platform. "Indeed since 2020 [we] have completely banned even being able to search for the words 'blackout challenge' or variants of it, to try and make sure that no-one is coming across that kind of content."We don't want anything like that on the platform and we know users don't want it either."Mr Dennison noted that TikTok has committed more than $2bn (£1.6bn) on moderating content uploaded to the platform this year, and has tens of thousands of human moderators around the also said the firm has launched an online safety hub, which provides information on how to stay safe as a user, which he said also facilitated conversations between parents and their Dennison continued: "This is a really, really tragic situation but we are trying to make sure that we are constantly doing everything we can to make sure that people are safe on TikTok." If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this story, support and advice is available via BBC Action Line
