60 young people subject to footage of child abuse after Zoom call hacked

Login details for online fitness class held by Plymouth sports club shared on internet forums, say Devon and Cornwall Police

Around 60 young people were subject to footage of child sex abuse after an online fitness class held via Zoom was hacked, police have said.

The session was being staged on the conferencing platform by a Plymouth sports club on Tuesday morning when an unauthorised person managed to gain access.

Footage of the abuse was then streamed to those present in the video group call, in what is the latest incident of ‘zoombombing’.

Devon and Cornwall Police believe the culprit was able to hack the Zoom session after the group’s login details were shared on open internet forums.

Officers are now working with the city council’s social care team to identify those who have been affected by the incident.

Detective inspector Lesley Bulley, of the Plymouth Public Protection Unit, said: “We are progressing enquiries to identify the suspect in this distressing offence for all concerned.

“We are working closely with Plymouth Safeguarding Children’s Partnership and I request that, if you have been affected by this, then you come forward and let us know who you are so we can provide the necessary advice and support.”

Zoom, a US-based video-conferencing firm, has been subject to widespread hacks as millions have turned to the platform for work and leisure while under lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic.

Reports have emerged of trolls disrupting conferences with offensive content, including racist and homophobic imagery.

Devon and Cornwall Police has issued advice over online video conferencing, urging users to only download apps from trusted sources, such as the Apple App Store and Google Play, and make sure account passwords are unique and complex.

Cyber protect officer Grahame Mace said: “Keeping in touch with our friends and family is vital during this period of lockdown. But please ensure when setting up video conferencing sessions that you follow the guidelines on keeping your sessions private.

“First and foremost understand what security settings you have implemented and are available for your software, don’t leave yourself or others vulnerable, lock it down and keep the criminals out.”

Last week, an online wine testing event streamed via Zoom was hacked and similarly exposed to footage of child pornography.

Manchester-based wine merchant Grain To Grape had been hosting the conference call on Saturday night, with roughly 70 people logged-in, when the hack occurred 25 minutes into the session.

Owner Tom Sneesby described the hack as “cowardly and villainous”.

“It’s the most repugnant, the most foul and haunting stuff you can see,” he told the Manchester Evening News. “That’s why it was chosen. It’s the worst thing you can put in front of normal people.”

Zoom said on Wednesday that it is implementing new security measures as it battles to prevent hackers from ‘zoombombing’ video calls.

An update aimed at free users of the platform will be implemented on 9 May, while a new level of encryption will also be introduced from 30 May, which Zoom says will “provide increased protection for meeting data and resistance against tampering”.

The company has been attempting to toughen up its security ever since it vowed to fix its “biggest trust, safety and privacy” issues in April.

(Source: Independent)

Online learning: how to acquire new skills during lockdown

Millions of users are signing up for free courses taught by professors from Harvard and other top universities

For many of us in self-isolation, it can feel like the coronavirus has put the world on hold as we wait for release from our temporary imprisonment. But increasing numbers of people are using the time to build their skillset, with an upsurge in enrolments on online learning platforms such as edX, FutureLearn and Coursera, which offer “massive open online courses” – or Moocs.

Coursera, for instance, has seen an eightfold increase in enrolments for social science, personal development, arts and humanities courses since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. “It’s unprecedented,” says the company’s chief product officer, Shravan Goli. (In late March, its Science of Well Being course saw 500,000 new enrolments in a single weekend.)

Devoting some of our quarantine time to self-education makes sense. Besides helping to bolster your career during this economic uncertainty, learning a new skill can give you a sense of control that will help cope with anxiety engendered by the epidemic.

As James Wallman says in his book Time and How to Spend It, personal growth is central to many psychological theories of long-term happiness. So although an hour listening to a lecture may not be as enticing as the instant gratification of reality TV or social media, it will lead to greater life-satisfaction in the long term. “You could say that humans are like bicycles: if you’re not heading towards something you fall over,” Wallman says. And when we are social distancing, online courses are one of the best ways to do that.

Deep concentration of study is more rewarding than scrolling through social media. Photograph: Fizkes/Getty Images

What do the courses involve?

The specifics vary from platform to platform, though many follow the same basic model. With the larger platforms such as edX, Coursera, and FutureLearn, you can choose university-affiliated courses – so you know you are being taught by experts in the field. 

The courses are of varying lengths – from a few hours to a regular, weekly commitment over several months – and typically involve video lectures, reading texts and regular tests to check your memory and understanding of the syllabus.

In many cases enrolment is free, but may have to pay to get a certificate verifying that you have completed the course.

What should I look for in a course?

You might be tempted to sign up to the courses with the most prestigious instructors, but that would be a mistake, says James Murphy, who used Moocs to prepare a master’s degree while he was housebound with an illness. “Institutional affiliations aren’t always a good guide to quality,” he says.

Many of the platforms offer user reviews where you can gauge other learners’ enjoyment and satisfaction with the course, but nothing beats trying it for yourself, says Murphy, who is now an associate lecturer at the Open University. “I think the best advice is to sign up and see if you like it – there’s no reason to stick with one you dislike if the delivery isn’t engaging. You can usually tell in the first hour if you’ll enjoy the course or not.”

If you are hoping for professional development and considering the cost of the certificate, you might want to check whether employers recognise the qualification. Coursera’s Goli points out that about 30 companies now accept the Google-affiliated course on IT management, for instance. The reviews can guide you on this, as can the course descriptions, which sometimes include statistics from student surveys about the professional benefits that came from the experience.

It’s also important to pick a course of the right difficulty – something just beyond your comfort-zone – engaging enough to occupy your mind, but not so ambitious that it’s frustrating. That way, you’ll achieve the “flow state”. “You’ll lose track of time,” says Wallman – and the deep concentration will feel much more rewarding than simply scrolling through social media.

How can I stay motivated?

Even if you have chosen a course that is perfectly suited to your goals, you may find your initial enthusiasm evaporates and your discipline trails off. “Lack of routine and time is often the biggest hurdle,” says writer and regular Mooc user Bianca Barratt. Her advice is to try to set up a schedule and “treat it like a physical class you’ve signed up for. Show up when you say you will, make an effort with the class exercises and homework and complete the course in full.”

Another good strategy, according to Anant Agarwal, the founder and CEO of edX, is to find a “study buddy or form a bigger learning group, so that they can motivate each other and enjoy the course together”. You might make a pact with people you already know, or you could connect with people from the discussion forums that accompany the course. Like your classmates at a traditional school or university, you can help each other to understand the difficult material, and the feeling of accountability might spur you on when you find distractions drawing you away from your goal.

What do I do after completing the course?

For some, this may be just the start of the journey – furnishing you with a greater confidence to learn and the motivation to take it further. If you find that you’re hooked, many of the platforms also provide accredited bachelors and master’s degrees from selected universities, though this will be more expensive.

For others, the completion of a single course will be enough. But whatever your goals, the quest to learn a new skill or discipline may be the perfect distraction from the frustrations of self-isolation – allowing you to connect with new people and transforming this period into a time of enlightenment and self-discovery.

The next step – seven Moocs to expand your mind

Learning How to Learn

McMaster University, University of California San Diego, via Coursera

With more than 2 million enrolments, this short course is a natural place to start your journey, offering the mental tools for you to master any new subject.

From the Big Bang to Dark Energy 

University of Tokyo, via Coursera

Physicist Hitoshi Murayama examines the biggest question of all – the origins of the universe.

Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking

Harvard University, via edX

Professor James Engell will help you to polish your communication skills in this eight-week course.

Science and Cooking

Harvard University, via edX

Physicists, chemists and restaurant chefs explore the transformation of food in the kitchen.

An Introduction to Screenwriting 

University of East Anglia, via FutureLearn

If your mind is fizzing with inspiration for a Netflix mini-series, this course – from UEA’s prestigious creative writing programme – will help you translate it to the screen.

Introduction to Mathematical Thinking

Stanford University, via Coursera

Not for the fainthearted but more than 200,000 learners have taken this journey through the basics of mathematical logic and proof.

Buddhism and Modern Psychology

Princeton University, via Coursera

Bestselling author Robert Wright examines what modern psychology can learn from ancient teachings.

(Source: The Guardian)

Amazon reaps $11,000-a-second coronavirus lockdown bonanza

Shares reach record high, pushing fortune of CEO and founder Jeff Bezos to $138bn

The online retailer Amazon has been described as a “clear winner” from the coronavirus crisis, its share price surging by more than a third inside a month, its customers spending almost $11,000 a second on its products and services, and its owner, Jeff Bezos, reinforcing his position as the world’s richest person with a fortune of $138bn.

While most businesses have been hit hard by the impact of the pandemic and the looming recession, shares in Amazon have risen to a record high as hundreds of millions people stuck in lockdown conditions turn to the delivery giant to keep them fed and entertained.

Bezos, who started Amazon in his garage in 1994 and still owns 11% of the company’s shares, saw his paper fortune swell by $6.4bn (£5.1bn) on Tuesday alone as Amazon’s shares hit a record $2,283 – valuing the Seattle-based company at $1.14 trillion.

The shares continued to climb on Wednesday and were changing hands at $2,295. One month ago they were changing hands at $1,689.

Jeff Bezos has been criticised for not giving more of his fortune to the efforts to tackle the coronavirus. Photograph: Katherine Taylor/Reuters

Bezos, who also owns the Blue Origin company aimed at providing passenger flights into space, has faced criticism for not donating more of his fortune to the efforts to tackle the coronavirus and the economic destruction it is causing.

He has so far handed $100m (£80m) to the food bank charity Feeding America; critics have pointed out that the $100m donation made public by Bezos represents less than 0.1% of his fortune.

Amazon has also been accused of not doing enough to protect its workers from the virus. The company this week fired two employees who criticised Amazon over allegedly unsafe conditions at some of its warehouses.

About 75 Amazon warehouses and delivery workers in the US have been infected with the virus, according to the Washington Post, the newspaper owned by Bezos.

The jump in Amazon’s shares came as financial analysts said they expected the company to be crowned “a clear winner” from the Covid-19 crisis and to report record sales and profits this year due to demand for deliveries and its cloud-based services.

Josh Brown, chief executive of Ritholtz Wealth Management, said on Twitter: “Amazon became a utility in this crisis – defensive, reliable, indispensable.”

Analysts at the US investment bank Cowen likened the impact of the lockdown to the Black Friday shopping frenzy in November.

“Covid-19 surge led to ‘Prime Day in March’,” the analyst said in a note to clients. “Amazon has seen an ‘enormous increase in demand’ as shoppers are forced to stay home, essentially creating an extended Prime Day/Black Friday type of situation.”

While many companies across the world have been forced to make staff redundant or place them on government-funded furlough schemes, Amazon is hiring tens of thousands of staff as the business struggles under the weight of orders from consumers trapped at homes all over the world.

The company on Monday said it was hiring an extra 75,000 staff to help it to process the increase in orders. The recruits come on top of 100,000 taken on already since the coronavirus crisis hit western economies last month.

The additional workers will take Amazon’s global workforce to nearly 1 million. 

Amazon said: “We know many people have been economically impacted as jobs in areas like hospitality, restaurants and travel are lost or furloughed as part of this crisis. We welcome anyone out of work to join us at Amazon until things return to normal and their past employer is able to bring them back.”

Brent Thill, an analyst at the US investment bank Jefferies, said the hirings were “direct proof consumers are breaking the Amazon supply chain with overwhelming demand”.

Mike Pence, US vice-president, took to Twitter to thank Amazon staff for “working every day to meet the needs of the American people as we face this pandemic together”.

In addition to the 100,000 workers already hired, @Amazon is adding another 75,000 & increasing hourly pay. Thank you, @Amazon for working every day to meet the needs of the American people as we face this pandemic together.https://t.co/nDmoy02E6u

— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) April 13, 2020

Analysts expect Amazon to increase its annual sales by nearly 20% to reach $335bn.

Amazon on Wednesday threatened to withdraw all deliveries in France, after a French court ruled that it must stop selling “non-essential” items or face a fine of €1m a day.

“Our interpretation of the ruling suggests we might have to suspend the activities of our fulfilment network in France,” an Amazon spokesperson said, “We’re working rapidly to understand the judgment and evaluate our options, and we expect to appeal.”

Joshua Warner, an analyst at the London-based online trading firm IG Index, said: “Amazon shines from all angles during coronavirus crisis. Ultimately, Amazon will remain one of the most important businesses during this crisis, providing key services including food, entertainment and shopping at a time when consumers have fewer retailers to choose from.

“Amazon stock has rocketed to a new record high,” he added. “Of all the firms that might stand to benefit, Amazon is a clear winner.”

Other expanding fortunes

Jeff Bezos is not the only very wealthy person to have seen their fortune swell as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

Reed Hastings

The founder and chief executive of Netflix has seen his estimated fortune rise by $195m so far this year to $5.1bn as shares in the entertainment service rose by 40% from the market nadir last month. Hastings owns 2.5% of the shares. Analysts said they expected more people stuck at home to sign up to the streaming service. Analysts at Pivotal Research Group said: “We believe the unfortunate Covid-19 situation is cementing Netflix’s global dominance .”

Tim Steiner
The co-founder and chief executive of Ocado has seen his the value of his stake jump 40% over the past month as shoppers flock to online supermarkets. Steiner owns about 4% of the shares, which are worth more than £400m at current prices. He is also in line for a £59m pay package to be voted on at Ocado’s AGM next month.

The Waltons
The family behind Walmart, which also owns Asda in the UK, have seen their combined net worth rise 5% this year to $169bn. Shares in the US supermarket group have risen 23% from a low on 12 March. The Walton family own 51% of the shares.

(Source: The Guardian)

As schools switch to online classes, students from weaker sections get cut off from learning

Amid the lockdown, Vaishali, whose parents are construction workers, has been living out of a half-built construction site in Tilak Nagar.

A couple of days ago, a teary-eyed Vaishali, a student of class VI at Maharashtra Aikyavardhak Mandal in Tilak Nagar, called her school teacher Sangita Patil.

Amid the lockdown, Vaishali, whose parents are construction workers, has been living out of a half-built construction site in Tilak Nagar. “She broke down on the phone, and said her father beats her mother, and there was nowhere to go. The boredom of staying put was constant. I asked her to refer to a section of math problems and focus on English spellings.

“‘Prepare as though you still have exams’, I told her,” said Patil.

As more and more stories of migrants struggling to fend for themselves emerge, education has taken a backseat for children who are a part of these groups. Here, the struggle for survival has overtaken other aspects of growth, with education coming to be considered a privilege. The digital divide has grown wider, with many private schools, switching to online classes as well as exams.

As more and more stories of migrants struggling to fend for themselves emerge, education has taken a backseat for children who are a part of these groups. (Rerpesentational Image)

There are 66,033 schools under the state school education department, run by zilla parishad and local independent bodies. With schools being shut, the access to virtual classrooms and other facilities has been cut for all its students. As of September 2019, 2,71,892 students study at BMC schools, most of whom are from underprivileged backgrounds.

Out of nearly 200 students who study at Maharashtra Aikyavardhak Mandal in Tilak Nagar, only about 2 per cent students would have laptops or computers at their homes, said Patil. “The parents of many children are ragpickers, or involved in similar jobs. At their homes, one finds four to five vessels and few clothes. Most of them eat only once a day. At present, many have left for their villages,” she added.

Class V student Siddhi Rajguru, who lives in Panchasheel Nagar, doesn’t have any access to a cellphone or a laptop. Her father Satish Rajguru, who works as housekeeping staff, said, “The only way to keep her engaged is through books, by repeating the same chapters. Other children in our area are only playing, as most don’t have access to educational resources on the Internet.”

While it is yet to be announced, education experts and officials from the department have said they believe that the lockdown on schools will continue till May end.

Co-founder of NGO Pratham, Farida Lambay. said, “Our experience of working in rural areas has shown that only one person in most houses owns a smart phone, usually it being the male member. The digital divide is a hard reality among the poor, who are most hit. After every such disaster, there is a problem of school dropouts and huge learning loss among them.”

Lambay suggested that the state government should target school children through relief material that is being distributed by the state. “Quizzes, puzzles, questionnaires can be ways in which this can be done. Usage of television and radio can also prove a helpful tool at such times.”

When contacted, School Education Commissioner Vishal Solanki said that the state school education department will be rolling out a programme for underprivileged children on Monday. The department has partnered with NGO Leadership For Equity and UNICEF to develop content for state’s own online platform called Diksha, as well as for radio and television. The initiative will be launched by Minister Varsha Gaikwad through Facebook Live and other mediums.

Academic advisor to the state, Madhukar Banuri, said: “While private schools have devised online mechanisms for students, we have been figuring out ways to help underprivileged children.” Diksha, an already existing platform of the state, has been updated with over 8,000-plus content pieces. This can be accessed through the QR codes already present on the back of every state board textbook.

“Even in backward areas like Amravati and Melghat, we have found 60 per cent penetration of smartphones with good network. The intention is to involve students in self-learning and convey the message that the state is doing everything it can to ensure that students keep learning. Around 30 to 40 per cent students in remote pockets of the state still struggle for Internet connectivity, but once the resources are downloaded, they can be accessed offline,” Banuri said. He is also the founder and CEO of NGO Leadership with Equity.

Following suit of initiatives started by other states, Maharashtra is also planning to launch programmes through television and radio, said officials. Next week, the programmes will be broadcasted on television and radio for students who do not have access to Internet or computers. The state has partnered with UNICEF to also develop a plan for responding to COVID-19.

“Six weeks of academic time has already been lost. We have devised a mix method involving radio, TV and the Internet app Diksha, to bring educational content to as many children as possible. In phase 1, we are looking till May end. Existing content involving simple games, episodes on parenting and others, will very soon be broadcast and telecast,” said UNICEF education specialist Reshma Agarwal.

UNICEF, along with the state department, is also creating a learning management system wherein content developed across all states can be accessed by teachers and students, said Agarwal.

(Source: TIE)

‘Zoom is malware’: Why experts worry about the video conferencing platform

The company has seen a 535% rise in daily traffic in the past month, but security researchers say the app is a ‘privacy disaster’

As coronavirus lockdowns have moved many in-person activities online, the use of the video-conferencing platform Zoom has quickly escalated. So, too, have concerns about its security.

In the last month, there was a 535% rise in daily traffic to the Zoom.us download page, according to an analysis from the analytics firm SimilarWeb. Its app for iPhone has been the most downloaded app in the country for weeks, according to the mobile app market research firm Sensor Tower. Even politicians and other high-profile figures, including the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the former US federal reserve chair Alan Greenspan, use it for conferencing as they work from home.

But security researchers have called Zoom “a privacy disaster” and “fundamentally corrupt” as allegations of the company mishandling user data snowball.

Many, including the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, have been using Zoom during the coronavirus crisis. Photograph: Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

On Monday, New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, sent a letter to the company asking it to outline the measures it had taken to address security concerns and accommodate the rise in users.

In the letter, James said Zoom had been slow to address security vulnerabilities “that could enable malicious third parties to, among other things, gain surreptitious access to consumer webcams”.

A spokesman from Zoom told the Guardian on Wednesday it was planning to send James the requested information and comply with the request. “Zoom takes its users’ privacy, security, and trust extremely seriously,” the spokesman said. “During the Covid-19 pandemic, we are working around the clock to ensure that hospitals, universities, schools and other businesses across the world can stay connected and operational.”

And on Thursday, the company announced it would freeze all new feature development and shift all engineering resources on to security and safety issues that have been called to attention in recent weeks.

Here’s what you need to know about the challenges with Zoom:

‘Zoom bombing’ on the rise

On 30 March, the FBI announced it was investigating increased cases of video hijacking, also known as “Zoom-bombing”, in which hackers infiltrate video meetings, often shouting racial slurs or threats.

Zoom meetings can be accessed by a short number-based URL, which can easily be generated and guessed by hackers, a January report from the security firm Checkpoint found. Zoom has released guidelines in recent days about how to prevent unwanted guests from crashing video meetings and a spokesman told the Guardian it had also been working to educate its users on protections through blogposts and webinars.

No end-to-end encryption

Zoom has falsely advertised itself as using end-to-end encryption, a system that secures communication so that it can only be read by the users involved, a report from the Intercept found. 

Zoom confirmed in a blogpost on Wednesday that end-to-end encryption was not currently possible on the platform and apologized for the “confusion” it caused by “incorrectly” suggesting the opposite.

Security flaws

A number of security flaws affecting Zoom have been reported in the past and as recently as this week. In 2019, it was revealed Zoom had quietly installed a hidden web server on user devices that could allow the user to be added to a call without their permission. And a bug discovered this week would enable hackers to take over a Zoom user’s Mac, including tapping into the webcam and hacking the microphone.

The company said on Thursday it had issued a release to fix the Mac issue, but the number of security issues with Zoom in the past make it as bad as malicious software, said Arvind Narayanan, an associate computer science professor at Princeton University.

“Let’s make this simple,” he said. “Zoom is malware.”

In-app surveillance measures

Zoom has been criticized for its “attention tracking” feature, which allows a host to see if a user clicks away from a Zoom window for 30 seconds or more.

This feature would allow employers to check if employees are really tuned into a work meeting or if students are really watching a classroom presentation remotely.

Selling user data

A report from Motherboard found Zoom sends data from users of its iOS app to Facebook for advertising purposes, even if the user does not have a Facebook account.

Zoom changed some of its policies in response and said on Thursday that the company “has never sold user data in the past and has no intention of selling users’ data going forward”. But the Motherboard story was cited in a lawsuit filed in a federal court in California this week, accusing Zoom of failing to “properly safeguard the personal information of the increasing millions of users” on its platform.

This privacy flaw was also mentioned in the letter from James, which noted such privacy violations could be of particular concern as schools migrate to Zoom for class.

“While Zoom has remediated specific reported security vulnerabilities, we would like to understand whether Zoom has undertaken a broader review of its security practices,” the letter said.

(Source: The Guardian)

'One big virtual love-in': How children's book authors are creating online sanctuaries

Authors are going live in real time to engage children and create a safe place where imaginations are fired

The children’s author and illustrator wunderkind Oliver Jeffers has started a stay-at-home story time where he reads a book a day live on Instagram. And they are pure magic.

Jeffers, in quarantine in Belfast, is reading a story a day, having started with his first ever book How to Catch a Star.

According to Jeffers, “[This is] for all you folks stuck at home in the coming weeks due to Covid, I will be reading one of my books every weekday, and talking about some of the things that went into making it. We are all at home, but none of us are alone. Let’s be bored together.”

In this social-isolating time his live reads make you feel part of an intimate family Skype call, complete with interruptions from his young children.

And judging by the tsunami of love hearts, emojis and adoring comments, Jeffers clearly has quite the fan club. Each day, thousands of children and their parents around the globe tune in on IGTV to commune with their idol for what is one big virtual love-in.

Chris Haughten’s paper owl, which can be downloaded, printed and folded as a craft activity for children

His stories are usually about a boy – “Once there was a boy … ” – and the simple sparsity of his language captures your attention immediately, as you know you are in for a good yarn. The books are illustrated in his signature crayon and watercolour style, and full of little visual clues that make them a fun read for all ages. The plots are adult-friendly too, with quirky and often implausible storylines. They have a wicked sense of the bizarre yet are full of humanity.

The boy (and often his penguin or mouse) go on extraordinary yet ordinary adventures, but the real story is in how they deal with feelings. Jeffers doesn’t shy away from hard emotions (sad, lonely, scared) but importantly, offers uplifting, universal moments of connection, love and friendship – which makes his tales feel very real at their core.

In his fifth quarantine read, The Great Paper Caper, he had listeners come prepared with a piece of paper, a cryptic clue from this detective story plot. The paper is used to create paper planes, which Jeffers duly made and talked through with his young listeners so they could make their own at home.

With his live reads, Jeffers has created a calm sanctuary amid the fear, and it feels like a very safe, warm and cosy place to spend some time.

You can tune in weekdays on Instagram at 6pm GMT, 2pm EST, 11am PST.

Here are some other authors and organisations moving into the virtual literary world for kids.

Boredom busters just for girls

The good folk at Talu Tales have joined forces with some of our favourite authors and it’s just the feel-good story we need to soothe the soul, sparkle the heart and inspire the imagination.

As the Talu team see it, “The world is a bit topsy-turvy at the moment, and many of us are feeling the hits from cancelled events, lots of work, kids being cooped up at home and being isolated from friends and a regular routine. Today we’re celebrating all things community, reading, creativity and storytelling. Pop your head in when you need a little pep-up and we’ll be here all day!”

Talu Tales is a fantasy story world that inspires kids to learn about science, technology, engineering and mathematics. They are on a mission to close the gender gap one story at a time, with stories that feature female characters in non-stereotypical plotlines. So expect to spark some future female leaders with these empowering role models who embark on fantastical adventures.

They released little story surprises for 11 hours straight. You can access these surprises from their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter channels. Here are some of them.

Incredible Freedom Machine, read aloud by Kirli Saunders
In this story of exploration and breaking boundaries, a young girl uncovers her very own freedom machine, a vehicle that carries her to all kinds of wondrous places. A proud Gunai woman, with ties to the Yuin, Gundungurra, Gadigal and Biripi people, Saunders currently resides on Dharawal country.

All Bodies Are Good Bodies, read aloud by Charlotte Barkla
A book which is about celebrating awesome incredible bodies that do unbelievable things. Like digesting food. What a wild crazy thing. Charlotte is an Adelaide-based writer who worked as a civil engineer and physics teacher but now creates picture books. And perhaps if you ask her nicely she’ll share a cool physics fact!

My Dog Bigsy, read aloud by Alison Lester
A book she wrote about her dog, Bigsy, Alison’s picture books mix imaginary worlds with everyday life, encouraging children to believe in themselves and celebrate the differences that make them special.

Books and live cartoons with Mac Barnett

Mac Barnett’s Book Club show is an interactive treat. He’s created mini themed shows that have regular time slots kids can tune into each day. They are part live theatre, part comedy skit, part craft lesson. They score high on the entertainment value and regularly feature surprise guests. Someone needs to get this guy his own TV show (wait this is IGTV, so I guess he’s made his own).

Tune in for: chapter books After Dark where Barnett styles himself as a TV host reminiscent of the 1950s, where “Each night I’ll pour a glass of milk, put on my most comfortable tuxedo and read a chapter of my memoir, Mac B, Kid Spy #1: Mac Undercover, illustrated by @mikelowerystudio. New chapters go up about 5:00 California time and they’ll stay up on my IGTV till the end of the ‘school year’.”

If cartooning is your thing, Mac has teamed up with his oldest friend and racquetball arch-nemesis, @shawnharri5, to create what they claim to be the world’s first “live cartoon”. In his words “How is that possible? What does that even mean? Does Shawn own a dog, and if he does, is that dog super-cute? Stay home tomorrow and find out!”

Going by the Instagram stories of budding cartoonists joining in on the live drawing, and duly donning their hats (it’s a Barnett thing), Mac has hit the sweet spot with his old-school charm and off-beat humour and the fans keep coming back for more.

Stay-at-home readings and art class with Chris Haughton

Chris Haughton’s book reads are more live art tutorials for budding young illustrators, some with singalongs. He’s packaged resources on his site to download and join in at home. His cut-out stencils and colouring-in templates featuring his signature collages are a stay-at-home schooling parent’s dream.

Stayathome #2 had viewers learning how to make his “a bit lost owl” out of paper from the stencils available online.

As Haughton says: “Tune in to meet George himself. There will be cake. We will be well behaved. And of course bring a pen and paper for a bit of drawing afterwards ... I will show how I make my art and we will make a collage together.”

His books are simple and naive in style but feature stories with a social conscience where themes such as climate change, gender and racial equality are woven in as part of the narrative.

To keep the good vibe going, he’s offering free downloads of his app Hat Monkey which includes music and dance routines.

Tune in on Haughton’s Facebook page at 5pm GMT every weekday.

(Source: The Guardian)

Rise in online predators while kids at home due to coronavirus: US Attorney

US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Ariana Fajardo-Orshan told NBC 6 that the federal teams that keep an eye on sex predators and their activities have noticed the increase since kids have been at home amid the COVID-19 outbreak

With an increase in students at home and on their computers for online learning during the coronavirus pandemic, the volume of sex predators online who are looking to take advantage of kids has also risen, authorities said.

US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Ariana Fajardo-Orshan told NBC 6 that the federal teams that keep an eye on sex predators and their activities have noticed the increase since kids have been at home amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

"We are seeing a big uptick in the amount of predators online, you know, talking to children,” Fajardo-Orshan said. "Parents are preoccupied, getting their work done, and kids are being left off to kind of fend for themselves and this is a predator's dream to have these kids home on the computer all day."

Many kids already have computers and internet access at home but for those who didn’t have devices, South Florida schools went all out to give laptops to students who didn’t have them. Fajardo-Orshan said the sex predators are selecting certain sites where they know the kids will be.

"Parents need to be vigilant to make sure where their kids are and what sites their kids are on and these predators are on kid-friendly websites. They pretend to be kids," Fajardo-Orshan said.

The message to parents immediately is to pay closer attention to what your kids are doing.

"Parents need to make sure they have the right software to protect their children from communications with third parties. It’s very important," she said.

Miami-Dade Public Schools officials said they always encourage parents to be aware of what their kids are doing and that the laptops they handed out have security protocols to stop sex predators.

Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said the safety and security of students are a main focus.

"Students sign in through a secure method and then go to class through Canvas, our learning management system. Student devices have no permission to install additional software programs, which provides additional security," Runcie said in a statement. "Video interactions between teachers and students are active within this doubly secure environment. No external video call participants can log on to calls in progress."

(Source: NBCMiami)

Coronavirus: Online shopping website Ocado suspends service

Online shopping delivery service Ocado has suspended its online food delivery service, blaming higher demand than it can meet.

Ocado said existing customers with orders would still receive them.

Meanwhile, supermarkets have introduced strict limits on how many goods people can buy to try to curb stockpiling as the coronavirus pandemic escalates.

Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda will now stop shoppers buying more than three of any particular food item.

Sainsbury's has also said it will prioritise vulnerable and elderly people for online deliveries.

Consumers left shelves empty in one London Sainsbury's store as stockpiling continues. Getty Images

Ocado said it was experiencing "a simply staggering amount of traffic" to its website and more demand for products and deliveries than it could meet.

"This temporary closure will allow us to complete essential work that will help to make sure distribution of products and delivery slots is as fair and accessible as possible for all our loyal customers," it added.

Asda and Sainsbury's buying restrictions will also apply to cleaning and toiletry products, while Tesco's limits will apply to all products.

"If you could help us by limiting demand of essential items and allowing us to focus on the core needs of our customers - we are confident that we can continue to feed the nation," said Tesco.

Asda said it had seen "a heightened demand" for products both in stores and online.

"We have plenty of products to go around, but we have a responsibility to do the right thing for our communities to help our customers look after their loved ones in a time of need," it added.

Asda told the BBC that cashiers and customers using self-checkout would not be able to scan more than three of the same restricted items. Sainsbury's said it was updating its tills to reflect the limits.

Aldi has already introduced limits of four items per shopper on all products, while Morrisons has said it will expand its online delivery service.

Other retailers including Tesco and Boots have set limits on particularly popular products such as pasta, tissues and hand sanitiser.

Boots chief executive Sebastian James said the issue was not supply, but demand.

"No supply chain can survive a sudden, unexpected global ten-fold increase in demand. And what we thought was incredibly important was that as many people as possible could get what they actually needed," he told the BBC's Today programme.

Supermarkets' online delivery services have also been overwhelmed by the surge in demand. Before Ocado suspended its whole service it had taken down its app due to the spike in orders.

Others meanwhile vented their frustration on Twitter at being one of thousands in a virtual queue to place a food order.

Other businesses have also announced new measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic, including:

• Amazon: The online retailer is stopping sellers from sending "non-essentials" to its US and UK warehouses to make space for sought-after baby products and groceries.
• Pret: From Thursday the chain will no longer allow customers to sit in-store, "to reduce points of contact" in shops.
• Selfridges: The luxury department store chain will temporarily close its four shops from 19:00 on Wednesday, but will continue trading online.

Supermarket chain Sainsbury's already had a two-item limit on its most popular goods, including toilet paper, soap and long-life milk. From 23 March, it said disabled customers and those over 70 will be given priority for online delivery slots.

And on 19 March the first hour of shopping will be dedicated to older and vulnerable people in its 600 UK stores.

The chain follows other supermarkets in introducing reserved time slots for the elderly. They include Iceland outlets across the country and all 39 Lidl stores in Northern Ireland.

Sainsbury's told the BBC that it would consider future dedicated shopping hours "in line with government guidance", after the one-off on Thursday.

Getting food onto shelves

Sainsbury's chief executive Mike Coupe added it was "focusing all of our efforts on getting as much food and other essential items from our suppliers, into our warehouses and onto shelves as we possibly can.

"We still have enough food for everyone - if we all just buy what we need for us and our families."

Mr Coupe confirmed that it was closing its cafes as well as its fish, pizza and meat counters to free up more staff to work on "keeping the shelves as well stocked as possible."

Shoppers have been emptying shelves around the UK during the coronavirus outbreak. Getty Images

Asda will also temporarily shut down its "non-essential" services including its rotisserie and pizza counters to free up its workers and space in its warehouses.

The announcements came as Transport Secretary Grant Shapps signed off a temporary relaxation of drivers' hours rules to deliver goods to stores around the UK.

A Department for Transport statement said the rule change applies only to drivers supplying food and "essential products to supermarkets".

Sainsbury's competitor Morrisons said on Tuesday it is creating 3,500 jobs to meet surging demand for its home delivery service caused by the pandemic.

The chain said it would be recruiting 2,500 pickers and drivers and hiring about 1,000 people to work in distribution centres.

In its preliminary results for the week ending 2 February, its chief executive David Potts said retailers were "facing unprecedented challenges" when dealing with Covid-19.

Despite the increased uncertainty, it said it had seen sales increase in recent weeks due to customers stockpiling.

(Source: BBC)