children

More children likely to return to kindergarten, school in Hungary

The number of children returning to kindergartens and schools is expected to further increase this week, the state secretary in charge of public education told public radio on Monday.

Zoltán Maruzsa said that even though the government had decided to reopen kindergartens and schools in the lower grades a week ago, parents were given the option to keep their children at home and their absence was “handled with due flexibility”.

Last week, 75 percent of all 1-4 graders returned to their classrooms and 60 percent of small children went back to the kindergarten, Maruzsa said.

The state secretary said that

the upper grades of primary school and secondary schools would reopen on May 10 when the “full education system will return to classroom mode”.

Maruzsa said that the final examinations of secondary schools would be held similarly to last year, ensuring a safe distance between participants.

Read alsoMore children likely to return to kindergarten, school in Hungary

April 26, 2021

More risks to pregnant women, their newborns from COVID-19 than known before

Pregnant women infected with COVID-19 and their newborn children face higher risks of complications than was previously known, a study by British scientists showed on Friday.

An infection of the new coronavirus in such newborns is associated with a three-fold risk of severe medical complications, according to a study conducted by scientists at the University of Oxford.

While pregnant women are at higher risk of complications such as premature birth, high blood pressure with organ failure risk, need for intensive care and possible death.

“Women with COVID-19 during pregnancy were over 50% more likely to experience pregnancy complications compared to pregnant women unaffected by COVID-19,” said Aris Papageorghiou, co-lead of the trial and a professor of fetal medicine at Oxford University.

The study was conducted in more than 2,100 pregnant women across 18 countries, where each woman affected by COVID-19 was compared to two non-infected women giving birth at the same time in the same hospital.

Findings from the study, published in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics, also showed a delivery by caesarean section may be associated with an increased risk of virus infection in newborns.

However, breastfeeding does not seem to heighten risks of babies contracting COVID-19 from their mothers, scientists said.

Read alsoChaos and confusion in Hungary around the vaccination of pregnant or breastfeeding people

April 23, 2021

Hungarian President donates Huf 5 million for a foundation to help covid-orphans

President János Áder and Anita Herczegh, the First Lady, have set up a foundation to help children orphaned by the coronavirus.

The president told public broadcaster Kossuth Rádió on Sunday that the third wave had brought about the deaths of many parents raising young children.

“More than 600 children and 400 families have been affected,” he said, adding that the orphans would need financial support until they enter the workforce or obtain a degree.

Áder and his wife are founding members of the board of trustees, and he has invited Emőke Bagdi, a clinical psychologist, and Diána Ürge-Vorsatz, a physicist to participate in the board.

Donations can be accepted once the foundation is fully legally established. Until then, the president and his wife have donated 5 million forints (EUR 13,850) of their own savings to get the foundation up and running.

He said the help of local councils, mayors and clerks were indispensable for the success of the programme as they know the families involved and also exactly what financial support is needed.

The foundation is being named after István Regőczi, a Catholic priest who took care of orphaned children throughout his life in the interwar period.

Read alsoDetails about the next phase of easing in Hungary!

April 18, 2021

France decides that sex with child under 15 is automatically rape

The French parliament on Thursday adopted legislation that characterises sex with a child under the age of 15 as rape and punishable by up to 20 years in jail, bringing its penal code closer in line with many other Western nations.

Sex between an adult and a child younger than 15 was already illegal but could only be prosecuted as rape if there was proof the minor was coerced through violence, constraint or surprise. Without proof of coercion, it was prosecuted as the lesser offence of a ‘sexual act on a minor’

“This is an historic law for our children and our society,” Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti told the National Assembly.

“No adult aggressor will be able to claim the consent of a minor younger than 15-years-old.”

The vote in favour of the bill was unanimous at its final reading, the Assembly said on Twitter.

There had been concerns from some lawmakers that an age of consent below which sex automatically constituted rape might criminalise a consensual sexual relationship between a minor and a person only a few years older.

As a consequence, a “Romeo and Juliet” clause that allows for sexual relations between a minor and an individual up to five years older. The clause will not apply in cases of sexual assault.

The legislation also considers incestuous sex with a minor under 18 to be rape.

In a country that has long cherished its self-image as the land of seduction and romance, sexual abuse against women and children for years went undetected or undeclared in the upper echelons of power and within celebrity circles.

But there has been much soul-searching in recent years.

The #MeToo movement that swept around the world after numerous women in 2017 accused U.S. movie producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault proved a turning point in France.

So too did the fall from grace in 2020 of a French writer who had written openly about his pedophilia.

France had already toughened its sex crimes laws in 2018 when it outlawed sexual harassment on the streets, leaving cat-callers and aggressively lecherous individuals facing potential on-the-spot fines.

Read alsoHungarian government supports penal code amendment concerning child abuse

April 16, 2021

Hungarian education to be reopened “carefully, gradually”

Schools must be reopened “cautiously and gradually”, the state secretary in charge of public education said on Thursday, adding that a “smaller circle” of schools would open at a slower rate than originally planned.

Zoltán Maruzsa said kindergartens and primary schools for the first four grades will open on Monday, while children in grades 5-8 and secondary school students will go back to their classrooms on May 10.

Maruzsa told an online press briefing that teachers who registered for vaccination had received their shots. By last Sunday, 200,000 teachers and other schools staff received at least their first shots, he added.

No infection hotspots have formed around creches which have been open since March 8, he said.

Concerning the reopening of kindergartens and primary schools for the younger children, Maruzsa said that more and more parents were returning to their jobs as the economy was restarting, and the number of children taken to school or kindergarten to be supervised during the day was increasing. On Wednesday, he said, 11 percent of children turned up at kindergartens.

“Children are less susceptible to the virus,” he said, adding that the number of infections in the lower grades was “half to a third” of that in higher grades.

When schools reopen, measures such as temperature checks, disinfection and physical distancing will again be applied, he said. As for physical distancing, Maruzsa said that classes could not be halved because “that would require twice as many teachers”. Teachers in the classroom education cannot be expected to hold online classes simultaneously, he said.

Parents reluctant to send their children back to the kindergarten or school can apply for permission to headmasters and headmistresses, though students who skip more than 250 classes in a school year could be required to take an exam.

The heads of the National Teachers’ Corps and trade union PSZ welcomed the government’s decision on reopening schools, Maruzsa insisted.

April 16, 2021

Advocacy group urges Zuckerberg to cancel plans to launch Instagram for kids

An advocacy group on Thursday called on Facebook Inc Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg to not create a version of photo-sharing app Instagram for children who are under 13, as it would put them at “great risk”.

The letter to Zuckerberg from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) comes at a time the world’s largest social network has been criticized for amplifying misinformation globally across its platforms, while also exposing children to inappropriate material.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Instagram exploits youngsters’ fear of missing out as they constantly check their devices seeking approval and uploading pictures, CCFC said, adding that the platform’s continuous focus on appearance and self presentation would be a challenge to adolescents’ privacy and wellbeing.

“While collecting valuable family data and cultivating a new generation of Instagram users may be good for Facebook’s bottom line, it will likely increase the use of Instagram by young children who are particularly vulnerable to the platform’s manipulative and exploitative features,” the letter said.

CCFC is a nonprofit organization that believes that child-targeted marketing, along with the excessive screen time it encourages, will damage kids’ healthy development, and is dedicated to ending marketing to children.

Read alsoHere are the best Hungarian Instagram pages to see amazing photographs of the country!

April 15, 2021

Pedophilia cases in Hungary: Two offenders recently arrested – VIDEO

Two men were charged with sexual harassment of minors in Győr in an alarmingly short period of time. Although the apparent frequency could be coincidental, a serious issue underlies these cases.

We previously wrote about the scandal involving Gábor Kaleta, the former Hungarian Ambassador to Peru, who was merely ordered to pay a fine for his possession of child pornography and was sentenced to suspended imprisonment (read more about this here). Shockingly, similar crimes keep being reported in Hungary.

A peeping Tom made recordings of 9–10-year-old children by placing a camera hidden in a hat under a changing room. The leader of the summer camp at the Danube’s backwater in Győr questioned the stranger about his curious action and decided to call the police.

“I told him that he had two options: he either waits here for the police or he can try to run away, in which case he will come off rather badly,”

said the camp leader in an interview with Blikk. The man attempted to make excuses and stated that he was only waiting for his turn to change his clothes, but he could not come up with a credible explanation as to why he only had a hat with him.

“He was not aggressive; he was fumbling for words in agitation.”

The police have found 164 recordings stored on the laptop and an SD card of the offender that could be classified as child pornography. More than 100 of these were downloaded from other sources, but the offender took 57 pictures himself. Since he did not sell these pictures, he is likely to receive a 1-5-year prison sentence instead of 8 years. According to Blikk, the man is waiting for the verdict behind bars, while the camp leader has been awarded by the mayor of Győr for his heroic deed.

Police.hu announced the arrest of a 42-year-old man who wished to pay for the transportation of a minor to Győr for the purpose of sexual exploitation. A group of investigators had arranged a meeting with the predator on the online dating website via which the man looked for child prostitution services and managed to take him into custody when he showed up. The abuser, who had been brought to justice for similar charges in the past, confessed to his crime and is currently facing criminal proceedings.

Read alsoHungarian Ambassador to Peru involved in child pornography

April 12, 2021

Back to school on 19 April: Is it too soon for small children?

Opinions vary widely on the reopening of schools in Hungary on 19 April. Although many consider it essential to restart face-to-face education, Zsolt Boldogkői, a molecular biologist, and the ADOM Student Movement beg to differ.

Hungarians are divided over the government’s policy decreeing the recommencement of education with personal attendance in primary and secondary schools from 19 April (more details about the reopening here). Zsolt Boldogkői, Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) and head of the Department of Medical Biology at the University of Szeged, declared in an interview that it would be premature to let students back into the classrooms due to the still serious pandemic situation in Hungary. The molecular biologist called for the

postponement of the reopening for 3-4 weeks, but the ideal solution would be to return to traditional learning only at the beginning of September.

As the vaccination of children has not started yet, the younger generations are likely to act as vectors and may take the virus home with them from school. Portfolio remarks that the British COVID variant is judged to be equally dangerous for the young. According to György Velkey, director-general at the Bethesda Children’s Hospital, the number of patients currently admitted is 2-3 times as many as during the previous waves of the pandemic. Additionally, vaccinated teachers may not be able to develop sufficient immunity by the resumption of the school term.

The ADOM Movement (Alternative Student-Centered Education Movement) also chose to oppose the enforcement of the decision publicly. In their announcement on Facebook, the student movement contends that the reopening of schools would endanger the lives of their teachers, parents, grandparents, and classmates with underlying health issues. The students suggest that digital learning should be maintained in secondary schools until teachers who received the COVID shot are completely protected. Furthermore, they spoke out against compulsory attendance in primary school, highlighting that, in the case of children who cannot be supervised by the parents at home, social distancing must be observed in classrooms more carefully. They find it absurd that strict measures are introduced for ensuring the safety of customers in shops (1 person / 10 square meters), yet schools are exempt from such regulations. The school environment would pose a threat to students preparing for their school-leaving exams since they could be quarantined at the time of the written tests.

The writers of the statement ask students and teachers to stay at home and resume distance education on 19 April if the government insists on the implementation of the scheme.

UPDATE

Secondary schools will fully reopen on May 10 after final exams have taken place, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview on Friday.

Orbán told public broadcaster Kossuth Radio that the operative board responsible for measures to control the epidemic had also decided that the exams will be written only.

He noted that last year, too, the school-leaving exams were confined to written papers and this should be the case this year to keep matters fair and consistent.

Details HERE!

Read alsoThe summer will not be Covid-free for Hungarians, immunologist says

April 9, 2021

Hungary delays school reopening after teachers, students protest

Hungary will push back the reopening of secondary schools by three weeks to May 10, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told state radio on Friday, after teachers and students called for a delay for pandemic-related reasons.

Orbán said he hoped 3.5 million of Hungary’s 10 million people would receive at least one coronavirus vaccine dose by April 19, allowing curbs to be eased further.

Hungary began a gradual reopening of shops and services on Wednesday after it inoculated 25% of its population in a move that, with hospitals still overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, the Hungarian Medical Chamber called premature.

Facing an election in 2022 and determined to avoid another year of recession, Orbán is opening up the economy after accelerating vaccinations.

Hungary has imported the EU’s highest number of vaccine doses per capita though, according to Johns Hopkins University data, it leads the world in daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per capita.

Orbán’s top aide said on Thursday the government would open all schools on April 19.

But on Friday Orbán said secondary schools would reopen on May 10. He did not mention primary schools.

By Friday, over 8,000 students signed up to a call on Facebook by a student group to stick to remote learning, saying teachers’ and parents’ lives were at risk.

On Thursday, in a letter posted on their Facebook page, the Teachers’ Democratic Trade Union said in-person teaching should not resume on April 19.

Orbán told state radio 70% of the population could receive a vaccine shot by early June, allowing Euro 2020 fans “to have the possibility to attend the events with an immunity card.”

Budapest is one of 12 host cities of the soccer tournament, which starts in mid-June. Ticketing plans are to be announced next week.

April 9, 2021

Polish judge’s tweet on transgender child stirs outrage

A senior Polish judge put a transgender child in danger by tweeting about her and a complaint will likely be filed with prosecutors, an opposition politician said on Thursday regarding the incident which has outraged liberal Poles.

Gender and LGBT rights have become central flashpoints in a wider culture war unfolding in Poland between religious conservatives and liberals, with the former branding the fight for gay rights a dangerous ideology that seeks to subvert traditional values, and the latter calling for more tolerance.

Transphobic law enables transgender couple to get married in Hungary

Krystyna Pawlowicz, a Constitutional Tribunal judge and former politician from the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, tweeted the first name, age, and primary school of a transgender child in Podkowa Lesna, a town in central Poland.

She said the school had instructed teachers to use the student’s chosen name and gender, as per her parents’ request. “Data on official records was disregarded,” she said.

The tweet caused a social media outcry with users pointing out that the information given could be used to identify the child.

“Today we will probably file a notice to the prosecutor’s office in connection with what Krystyna Pawlowicz is doing because she knowingly put a… child in danger,” Cezary Tomczyk from the opposition Civic Coalition party told website onet.pl.

Pawlowicz, one of the judges whose ruling last year led to a near total ban on abortion in Poland, apologised later on Thursday, saying she had removed the tweet.

“The case is much more complicated than I was informed. I didn’t want to cause any distress to the child. I’m sorry,” she wrote on Twitter.

The PiS has long argued that Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights are part of an invasive foreign ideology that undermines Polish values and the traditional family. It also opposes sex education in schools.

Read alsoPolish abortion ban: women have to give birth even to unviable babies?

April 9, 2021

Hungarian woman gives birth on the street during pandemic curfew

Pandemic or not, life goes on, and as we all know, life can write the strangest of stories. This week, members of the Hungarian civilian patrol service and a security guard helped a woman give birth to her child on a street in Budapest well after the coronavirus curfew.

The members of the Hungarian civilian patrol service who were present reported about their experience to the Budapest civilian patrol, who shared the strange story in a Facebook post on their feed. Hvg noticed the post and called attention to this unusual birth story that will certainly be retold many times during the baby’s journey to adulthood.

According to the original Hungarian Facebook post, the civilian patrol members were fulfilling their duty near Szusza Ferenc Stadion in the fourth district of Budapest when two people drove up to them and asked for their help. The two young people told the civilian patrols that they had seen a woman near the 30A bus terminal who acted strangely. Konrád Balogh János, one of the civilian patrol members, said that they immediately got in their car and went to the location the two young people mentioned.

They were startled as they did not find the woman there, but they did not give up. They started looking for her nearby and found someone in an unusual position standing next to another person on Megyeri Street.

They approached them and immediately noticed that the woman was hunched over and there was blood on the pavement.

They soon reached the scene, but before they could get to the woman and her partner, a security guard filled them in about the events and said that the woman was in labour.

Márk Mester, the other civilian patrol member, said that there was no time for anything, the woman had to deliver the baby then and there.

Both of them tried to help the woman with anything they could and while they tended to the woman, the security guard called an ambulance.

Fortunately, there was no complication during the labour and the woman managed to deliver the baby on the street. According to the Facebook post, the two civilian patrolmen parked their car near the woman and put her and the newborn baby into the car.

They gave her anything they had at hand to warm the mother and the baby up and even turned the heat up in the car to keep the child warm until the ambulance arrived.

Everything went well, the baby was born at 21:50 on Wednesday, March 24^th, and both the newborn and the mother are in good health, the Budapest Civilian Patrol wrote in their Facebook post.

Read alsoHungarian police officers helped woman give birth on the street

March 27, 2021

Pfizer, BioNTech launch COVID-19 vaccine trial in kids under 12

Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE began testing their COVID-19 vaccine in children under 12, with hopes of expanding vaccination to that age range by early 2022, the U.S. drugmaker said on Thursday.

The first volunteers in the early-stage trial were given their first injections on Wednesday, Pfizer spokesperson Sharon Castillo said.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was authorized by U.S. regulators in late December for people age 16 and older. Nearly 66 million doses of the vaccine had been administered in the United States as of Wednesday morning, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The pediatric trial, which will include children as young as 6 months, follows a similar one launched by Moderna Inc last week.

Only the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is being used in 16- and 17-year-olds in the United States. Moderna’s shot was cleared for those age 18 and older, and no COVID-19 vaccine has been authorized in younger kids yet.

Pfizer and BioNTech plan to initially test the safety of their two-shot vaccine at three different dosages – 10, 20 and 30 micrograms – in a 144-participant Phase I/II trial.

They plan to later expand to a 4,500-participant late-stage trial in which they will test the safety, tolerability and immune response generated by the vaccine, likely by measuring antibody levels in the young subjects.

Castillo said the companies hope to have data from the trial in the second half of 2021.

Meanwhile, Pfizer has been testing the vaccine in children from age 12 to 15. The company expects to have data from that trial in the coming weeks, Castillo said.

March 26, 2021

Hungary flags delay in reopening of schools as COVID-19 cases surge

Hungary’s planned reopening of schools and kindergartens on April 7 now appears “optimistic”, Zoltán Maruzsa, a state secretary in charge of education, said in a newspaper interview published on Thursday.

Hungary’s hospitals are under “extraordinary” pressure from rising coronavirus infections, its surgeon general said on Wednesday, as the country became a hotspot in the third wave of a pandemic that has hit Central Europe especially hard.

“We can rule out that the entire school year will be spent in remote learning. However, it takes some degree of optimism to take the April 7 reopening for granted,” Maruzsa told the Magyar Nemzet newspaper.

“For now it looks more likely that a return to classroom teaching can take a while longer, but we also need to see the developments of the next few days to assess that,” he said.

Hungary leads the European Union for vaccine imports and per capita vaccination rates, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. It has administered at least one vaccine dose to 1.7 million people.

However, the country now ranks the first in the world in COVID-19 deaths as a share of the population over the past seven days, according to Our World in Data.

As of Wednesday, Hungary reported 593,710 COVID-19 cases and 18,952 deaths, representing some 0.2% of its population.

A central banker said on Wednesday that he expected no quick relaxation of current lockdown measures in force since November, adding that a partial easing could be expected sometime in the second half of the year.

bme_university_budapest_hungary_kató_alpár_dnh

Read alsoOne-third of students never finish higher education in Hungary?

March 25, 2021

Poland to ban same-sex couples from adopting, even as single parents

https://dailynewshungary.com/we-are-at-war-poles-mark-womens-day-after-abortion-rules-tightened/

People living in same-sex couples will be barred from adopting children in Poland even as single parents, under a new law announced on Thursday by a nationalist ruling party which has made anti-gay policies a major part of its governing platform.

The announcement is likely to intensify a clash between Poland and the European Union over LGBT rights, which the EU says must be respected in all member states, but which Poland calls a threat to its Roman Catholic culture and a purely domestic issue.

The Polish government announced its plan for the adoption ban hours before lawmakers in the European parliament adopted a major gay rights resolution that was seen as a direct rebuke to Warsaw’s recent policies.

Poland already allows only opposite sex couples or single people to adopt children. The change announced on Thursday would require the authorities to vet single people seeking to adopt, and bar them if they are cohabitating with someone of the same sex.

“We are preparing a change where (…) people living in cohabitation with a person of the same sex could not adopt a child, so a homosexual couple will not be able to adopt a child,” said Deputy Justice Minister Michal Wojcik.

Wojcik said the purpose of the measure was to protect children: “It’s about a child’s safety, about its wellbeing,” he said. LGBT rights activists said it would instead punish children by restricting adoptions.

“You really have to be a mean human being to deny children a home, whether that would be in a same-sex or heterosexual couple. Children deserve a home,” activist Bartosz Staszewski told Reuters.

Poland’s curbs on gay rights, which are being mimicked in nearby Hungary, are among several issues that have created friction between the EU and right wing governments in power in those two ex-communist member countries. Brussels also complains that Warsaw and Budapest have curtailed the independence of media, courts, NGOs and academics.

Over the past two years, more than 100 towns and areas in Poland have declared themselves “LGBT-free zones”. The EU has responded by threatening to withhold some European funds from such towns, which the Polish government has offered to replace.

The European Parliament’s resolution, adopted with 492 votes in favour versus 141 against, said: “LGBTIQ rights are human rights”. It declared all EU territory to be an “LGBTIQ Freedom Zone”, a clear rebuttal to the “LGBT-free” designation used in Poland.

Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) says gay rights are a threat to the traditional lifestyle in one of the most Catholic countries in Europe. Its critics say it has turned to politics of bigotry to cling to power, particularly since an election last year, which PiS incumbent President Andrzej Duda narrowly won with an appeal to conservative voters that emphasised anti-gay messages.

March 12, 2021

Hungarian children will most often be victims of sexual exploitation in the EU

In 2021, a Hungarian report was published for the first time. ECPAT and the Hintalovon Foundation have jointly produced a report on the sexual exploitation of children. The situation in Hungary is dire.

The report identifies different categories that are forms of sexual exploitation of children. These categories are exploitation for prostitution, exploitation in the online space, human trafficking for sexual exploitation and the sale of children, exploitation in the field of tourism, early and forced marriage.

Most often, disadvantaged children from poor family backgrounds fall victim,

writes the report. In addition, they typically belong to marginalised social strata. Before becoming a victim, physical, emotional, and psychological violence was common in the lives of these children. Moreover, their parents often neglected the victims. The report notes that, so far, there has been little comprehensive research on the subject and little data available. However, the few surveys also show that a similar percentage of deep poverty occurs in similar tragic cases.

The report is mostly based on European Union data and statistics. 64 per cent of Hungarian victims of sex trafficking identified in the EU are children. 7.4% of child victims are under 11 years old.

There were a total of 1,310 registered victims of human trafficking, of whom 647 were of Hungarian nationality.

As in other countries, children raised in state care are particularly at risk in Hungary. Another EU report published in 2018 is also worrying. More than half of the children identified in the EU as victims of prostitution were of Hungarian origin.

Femina summarised the main statements of the report:

- In Hungary, the risk of impoverishment is much higher among children and those belonging to the Roma minority.
- There are not enough professionals to help.
- Sexual offences against children are increasing every year.
- Within the EU, most victims are among Hungarian children.
- There is no standard practice in the Hungarian court for sanctioning child pornography. In addition, there is no action against the sexual exploitation of children in the field of tourism.
- In Hungary, children over the age of 16 are still allowed to marry, despite many criticisms.

It is hoped that in 2020, with a law amendment, a number of positive legislative changes and measures can help the situation of children. The Hungarian government pays special attention to victims under the age of 18. To achieve this goal, the government established a national strategy to combat human trafficking for 2020-2023.

March 12, 2021

Child pornography pictures shake up new Hungarian social media site

Hundub, a new Hungarian social networking site, has been operating for several months. The opinions about the site have been quite mixed, with most users saying it was unnecessary and not sophisticated enough. However, there were those who were glad that Facebook had a competitor, even if it cannot be called real competition.

We also wrote earlier about the launch of the Hungarian social media site called Hundub. There have been many complaints about the lack of proper regulations, as well as the lack of other convenience features already used on many other sites. A number of grammatical errors were also confusing to users. The other serious problem with the site is that there is no content control. It is popular with those who believe in extreme views because, unlike Facebook, it offers exemption from censorship. In particular, Hundub found supporters among people with extreme-right views who feel Hundub could be the solution for Facebook’s excessive political censorship.

Now, another problem has arisen, as it turns out that after registration, any Hundub user can access the images of any other user. This applies not only to images that appear on the social media interface but also to other private images. Adding to the troubles,

the leaked images include dozens of child pornography photos.

Hundub refers to itself in its own description as an “alternative media” and a “response to censorship”, but no one thought the lack of control would be so significant. Thus, the site not only violates privacy rights but can also be charged with the crime of child pornography. It has not been determined how many users in total these images may have come from.

Telex.hu filed a complaint at the Budapest Police Headquarters (BRFK) due to the scandal. BRFK’s communication department replied:

“The Budapest Police Headquarters has ordered an investigation into an unknown perpetrator on the suspicion of child pornography. We do not want to provide more information for the purpose of criminal proceedings.”

Hundub has not yet responded to the data processing error or child pornography content. The site is currently owned by Csaba Pál as the former co-owner, the American offshore company called Murmurati Limited, withdrew from the project in January. The site aims to function by funding from its community.

Social media will be sanctioned in Hungary?

February 26, 2021

Reports of online child pornography and phishing greatly increased in Hungary

A significant number of child pornographic content was reported in 2020 through the Hungarian National Media and Infocommunications Authority’s (NMHH) informational and protection service, the Internet Hotline, but the number of phishing attempts and personal data shared without consent has also increased, – MTI reported.

According to a statement of the NMHH’s communications directorate published on Tuesday, the hotline received more than twice as many reports – a total of 1,765 – than last year, and about 40% of them were reported for child pornographic content.

The ratio of reports of child pornographic content rose from 33% in 2019, to 40% last year.

According to 24, the most worrying development is the dramatic increase in the number and proportion of child pornographic content. While in 2011, the proportion of such reports were only 8% (37 reports overall), in 2020, it was 40% which means 709 reports. The Hotline analysts forwarded content identified as sexual exploitation of children to the National Bureau of Investigation, as usual.

“According to our data, during the pandemic, the sharing of recordings of abuse towards children became more intense and visible. This might be because potential perpetrators have been confined into the online space. This has also increased the risk of children being exploited online.

What makes matters worse is that in the current situation, children in distress have less chance to ask for help, as personal contact with their friends and teachers has dramatically decreased,” – the authority wrote.

They added that special search engines designed to find child pornographic content are becoming more efficient and this is one of the reasons for the more prevalent visibility and the increase in the number of reported cases. Such a search engine is the Canadian-based Project Arachnid, which searches for footages of the sexual exploitation of children.

According to statistics, many Hungarian children will continue to fall victim to human trafficking and it is horrifying that in a recent case, parents submitted their children to barbaric upbringing.

Phishing is also booming

They added, that while, the proportion of phishing and content published without consent compared to the total has decreased, but due to the higher number of overall reports, it is still present in very high numbers.

Phishing has risen from 142 reports in 2019 to 267 reports last year and data sharing rose from 148 reports in 2019 to 243 cases in 2020.

Phishing reports continue to include fake invoice alerts sent on behalf of large service providers.

It has also been indicated that a significant proportion of hotline reports concern large social media platforms. It is an important and useful tool, that Hotline analysts have a direct link to the pages on the largest platforms, which gives priority notification for the social media moderators for any content marked by Hotline analysts. This is the case with the YouTube Trusted Flagger program, but similarly, Hotline analysts can turn to the administrators of Facebook, Instagram, and recently even TikTok, with direct requests.

The Internet Hotline also played a significant role in providing information for internet users and general online safety in 2020.

With the help of the Hotline, in March, NMHH launched its informative website for parents, called Gyerekaneten.hu. The website presents online phenomena, which parents may be less familiar with in short articles. The statement also mentioned that in its first year of operation, the website attracted more than 250,000 visitors.

Read alsoMan tried raping his 7-year-old daughter in Sárkeresztúr, Hungary – 18+

February 24, 2021

Man tried raping his 7-year-old daughter in Sárkeresztúr, Hungary – 18+

It was an innocent Sunday at first when a mother in Sárkerresztúr received a bouquet for Valentine’s Day from her partner. She later left for the convenience store, but when she arrived, their house’s door was closed, so she peeked through the window. She will never be able to forget what she saw there. It is incomprehensible what the father from Sárkeresztúr did to his own daughter.

Ferenc Remenár tried to rape his own 7-year-old daughter, Valentina, on the child’s name day, while two of his other children were in bed beside them. The mother of the family caught the father in the act when she arrived back from the store, but the man has managed to escape. The police have immediately issued an arrest warrant for the man, who was instantly placed in the top 50 most wanted criminals in Hungary. Borsonline tried to talk to the family in their homes.

Flowers and hearts

Ferenc Remenár, the perpetrator and Anita R. met online eight years ago, and three children were born from the relationship: Valentina (seven), Ferenc (six), and Kristóf (four).

“I went to the store at half-past six in the evening, and my partner stayed home with the children. I arrived about half an hour later, but the front door was closed.

When I opened the shutters, I saw Ferenc trying to rape our daughter. I banged on the windows and he immediately got up,” – Anita told Bors.

She said that she had bathed her daughter right before she left for the store. When she saw through the window, only a T-shirt and underwear was on her daughter, but the man’s pants were down; it was obvious what he wanted to do. Previously, Ferenc brought his partner flowers and gifted his daughter a heart as a Valentine’s Day gift.

Remenár Ferenc Körözés Wanted Manhunt Rapist Abuser Erőszaktevő — Ferenc Remenár Source: Police.hu

According to a recent and depressing report, half of the victims of sexual trafficking registered in the EU in 2015-16 were Hungarians, and tendency shows that hundreds of children will become the victims of human trafficking.

I will cut your head off

When Anita confronted Ferenc, the man pathetically tried to explain himself and kept on saying that he did not do anything and that the girl was “asking questions”. Anita told him that she saw everything and that she is going to call the police. The 45-year-old perpetrator quickly hopped on a bicycle and disappeared.

I normally would have visited my parents’, and he probably thought that I would arrive later, but I had a strange feeling and headed home immediately.

He was not even bothered by the fact that the two boys were on the other bed next to him. As she had found out later, the man threatened the two boys and told the daughter that he would cut her head off if she were to speak about what was going to happen, Anita told Bors.

The policemen questioned the children (apart from the youngest), and they told everything to the last detail. The investigators initiated a manhunt and will do everything to catch the perpetrator.

According to Anita, there were no signs of Ferenc being capable of anything like that. The two boys go to kindergarten since the incident, but the mother would not let Valentina go with them. She is still in shock; she is barely talking to anyone. It is still unknown whether Ferenc has attempted anything similar before.

Update:

Last Saturday, the family father returned to their home and was detained by the police. According to 24, the man had been previously sentenced to several years for sodomizing his own younger brother. The man denies his deeds and has put forward a case defence. The Fejér County Attorney General’s Office motioned the arrest of the man for escape and hiding from the authorities and influencing witnesses.

The man is currently under arrest, but due to the appeal of the defendant, it is not final.

Hungarian Police Arrest Letartóztatás Rendőrség 2

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February 22, 2021