Ban on 9-year-old school food blogger is reversed

Well, that was quick. Following an enormous media (and social media) storm, the ban on 9-year-old Martha Payne’s Never Seconds blog about the dinners on offer in her school has been lifted.

As we reported earlier, Scottish Martha was banned from taking photos in the school dining hall, thus killing her blog, after it attracted newspaper coverage. The story of the ban attracted the attention of media around the world over the past few hours and it appears that Argyll & Bute Council has decided to backtrack on its decision.

Speaking on ‘The World at One’ on BBC Radio 4 today (audio clip below), council leader Roddy McCuish announced that he had “instructed senior officials to immediately withdraw the ban on pictures from the school dining hall.”

So, stand down and put away your pitchforks, Twitter army, all is well in the world of Scottish school food blogging again. That said, the case has raised some important talking points around social media in schools. Sharing of photos and the use of social media is often banned in schools, and often for completely valid child protection reasons. However, in a world where kids under ten years old can write blogs that attract worldwide attention, some of these rules may need a rethink.

Some good to come out of today’s storm, as we reported earlier, is that Martha’s blog’s charity fundraising push has reached its target after more than £5,500 was pledged in just two hours today.

Image credit: Never Seconds