Children as young as 9 being added against their will to WhatsApp groups encouraging & promoting self-harm. This disturbing investigation is part of a growing trend and underscores that Ofcom need to urgently plug gaps in their #OnlineSafetyAct proposals bbc.com/news/articles/…

Meta sets out some new tools to mitigate the risks of E2E, including client-side image scanning - and in doing so, confirms its decision not to scan against known child abuse images is a conscious choice, not driven by technical barriers. Ofcom, 👀

about.fb.com/news/2024/04/n…

Snap so often flies under the radar, but it’s responsible for some appalling product decisions - a friend-popularity matrix aimed at children being the latest. Child wellbeing is yet again a secondary issue techcrunch.com/2024/04/05/sna…

*May* is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.

Notwithstanding the fact that it took this Govt six years to get the #OnlineSafetyAct into law - and heavily watered down at that - just look at the failure to even get the 'ban mobile phones' kite to fly by a DSIT source. 🪁🫣👇

Scotland’s new anti-hate legislation is being targeted by neo-Nazi groups using Telegram to organise and flood the police with vexatious complaints. Excellent reporting by ⁦Shanti Das⁩ theguardian.com/society/2024/a…

Pretty disheartening to see the response to image-based abuse when the victim is a gay man. Society has rightly made important strides to recognise the inappropriateness of victim blaming women & girls, but fear and coercive dynamics equally apply here theguardian.com/politics/2024/…

Fun fact: If you delay buying your child a smartphone, then maybe you can afford the £36 (!) Jonathan Haidt is charging to speak on his book flogging tour unionchapel.gigantic.com/the-youth-ment…

Troubling POLITICOEurope investigation on a sextortion campaign targeting Westminster staffers. The broader context: organised crime is driving an explosion in sextortion against young people, particularly teenage boys.

Testament to the power of some remarkable lived experience voices determined to deliver change & ensure the #OnlineSafetyAct delivers what was promised 👇🏻

Free workers rights policy idea for the party manifestoes:
🔵 make employers with 250+ staff publish an annual declaration of how many NDAs & settlement agreements they signed off
🔴 free ex-employees from NDAs covering protected characteristics theguardian.com/business/2024/…

Judge Breyer has just wiped the floor with Elon Musk X suit accusing Center for Countering Digital Hate of #datascraping , saying Musk was trying to stifle protected speech, not protect #datasecurity of users

Important finding from Children's Commissioner for England: it comes as policy debates about young people’s digital access exclude them, regulatory systems face systemic challenges in capturing their voice, & data rights groups pay superficial & selective attention to young people’s needs

Today's polling in favour of a smartphone ban shows the scale of parental concern about preventable online harms. It doesn't mean it's the right approach (it isn't), but it should underscore to Ofcom & the next Government that a triangulated approach to regulation won't cut it

We hear a lot about how tech regulation is a threat to free expression, but rather less about how setting online safety requirements can boost the right to free expression & association of women, LGBTQ+ people and a host of other groups for whom the status quo just doesn’t work

Strong ‘Nick Clegg goes to Meta’ vibes about this nonsense position (anyone want to put a fiver on his next career move?)

This is both a curious and troubling decision: there’s a clear potential to spread harmful content and misinformation through AI content, aimed at kids, as the cost and technical barriers to entry continue to fall away