Elon Musk’s social media platform says lawmakers made a ‘conscientious decision’ to increase censorship
Elon Musk’s X platform has said the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) is at risk of “seriously infringing” free speech as a row deepens over measures for protecting children from harmful content.
The social media company said the act’s “laudable” intentions were being overshadowed by its aggressive implementation by the communications watchdog, Ofcom.
Continue reading...UK also demands Hamas release all hostages, disarm, sign up to a ceasefire and accept that they will play no role in the government of Gaza. This live blog is closed
Donald Trump is speaking now at the opening of his new golf course in Aberdeenshire. He said that as president he had “stopped about five wars”.
Yesterday he was claiming to have stopped six of them, and it is not clear why he has revised the number down.
Continue reading...Beeban Kidron says it is not ‘nanny state’ to prevent firms investing billions on making platforms addictive from targeting under-18s
A leading online safety campaigner has urged the UK government to “detoxify the dopamine loops” of addictive social media platforms as tech companies prepare to implement significant child protection measures.
Beeban Kidron, a crossbench peer, asked the technology secretary, Peter Kyle, to use the Online Safety Act to bring forward new codes of conduct on disinformation and on tech features that can lead to children becoming addicted to online content.
Continue reading...Two fathers tell education secretary they will seek judicial review in bid for statutory ban to safeguard children
Two fathers plan to take legal action against the government in an attempt to get smartphones banned in schools in England.
Will Orr-Ewing and Pete Montgomery wrote to the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, on Friday warning that they would seek a judicial review. They argue that current guidance, which allows headteachers to decide how smartphones are used, is unlawful and unsafe for children.
Continue reading...Ofcom says research shows need for stricter age checks being introduced in July, which most major sites have signed up to
Nearly one in 10 children aged eight to 14 have watched online pornography, according to the UK’s communications watchdog, as most adult content providers gear up to adopt stronger age checks ahead of a 25 July deadline.
Ofcom published research showing that 8% of children aged eight to 14 in the UK had visited an online pornography site or app over a month-long period. Boys aged 13 to 14 were the most likely viewers, with two out of 10 visiting adult sites.
Continue reading...European Commission alleges age verification systems are ineffective in preventing under-18s from watching
The EU executive has launched an investigation into four pornographic websites over alleged failure to prevent children from seeing adult content.
After analysis of company policies, the European Commission accused Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos of failing to have effective age verification measures to stop minors accessing their content.
Continue reading...Wikimedia Foundation seeks judicial review of some requirements of Online Safety Act it claims may endanger safety of volunteer editors
The charity that hosts Wikipedia is challenging the UK’s online safety legislation in the high court, warning some of its regulations would expose the site to “manipulation and vandalism”.
In what could be the first judicial review related to the Online Safety Act, Wikimedia Foundation claims it is at risk of being subjected to the act’s toughest category 1 duties, which impose additional requirements on the biggest sites and apps.
Continue reading...Communications regulator has brought in more than 40 new rules for tech firms designed to keep under-18s safe
Ofcom announces new rules for tech firms to keep children safe online
The UK communications watchdog has set out more than 40 measures to keep children safe online under a landmark piece of legislation.
The Online Safety Act has a strong focus on protecting under-18s from harmful content and the codes of practice published by Ofcom on Thursday are a significant moment for regulation of the internet.
Continue reading...Four senior officers say more controls needed, amid claims platforms are ‘fuelling and enabling’ crime
Senior UK police officers have called for the government to ban children under 16 from social media, amid claims the platforms are “fuelling and enabling” crime.
In the most recent development in the moral panic that has gripped the media since Netflix’s Adolescence was released, four of the most senior policing figures in the country told the Times that further controls on social media platforms were necessary for public safety, national security and young people’s mental health.
Continue reading...Under-16s will be barred from using the app’s Live feature unless they have parental permission
Meta is expanding its safety measures for teenagers on Instagram with a block on livestreaming, as the social media company extends its under-18 safeguards to the Facebook and Messenger platforms.
Under-16s will be barred from using Instagram’s Live feature unless they have parental permission. They will also require parental permission to turn off a feature that blurs images containing suspected nudity in their direct messages.
Continue reading...Son of murdered academic calls on Facebook owner to ‘radically change how it moderates dangerous content’
Meta faces a $2.4bn (£1.8bn) lawsuit accusing the Facebook owner of inflaming violence in Ethiopia after the Kenyan high court said a legal case against the US tech group could go ahead.
The case brought by two Ethiopian nationals calls on Facebook to alter its algorithm to stop promoting hateful material and incitement to violence, as well as hiring more content moderators in Africa. It is also seeking a $2.4bn “restitution fund” for victims of hate and violence incited on Facebook.
Continue reading...National Crime Agency says such groups are fuelling crimes including fraud, violence and child sexual abuse
Teenage boys are joining online gangs where they share sadistic and misogynistic material that fuels crimes including fraud, violence and child sexual abuse, the director general of the National Crime Agency has warned.
Offenders in online communities collaborate and compete to cause harm online and offline through cyber-attacks such as launching malware, ransomware or executing data breaches; fraud; extremism; grooming and blackmailing; serious violence; and child sexual abuse, according to the NCA, which leads the UK’s fight to cut serious and organised crime.
Continue reading...Nearly half of female entrepreneurs surveyed by Cherie Blair Foundation for Women do not have regular internet access
The cost of a mobile data package is all that is holding back many female entrepreneurs in developing countries, according to recent research.
While social media marketing is reported to be crucial by female business owners who have access to it, 45% of women in business in low- and middle-income countries said they did not have regular internet access because of the expense and connection issues.
Continue reading...National Crime Agency launches awareness campaign, saying criminals are adapting methods and using AI
UK police forces are receiving more than 110 reports of child sextortion attempts every month, according to the National Crime Agency, as a new awareness campaign is launched about the online scourge.
The NCA said the use of artificial intelligence in sextortion attacks had also increased “substantially” over the past three years as criminals adapted their methods.
Continue reading...Criminal justice specialists call for new approach to identify emerging type of murderer with no prior convictions
The rise of “0 to 100” killers who go from watching torture, mutilation and beheading videos in their bedrooms to committing murder suggests there could be a link between extreme violence online and in real life, experts have said.
Criminal justice experts advocated a new approach, inspired by counter-terrorism, to identify an emerging type of murderer with no prior convictions, after cases such as Nicholas Prosper, who killed his mother and siblings and planned a primary school massacre.
Continue reading...UK will be first country to bring in tough new laws to tackle the technology behind the creation of abusive material
Britain is to become the first country to introduce laws tackling the use of AI tools to produce child sexual abuse images, amid warnings from law enforcement agencies of an alarming proliferation in such use of the technology.
In an attempt to close a legal loophole that has been a major concern for police and online safety campaigners, it will become illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to generate child sexual abuse material.
Continue reading...Anne, 53, faces wave of online mockery for believing she was in relationship with actor and paying scammer €830k
A French woman who believed she was in a long-term romantic relationship with Brad Pitt and was scammed into paying €830,000 (£700,000) to help him with medical treatment faced such a wave of online mockery that a TV programme about her has been withdrawn.
The interior designer, named as Anne, 53, has been targeted on social media and even a satirical sketch on France’s biggest radio breakfast show after giving an interview about the case to the Seven to Eight programme on the TF1 channel on Sunday.
Continue reading...Ian Russell, whose daughter died viewing harmful content, says Online Safety Act a ‘disaster’
The father of a 14-year-old girl who died after viewing harmful content on social media has told Keir Starmer that the UK is “going backwards” on online safety.
Ian Russell, chair of the Molly Rose Foundation set up in memory of Molly, who took her own life in 2017, said the regulator Ofcom’s implementation of the Online Safety Act has been a “disaster” in a letter to the prime minister on Saturday.
Continue reading...Technology secretary Peter Kyle has the task of making Britain a leading player in the AI revolution, but says economic growth will not come at the cost of online safety
With the NHS still struggling, a prisons crisis still teetering and Britain’s borrowing costs soaring, there are few easy jobs going in Keir Starmer’s cabinet at present.
But even in such difficult times, the task of convincing Silicon Valley’s finest to help make Britain a leader in the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution – all while one leading tech boss uses the Labour government as a regular punching bag and others ostentatiously move closer to Donald Trump – is among the most challenging.
Continue reading...Senior cabinet minister promises not to dilute new measures despite Zuckerberg’s attacks on countries ‘censoring’ content
Britain’s new laws to boost safety and tackle hate speech online are “not up for negotiation”, a senior government minister has warned, after Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg vowed to join Donald Trump to pressure countries they regard as “censoring” content.
In an interview with the Observer, Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, said that the recent laws designed to make online platforms safer for children and vulnerable people would never be diluted to help the government woo big tech companies to the UK in its defining pursuit for economic growth.
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