Social Media Was Banned in Australia for Kids Under 16. Months Later, More Than 85% of Them Are Still Online Source: People.com

 

The UK's recent actions to manage social media access for children under 16 followed the similar actions taken by the Australian government. This report would suggest that legislation is not an easy option in controlling access to social media as it would appear.

The report suggests that after three months of the start of the ban a significant proportion of the target age group are still online engaging in social media activities. The report isn't anti legislation but it states that it could take a decade for the intention of the law take full effect.

The article also includes a statement from the UK's NSPCC  (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) which states that “It's evident from this research that a ban alone will not keep all children safe from harm online,”

Parents must play a part in the protection of their children and monitoring such activity on a child;s device is still an effective way to add a further layer of protection which is closer to home.

Read the full article here.

Children aged 10 referred to UK’s anti-terror scheme with online gamers groomed by extremists including satanic cult Source: The Sun

 

A report in the UK newspaper The Sun under the Terrorism flag details how children as young as 10 have been referred to the UK’s anti-terror programme.

The particular concern raised by police warn that extremists are grooming youngsters through online gaming platforms. The assistant police commissioner reported that  police had arrested 40 children for terrorism related offences in the UK.  He said  “That is one in five of our arrests. Ten years ago that was one in 20." He also sated that nearly 3,000 people referred to Prevent (Prevent programme) said they had been radicalised while using online gaming platforms.

This worrying trend must be replicated world wide and un-controlled access to gaming platforms allows in game communication to take place without supervision. There are controls available for these games but it is a widely held view that these are not always implemented within families.

Read the full story here. 

 

 

Under-16s to be banned from social media, Starmer announces Source: BBC News

 

 

The UK is to join Australia in banning access to Social Media children under 16 years of age. The ban is due to be in place by the spring on 2027.

The ban will cover all of the major social media platforms  e.g. Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X. WhatsApp and Signal will not be covered by the ban.

Read the full story here. 

 

 

New plans to stop children taking, sharing or viewing nude images Source:UK Government News

 

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced plans to establish additional protections for children online at  the UK Tech Conference and Exhibition on Munday 8th June 2026. 

The plans would prevent children from taking, sharing or viewing naked images on their devices. New requirments would be placed on Apple and Google to activate their built-in features or implement technical solutions on smartphones and tablets to detect and block nude images for children.

The decision to take such action was, in part, a result of research undertaken by the Internet Watch Foundation. Their data indicated that 91% of online child sexual abuse reports recorded in 2024 contained self-generated content from children themselves and the average child now views pornography by age 13. 

Sexting can directly lead to sexploitation and evidence shows that this activity has reached very high levels of activity in recent years.

Read the full story here. 

 

 

Social media on trial: Four important cases to watch Source: BBC news

 

 
This BBC report provides a useful insight into the four major court cases currently taking place within a landscape which include, companies like Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, Google, owner of Youtube, and Snapchat, along with relatively newer platforms like TikTok, Discord and social gaming platform Roblox, are facing thousands of lawsuits in the US over claims that they have instead harmed users, children in particular.

The cases include one in California which includes allegations from more than 1,000 school districts across the US. The schools accuse Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok of being intentionally designed to be addictive, which has allegedly harmed children mentally and emotionally through their excessive use of platforms. 

A second case also in California, is focussed on Meta and Instagram. The complainants demand that Meta better prevent users under 13 years old from using its platforms and remove data it has previously collected from underage users, along with a host of other changes.

The third, against Roblox and Discord, was brought by a 13 year old boy who claims that he had been groomed and solicited by an individual who was arrested for his crimes which affected more that 24 children.  

Finally not about children, is a case brought by an Australian billionaire who sued Meta over the company's alleged failure to combat scam advertisements tricking Australians into fake investments that allegedly proliferated on Facebook using his name and likeness.

 For as long time these companies , and others have considered children to their future subscribers and have tried every trick to draw them in and keep them as apart of their user-base. The reason is that these new users become adults whose data has value.

There will be more of these cases in the coming years as governments try to find ways to keep children, and others, safe online.

To read the full article here.