Story:One in 10 UK parents say their child has been blackmailed online, NSPCC finds Source The Guardian

 

According to NSPCC research nearly one in 10 UK parents say their child has been blackmailed online, with harms ranging from threatening to release intimate pictures to revealing details about someone’s personal life.

The National Crime Agency has said that it is receiving more than 110 reports a month of child sextortion attempts, where criminal gangs trick teenagers into sending intimate pictures of themselves and then blackmail them.

Online blackmailing may start as a row between kids at school which spills over into verbal threats, bullying or other forms of abuse. This escalation can result in demands being made on the target to do something to satisfy the person or persons who carry out the attacks. 

Other perpetrators can be paedofiles or criminal gangs. 

Children can also be pursuaded to keep the abuse secret following threats to attack other family members or to hurt the target even more.

Monitoring communications can be useful to become aware of such threats and discuss them with the child or engage with the Cyber Choices team in your area. This police service was established deal with such perpetrators of these crimes. 

To ready the full story here. 

 

 

Story:Charities Warn Against Loopholes in UK Online Safety Act Regarding Child Protection Source: London Daily

 

A number of child protection agencies and charities including NSPCC and Barnardo’s highlighted what they describe as an 'unacceptable loophole' that could allow encrypted messaging services to evade responsibility for removing illegal content. 

The loophole arises from the fact that person to person messaging is not fully covered by the legislation and the charities are raising their concerns about the dangers of encypted person to person messaging.

Putting controls in place for this sort of communications will be challenging and only time will tell how this and other encrypted technology might be controlled.

Read the full story here. 

 

 

Story:Dangerous & extremely troubled’ paedo, 18, who told girl, 14, to self-harm and carve his name into her skin is jailed Source: The Sun

 

A particularly harrowing story of a young girl being groomed by another teenager.  

The perpertator openly referred to himself as a paedophile online and he started grooming the victim, a 14 year old girl. He demanded he to behave in innapproriate ways, encouraged self harming and played on her easting disorder to make her life a misery.

The 18 year old began the abuse in September of 2024 and used  Discord, Telegram, and WhatsApp to target the vulnerable child.

Read the full story here. 

 

 

 

Story:Petition to repeal UK’s new Online Safety Act passes 300,000 signatures Source: Pink News

 

The UK Internet Safety Act came into law on 25th July2025. By Monday (28 July), a petition calling for the law to be repealed had been signed over 550,000 times. This forces a debate regarding a repeal in the UK parliament. This debate is scheduled to take place in Westminster Hall for December 15, 2025 at 4:30 pm. The debate will be opened by Lewis Atkinson MP and will be streamed on the UK Parliament YouTube channel. 

Whatever you think about the Act it is making a difference in the lives of childred and age verification systems seem to be improving as time passes.  The UK government made a statement regarding the petition as follows:

' The Government is working with Ofcom to ensure that online in-scope services are subject to robust but proportionate regulation through the effective implementation of the Online Safety Act 2023.'

UK Government have no plans to repeal the Act. 

Read the full story here. 

 

Story: Track My Teens' Phones And Discovered Something Unexpected About Myself Source: Huffington Post

 

This is not a story about children being abused or groomed online. Its a story which describes one of the unexpected outcomes of monitoring the online behavour of two sons by their father. 

As intrustive as monitoring might appear to be to some, if it is introduced following open discussions about keeping children safe it can become a useful tool to connect children with their parents when they are not at home. It needs no proactive action by the child or the parent. Simply knowing that they are on their way home after an evening out can be enough to reduce stress felt by parents whilst keeping their kids safe.

Read the full story here. 

 

 

Story:Texas sues Roblox for 'putting paedophiles and profits' over safety Source: BBC News

 

 

In this story we have a perfect example of how Big Tech puts itself ahead of anything else - and its all about profits.  If it isn't Facebook or X or TikTok their main purpose is to make money and in order to keep growing they need to draw in more and more young people.

Young peaple need to be protected in the online world and parents need to treat every app as they would if their child walked into an unknown building in a city on their own.

We need to hold their hands and walk along-side with them whilst they explore.

Our immediate thought might be to ban their access to the internet but that has some real downsides. First kids have to live in the world as it is, come to understand it, and avoid the dangers.  Second, there are really valuable resources for learning online and its much better to make them rise to the top but allowing access as resources that are seen to be of value.

With governments and families takling the dangers from both sides we can guide our young people to recognise value and avoid waste.

Read the full story here. 

 

Story:MP wants Elon Musk's chatbot shut down over claim he enabled grooming gangs Source: BBC News

 

An MP has called for the AI ChatBot Grok, owned by Elon Musk, to be shut down after making accusations that the MP was a 'rape enabler'. 

The Grok chatbot made the post on X about SNP MP Pete Wishart, after a user asked it to comment on the member's opinion on whether there should be an inquiry into grooming gangs in Scotland.

A user asked Grok whether the MP could be described as a 'rape enabler' due to his views on grooming gangs. The reply from the chatbot stated that the description was a fair one.

None of this is in evidence and there is no investigation into the claims. The concerns about AI are on the increase. It is clear that anyone could be a target and you dont have much recall when dealing with these huge orginsations.

Read the full article here.

 

 

Story:AI chatbots are hurting children. Source: The Guardian

 

What is happening in Austrailia will almost certainly be happening in the UK as Artificial Inteligence has no national or international boundaries.

This story deals with a frightening growth in ChatBots being responsible for  serious bullying activity. The Federal Education Minister, Jason Clare, made the following statement:

  “AI chatbots are now bullying kids. It’s not kids bullying kids, it’s AI bullying kids, humiliating them, hurting them, telling them they’re losers … telling them to kill themselves. I can’t think of anything more terrifying than that,” Clare said.

A number of court cases have begun challenging how AI companies are dealing with young people and some of the dire consequences due to their communication with the young or those at greater risk.

Monitor what your kids are experiencing online and help them to deal with the consquences.

Read the full story here. 

 

 

Story:'My teenage daughter fell victim to a satanic online group – and I felt powerless to help' Source: BBC News

 

A very scary story about a young girl, 14, who had fallen victim to the extreme online right-wing Satanist group called 764. The group turned out to be an international group of teenage boys and young adults who's sole purpose was to harm girls.

The behaviour of these boys makes difficult reading and the BBC added a warning before describing some of the demands these criminals placed on the girl. Four British teenagers were arrested linked to the group and one was sentenced in January to six years in jail.

 The girls mother shared how she felt at the time:

"I kept going 'just block them, stop talking to them', but I was not seeing the level of influence that was already there, and the level of fear.

"They absolutely just beat her down to make her feel she is absolutely nothing without them or with them."

This is the worst of such stories I have encountered but similar things must be happening around the world.

Protect your kids by monitoring their online world, work with them, discuss issues and ultimately remove their access to technology and report any concerns to the Police.

 Read the full story here.

 

 

Story:BBC tracks down sextortion scammer targeting teenage boys Source: BBC

 

Sextortion - sexual extortion - is one of the fastest-growing online crimes. Victims  are tricked into sending intimate photos or videos, which the scammers threaten to pass on unless they are paid. Such experiences can leave their young victims totally traumatised. 

This story deals with a scammer who targetted teenage boys and in one case referred to in the article the scammers target committed suicide only 90 minutes after receiving the first of the scammers messages.

Here again we discover a dreadful pattern of online behaviours which was not detected by anyone. Even the most intelligent of victims can be forced into a position where they feel trapped and unable to share the problems with even the closest of friends or family.

Read the full story here. 

 

 

Story:Dangerous & extremely troubled’ paedo, 18, who told girl, 14, to self-harm and carve his name into her skin is jailed Source The Sun

 

 

An 18 year old man has been jailed following grooming a 14 year old girl. His acts were about as depraved as they come as he demanded her to undress and carry out his lewd commands. Worse still he encouraged her to self harm and even got her to carve his name onto her body. 

He used Discord, Whatsapp and Telegram to undertake his communictations and even referred to himself as a 'peadophile online'. Clearly this grooming communication was taking place over a long period of time and was never detected,

Read the full story here.  

 

 

Story:A new youth advisory board to help shape online safety Source: Office of the Childrens Commissioner

 Children aged between 13 and 18 are being invited to become members of an advisory board set up jointly between the Childrens commissioner's office and OFCOM to share their experiences of life online and to advise Government on how their needs and opinions need to be taken into account when formulating policy.

The document contains a QR code which directs young people to an application form with a deadline of 26th October 2025 - only 5 days from today.

For the full information please click here. 

 

 

Story:‘Gruesome videos’: social media pushes distressing news to children, experts say Source: The Guardian

 

This Guardian report draws on research undertaken by the UK's internet safety organisation, Internet Matters.

The report states that 'more than half of children who get news from social media are left worried and upset after seeing content that involves war, violence and death, according to new research that found social media companies are “pushing” distressing news to children who are not seeking it.'

The report goes on to describe some of the finding of the research and examples of information promoted to children online. 

It is concerning that the research found that two thirds of children using social media get their news items from social media and 40 per cent of those only get news from items being shared by others.

This is another good reason to monitor your child's activities.

Read the full article here.

[Note: If prompted with a signup page for the news service try re- clicking the link or refreshing the page]

Story:Discord admits compromise of 70,000 Online Safety Act proof-of-age IDs Source: Computing

 

 

 Many children and teenagers use the online community Discord.despite its official age rating of 13 and older. It is very popular among young people for gaming, connecting with friends who share similar interests, and joining communities around hobbies. 

Discord srvers were hacked in early October and the company confirmed that the hack compromised more than 70,000 proof-of-age IDs, required by users to prove their age under the Online Safety Act. That’s according to the company itself, refuting claims that more than two million users have been affected.

Whether younger children were within that data is currently unknown but it is likely. Some reports put the figure much higher. 

Read the ful story here.

 

 

Story:UK’s Online Safety regime unable to tackle the spread of misinformation and cannot keep users safe online, MPs warn Source: UK Parliamentary Committee

 

 

"The Online Safety Act (OSA) cannot keep the UK public safe as it was not designed to tackle misinformation, MPs say today, in a wide-ranging report that urges the government to go further to regulate social media companies and disincentivise the viral spread of false content."

The above statement should be of concern to everyone. We all know that there is a lot of hope based on the Internet Safety Act to help ensure children do not become targets online or get drawn into illegal acts. Concerns about misinformation has been around for many years but in the recent past the volume of the sources of minisformation have grown out of all proporation. 

We know that some misinformation is used to attract children to join in conversations with people online and in some cases those conversations turn out to poisenous. Political misinformation is causing havoc in a number of countries and its potential impact on the outcomes of elections and even the survival of democracy.

Read the full story here. A link to the full Committee Report is on the same page.

 

 

Story:Cyber Crisis: Surge in attacks leaves UK public feeling unsafe online Source: The Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET)

 

Therehas been an increacing number of stories in the press about Cyber Crime. Jaguar Landrover, Bank outages, Heathrow hacks and M&S have all been in the press. Add to this the inmcreasing number of schools and even social media platforms that have been attacked and you can well imaging the concern is growing in the general population.

The article reports that, over a third of UK adults don’t know what to do after a cyber hack with fear gripping over half and most adults in the UK feel that their data is not safe (three in four). Whilst this refers to adults and not children there are a number of ways this will almost cenrtainly have an impact on children. If parents feel as they do they will almost certainly be concerned about other family members. Will their reaction be to ban mobile phones until they regard the children to be old enough. Could they lock down devices so tightly that the wealth of valuable material that is available online will put some at a disadvantage. 

Our approach is to monitor the child's online activity , not in the sense of Big Brother, but as a partner travelling along, what used to be called the super highway, together. 

Read the full story here. 

 

Story:TikTok recommends porn to children, says report Source: BBC News

 

The BBC reports that an investgation by a human right's campaign group discovered that TikTok's algorithm has been recommending pornography and other inapproriate content to children's accounts. the recommendations seem to ignore the safety settings that Tik Tok claim protects children on their platform.

Like many plaforms Tik Tok has a age limite of 13 which should mean that children under 13 do not access the platform but in fact there are probably millions of younger children across the world that access the platform.

Checking childs phone regularly or implimnetation of monitoring tools should ensure that parents can deal with such issues as they arise and discuss the issues that arise with their children.

Read the full story here. 

 

 

Story:Instagram still poses risk to children despite new safety tools, says Meta whistleblower Source: The Guardian

 

Meta rejects review findings, which claim two-thirds of new features designed to protect young people are ‘woefully ineffective’.

The article refers to research results that claim two-thirds (64%) of new safety tools on Instagram were found to be ineffective. The review if the changed made to the plaform were made following a comprehensive review led by Arturo Béjar, a former senior engineer at Meta who testified against the company before US Congress, New York University and Northeastern University academics, the UK’s Molly Rose Foundation and other groups.

The research stated that; 

“Kids, including many under 13, are not safe on Instagram. This is not about bad content on the internet, it’s about careless product design. Meta’s conscious product design and implementation choices are selecting, promoting, and bringing inappropriate content, contact and compulsive use to children every day.”

Parents should ensure that they know what their children are using Instgagram and other Meta services for and ensure that they are not being placed at risk.

 The full story can be found here.

 

Story:Gloucester school children added to 'inappropriate' WhatsApp chat Source: BBC News

 

Hundreds of schoolchildren from three Gloucester Schools were added to a group chat on WhatsApp containing what has been described as "inappropriate and illegal content".

The BBC has seen emails sent to two of the schools warning parents that "a number" of 11 and 12 year-olds in year seven have been invited in to the group called 'World Record Breakers'.

One states that "almost 300 secondary aged children from local schools" are in the group, which might also include "other unknown individuals".

This should trigger ever parent and carer to take immediate action to discuss the situation with their children and ask them to share their phone or tablet to see if they are in the group and to explain the risks they face. It will be important to handle this situation in a supportive way and encourage their children to share their lives online.

The Trust's moniotring project is intended to promote online monitoing of a child's device to provide an early alert when such issues arise so that they can be dealt without delay. 

 

 

Story:'KYS' Is The Concerning Acronym Every Parent Should Know About Source: Huffington Post UK

 

 

This report describes an acronym that looks like slang but should concern any parent that sees it in communications between their child and someone else.

If you see the acronym KYS – or kys, as it’s usually written online, you might think it means 'keep your smile'. This is what some Tik-Tok users suggest it means. There is much more sinister meaning behind those three letters that parents should be aware of because it could highlight cyberbullying.

The acronym actually conveys the message "Kill Your Self" and once seen further investigation is required.  

This sort of message and the communications that accompany its use would be detected with effective monitoring of a child's device.

Read the full story here. 

 

 

Story:Children as young as 11 tempted to try betting after being ‘flooded’ by celebrity endorsement Source: The Guardian

 

The Guadian reports on research undertaken by the charity GambleAware which states that young people in UK aged 11-17 said seeing a celebrity gambling or advertising it made them want to emulate them.

Whilst the current focus has been on pornography, radicalisation and crime there are other aspects of online life that children need to be aware of and guided on appropriate behaviour online. We all know that children want to explore and experience lots of things that look exciting or different or even a bit risky and monitoring can pick these behaviours up to allow gentle intervention to discuss the risks that they might face in the future if not immediately.

The newspaper reports that "the UK’s leading gambling charity, GambleAware, which commissioned the reports, urged regulators and policymakers to address social media accounts and influencers producing betting content on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Twitch in light of the findings.

In one survey of 2,100 children aged 11-17, a quarter said seeing a celebrity gambling, or advertising it, had made them want to follow suit, rising to more than a third (36%) among boys aged 16-17."

 See the full story here.  

 

 

Story:Meta ads faces backlash over use of schoolgirls images as bait to target man Source: The News (International)

 

 

 

Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Threads) advertising faces backlash over use of schoolgirls images as bait to target men. 

the organisation sparked outrage after using images of underage schoolgirls mostly teens in advertisements for its Threads platform that were targeted specifically at a 37-year-old man, with parents condemning the practice as disgusting and exploitative.

Whilst this is not illegal as such it does set the tone for the way META thinks about its business model and seems prepared to use any tactic to further increase its user base. This linked with other stories in the press such as one of the stories in this blog entitled "Meta’s flirty AI chatbot invited a retiree to New York" demonstrate a corporate mindset that does not see how innapropriate such strategies are in a world that is growingly concerned about keeping children safe online.

See the full story here. 

 

 

 

Story:Shocking figures reveal 400 children every week are groomed online in UK Source: The Mirror

 

Major tech companies including social media giants Snapchat and Facebook reported more than 9,600 cases of adults grooming kids in the UK in just six months last year.

The number, described as ‘shocking’ by children’s charity the NSPCC, amounts to around 400 per week. Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) have become increasingly worried about the growing threat from sextortion and other crimes targeting teenagers.

Grooming can begin online and groomers can often try to get the communications to move onto less well monitored systems or by creating accounts on encrypted forums. Once isolated the children targetted by these people can then be 'managed' to do whatever the groomer intends.

Read the full story here. 

Checking who children communicate online has been a major issue for years but it is reaching epidemic proportions. Hopefully the new Internet Safety Act will increase the vigilance of the tech companies and get them to report these incidents or prevent such communications from taking place.

This said, monitoring at home, by parents and others who know and understand  their children, will always be an important factor in keeping children safe online.

 

Report: 10 to 17 year olds represent around half of reported sexual abuse crimes in 2024

 

The National Crime Agency's 'National Strategic Assessment 2025 - Child Sexual Abuse' has a keen focus on the implications of AI on the ways that strategies used by perpetrators might develop. 

The report states  "Developments in technology continue to drive and enable more complex online child sexual abuse. This includes the manipulation of legal generative artificial intelligence tools to create child sexual abuse material which is illegal, shown with recent substantial convictions. 

The US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is expected to have seen a significant rise in reports of child sexual abuse material or other sexually exploitative content related to generative artificial intelligence over the course of 2024. 

The use of generative artificial intelligence systems without safeguards to prevent the generation of indecent images of children will undermine law enforcement efforts to identify and safeguard victims."

The full report can be read here. 

A useful InfoGraphic provided as part of the report summarizes the AI technology in play and some of the implications of this technology on keeeping children safe.

Greater care will be needed by parents to attempt to understand what their children are doing online. We are promoting ways to observe their children's online behviour and step in when risks arise

 

 

 

 

 

Story:Man jailed for grooming and sexually abusing child Source: Greater Manchester Police

 

 

The issue of grooming young girls and boys is known about by most people. The process of grooming, however, is less understood. Grooming often has taken a long time, somtimes a number of years, and the groomer may well be working on a number of contacts at the same time.

This story, from Manchester's safeguarding team, does not go into the detail of how the grooming process took place but the references to accessing data from phones and other digital devices makes it clear that online communcations played a significant part in the process.

Months or years of digital communications would leave a trail and had it been possible to monitor this traffic the grooming behaviour may have been detected sooner than it was.

The full story can be found here.