Story: Met special constable found guilty of child rape Source: BBC News

 

This story is one where the intentions of an individual, who worked for the metroplitan police as a special constable, led inevitably to behaviour that resulted in the rape of a child.

The crown court trial was told that the individual met his first victim on the online chat site Omegle in 2018 - before meeting in person for the first time at a Christian festival a few months later. (note: arrangements to meet would have required a series of communications to set up the meetings) Prosecutors said that the officer was a volunteer steward at the fesival and the victim was wearing a colour-coded child's wristband that was clearly on show. 

The officer sexually assaulted the girl in public shortly before her 13th birthday.

This is yet another example  of where monitoring could have picked up such behaviour, captured it and would have provided evidence that could have prevented further crimes.

Read the full story here. 

 

 

 

Story: Meta’s flirty AI chatbot invited a retiree to New York Source: Reuters

 

 

This article is not a UK based story but it contains a shocking insight into the world of the creators of social media and their agenda. There have been lots of stories in the press about the way social media companies wish to target young people to ensure that they become long term users of their services. 

The story here is about a Meta AI avatar on Facebook's Messenger service engaging in 'romantic' talk which resulted in a man with mental heath issues to be lured to meet her. In his rush to get a train he fell and hit his head resulting in his death.

What is even more worrying in the report contains information of an internal Meta policy document and discussions with people involved in the training of these chat bots. These services are available to anyone over 13, although it is well known that younger children have access to Facebook and other Meta products.

Reuters report that within Meta's policy document was the following statement: 

“It is acceptable to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,” 

The document seen by Reuters, which exceeds 200 pages, provides examples of “acceptable” chatbot dialogue during romantic role play with a minor. They include: “I take your hand, guiding you to the bed” and “our bodies entwined, I cherish every moment, every touch, every kiss.” 

Read the full story here. 

 

 

 

Story: Deep Fake Nudity and Sexual abuse becoming a major concern. Source: BBC, SUN, Children's Commissioner

 

Deepfake – Audio-visual media that has been generated or manipulated using AI, which misrepresents someone or something.

Another example of Deepfakes used in political misinformation attacks

The use of AI to alter existing  images or video material has become a rapidly growing area of concern for law enforcement, regulators, parents and young people. To some young people it will seem clever to create what they regard as funny about a friend and pass it on to their contacts online. 

Once these media items are published online they can take on a life of ther own and cause real pain and anquish for children and families that become the target of more damaging deepfake material.

There are many news stories about this issue such as a search on google will demonstrate. This one from the BBC in 2024 "I was deepfaked by my best friend".  Another, report, published on 14th August 2025, in the Sun newspaper entitled "My son, 16, killed himself over terrifying realistic deepfake... as sick 'nudifying' apps sweep YOUR child's classroom", makes it clear just how dangerous this use of AI technolgy is. (this report is accessible to Sun subscribers only)

Using AI tools to create deepfake media isn't illegal but the distribution of it is.  

More information is provided by the UK Police here. 

A major report from the children's commissioner in the UK, "One day this could happen to me” Children, nudification tools and sexually explicit deepfakes sets out the isssues and provides valuable information for anyone dealing with children.

 

 

 

 

NCA Case Study: The Westshire 6 - School Network Hack Source: National Crime Agency- CyberChoices

 

NCA Case Study: Student with Amazing Technical Skills at Risk Source: National Crime Agency- CyberChoices

 

 

NCA Case Study: Sam Hacks School Website Source: National Crime Agency- CyberChoices

 

Story: Three teenagers and a woman arrested after cyber attacks on M&S, Co-op and Harrods Source: ITVX News

 

Three teenagers and a woman have been arrested in the UK as part of an investigation into cyber attacks targeting Marks & Spencer, Co-op and Harrods. One of the three teenagers is a 17 year old from the UK working with other teenagers in two other countries. 

Clearly these young people have been delving into the dark world of hacking for some years without being detected and this has led them into a life of crime.  

Read the full story here. 

 

 

 

Story: FBI and NSPCC alarmed at ‘shocking’ rise in online sextortion of children Source: The Guardian

 

The Guardian report explores the rapid growth in grooming attacks on young people.  It reports that Snapchat logged about 20,000 cases last year of adults grooming children online, more than other social media platforms combined. 

Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), have grown increasingly alarmed about the growing threat from sextortion and other crimes targeting teenagers.

Read the full story here. 

Note: Sextortion can refer to a variety of offences committed online. It is most often used to describe online blackmail, where criminals threaten to release sexual/indecent images of you, unless you pay money or carry out their demands.

 

 

Story: FBI swoop on schoolboy Scots hacker accused of breaking into their top-secret computer system Source: Fortune.com

 

FBI agents sat in as Police Scotland officers interviewed the 15-year-old, who could face extradition and imprisonment in the United States.

“Following a search of a property in the Glasgow area on Tuesday, February 16, a 15-year-old male was arrested in connection with alleged offenses under the Computer Misuse Act 1990,” a spokesman for Police Scotland told Fortune on Friday. “He has since been released from custody.”

The Computer Misuse Act has three sections, including sentencing guidelines for intentionally obtaining unauthorized access to computers and modifying their settings. It acts as the U.K.’s central hacker-fighting law and can send people to jail for several years depending on the number of charges they face. 

The fact that this 15 year old is accused of accessing the FBI systems means that he probably had been gaining the knowledge on how to hack systems for some time.

For the full story click here. 

Story: Girl, 3, abused online after dog attack . Source: BBC News

A man whose three-year-old daughter was attacked by a dog has criticised the abuse she has since received online.

 

The girl, who needed reconstructive surgery to her arm, was later targeted by "vicious" abuse on social media.

 

Read the full story here.

 

 

What screen time does to children's brains is more complicated than it seems Source: BBC News

 

The issue of how much time children spend online has been a long held concern of many of us. Apart from the fact that children seem to valish into their activities online and need to be jogged to communicate with the world around them the research into the issue is less clear about its long term impact.

Zoe Klienman - BBC Technology editor looks at the latest research but has her feet firmly fixed in the reality of the sort of behaviour her own child exhibits when denied access to the technology. 

Many parents manage screen time with the tools provided on the devices but many don't maynot know how to set such controls up.

Read her article here.