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 By Monday (28 July), a petition calling for the law to be repealed had been signed over 550,000 times.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.