NEW: FAMILY MONITORING PROJECT VIDEOS
The Cyber Trust has released seven videos in a series covering different products that families can use to monitor activity. To access them visit that Trust's Youtube Channel here.
This collection of case studies explores real-world news stories highlighting how children and young people can be placed at risk through their online activities.
The collection is drawn from real cases investigated by the Cyber Choices team at the National Crime Agency and stories reported in the press.
All of these cases could have been prevented had parents been able to monitor their child's online activity and intervene.
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.
A 12 year old schoolgirl, Amelia Bath. was tragically found dead n her bedroom by her mum on March 6. Police were called and they found messages on the girl's phone which indictaed that she was being bullied on the app Snapchat.
The parents reported that there had been no signs that Ameila was concerned or worried about anything and she was laughing and joking with her family the evening before.
The police investgation is still onging but this is a prime example of where parental scruting of communications between their children and other people need to be monitored or checked regularly in an attempt to prevent such tragic outcomes.
Read the full strory here.
Efforts to protect children from some of the worst aspects of online abuse and dangerous online content has made some progress through legislation passed by the UK government last year.
Even so, reports continue to appear about the continued rise on child sex abuse image crimes logged by police forces in the UK. Such reports have risen by nearly 10% in the past year, the children's charity NSPCC has said.
The NSPCC said that of the 10,811 crimes where police forces recorded which social media platforms perpetrators used in relation to child sex abuse image crimes, 43%, or a total of 4,615, took place on Snapchat.
Meanwhile, Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp accounted for almost a quarter of all offences (24%), the charity said.
In other reports is is clear that the restrictions on access to video pornography, through such approaches as age verification are still not totally effective. Many of the lesser known porography sites have not implimented age verification and these are not being blocked by service providers.
Read the full story here.
