#childrens-internet-safety

#childrens-internet-safety

YouTube said parents can now set variable daily time limits for Shorts, including setting it to zero minutes to turn the feed off entirely.

"That requires a bunch of people to go take things that folks here are figuring out and [explain them] to the rest of the world," said Jeffrey Ladish, emphasizing the need for effective communication about AI risks.

The Palestinian internet digitally encapsulates the contradictions of anti-colonial resistance in the neoliberal era, serving as both an instrument for collective interconnection and a site of suppression.

In 2024 alone, authorities imposed 304 internet shutdowns across 54 countries - the highest number ever recorded. This reflects a growing trend of governments treating connectivity as a weapon.

These results raise major questions about the effectiveness of Australia's social media ban and show it would be a high stakes gamble for the UK to follow suit now.

A broken phone or corrupted drive can mean the loss of work, evidence, art, or the last traces of the dead. But sometimes data-recovery experts can summon lost files from the void.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced plans to restrict social media use by age starting on January 1, 2027, citing concerns such as problems sleeping, increasing anxiety, and social media platforms' addictive designs.

The Molly Rose Foundation (MRF) said online networks linked to a global ecosystem labelled the Com were carrying out extreme exploitation, cyberbullying, violence and abuse and called for a coordinated global response from governments, regulators, law enforcement and tech companies. The warning follows the publication of a report by the online risk consultancy Resolver in partnership with the MRF, which was founded by the family of Molly Russell, a British teenager who killed herself in 2017 after viewing harmful content online.

The tech-backed charity also edited out references to children feeling unable to stop using TikTok and Snap, social media exacerbating a devastating epidemic of isolation, and a passage questioning why people would want to spend years of their lives scrolling TikTok and binge-watching Netflix, the edits show. The 2026 iteration of the Childnet-run event takes place on Tuesday with more than 2,800 schools and colleges listed as supporters.

Video games are a major part of many children's lives, offering opportunities to build problem-solving skills, foster creativity, strengthen hand-eye coordination and connect socially with peers. In many cases, gaming can promote teamwork, critical thinking and even emotional resilience. When played responsibly, it can serve as a healthy and enriching activity. However, like any social environment, whether in-person or online, gaming platforms can also expose children to difficult situations, including conflicts, exclusion and occasionally bullying behavior.

Young people are not emotionally, cognitively or socially mature enough to manage ­unlimited exposure to internet content. They have not developed the skills and attributes for self-regulation, so expecting them to be able to do something they are unable to do is setting them up for failure. While the exposure to inappropriate content is a real and present concern, we must also be aware that spending excessive time online compromises the development of social interaction skills and emotional resilience.