#online-safety

#online-safety

Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The influential Commons women and equalities committee has decided to stop using X after the social media site's AI tool began generating thousands of digitally-altered images of women and children with their clothes digitally removed. The move by the cross-party committee to mothball its official X account places renewed pressure on ministers to take decisive action after the site was flooded with images including sexualised and unclothed pictures of children, generated by its AI tool, Grok.

The Parents of Ireland Survey 2026 gathered responses from 1,878 parents of school-going children nationwide, offering a detailed snapshot of Irish family life

It's about making reporting much easier so that you can report multiple accounts that are abusing you at the same time rather than having to do them one by one, which is absolutely soul destroying,

The guidance from Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, to combat misogynist abuse, coercive control and the sharing of intimate images without consent comes into force on Tuesday and includes recommendations to prevent women being harried online. The measures suggest tech companies enforce limits on the number of responses to posts on platforms such as X, in a move that Ofcom hopes will reduce pile-ons, where individual users are deluged with abusive replies to their posts.

Since the early days of the internet, with AOL chatrooms and online bulletin boards, there have been unhealthy, dangerous, and predatory individuals who used these electronic environments to act inappropriately towards minors. Children and adolescents have received disturbing sexual comments and solicitations from online creeps. Sometimes, these individuals would attempt to meet up with the children, even sometimes traveling across the country to meet the child in person.

In late September, The Guardian reported that Meta used back-to-school photos of teenage girls to advertise the Threads app to fully grown men. Girls as young as 13. These photos were posted by regular moms on Facebook and Instagram, some of whom had their profiles set to private. The photos of girls in their school uniforms appeared in-feed as advertisements resembling organic "suggested" threads posts, or were outright cross-posted without consent. Their faces weren't hidden or blurred.

During the sign-up process, new members complete a "liveness check" by taking a short video selfie within the app. The procedure collects and stores an encrypted map of information about the shape of the user's face. "We don't store a picture of your face, it's not photo recognition, it's data points about the shape of your face that are turned into a mathematical hash," says Yoel Roth, head of Trust and Safety for Match Group, which owns Tinder. Tinder then uses that "hash" to check whether a new sign-up matches an account that already exists on Tinder.

Recent years have seen alarming increases in youth self-harm and suicidal thoughts. Parents, educators, and mental health experts are naturally concerned, and many blame social media. Governments have begun taking notice as well. In Australia, for instance, the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill will soon make it illegal for young people under 16 to access major social media platforms, effective December 2025.

Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

The startup was founded by Nino Dvalidze (pictured), an entrepreneur and a mother of two from the United Kingdom. Dvalidze told TechCrunch that the idea for Young Minds came from conversations with fellow parents, who are also worried about how to keep their children safe, while also allowing them to have access to the internet, which, she admitted, is "enormously helpful in terms of education and exploration and connection with so many people outside of your immediate zone of contacts."

On Thursday, a video popped up on my X feed, displaying the very moment that political activist Charlie Kirk was shot in the neck as he sat on a stool onstage at a college campus, talking with students and observers. There was no warning, no prompt before the video started playing-only an instant replay of the exact moment of gory violence that would immediately make waves around the country and the world.

The robots are here, proclaimed Melania Trump during an AI event at the White House on Thursday. It can be hard to parse the first lady's poker face and expressionless voice, but this certainly wasn't a statement of regret. Rather Trump, reading from a script encased in a very analogue binder, was taking it upon herself to help America's children navigate AI, which she touted as the greatest engine of progress in the history of the United States of America.

The detailed profile typically consists of the child's personal data such as full name, address, date of birth, hobbies, interests and more. And it can lead to cyberbullying, online harassment, identity theft, privacy breaches, contact by a stranger and more, the experts warn. 'Sharenting can seem like a useful way to celebrate special occasions and update family members around the world on children's progress,' said Dr Anita Lavorgna, assistant professor in criminology at the University of Southampton.

Hollingsbee, 21, was sentenced to five years and two months for sex offences against teenage girls, admitting to 42 charges involving 14 victims.