YouTube comments bombarded with porn and scams aimed at young people

  • An investigation found that comment sections on certain YouTube channels contained links to pornography sites or online scams.
  • These channels often have large audiences of children and young people, such as that of YouTube content creator, ‘Mr Beast’.
  • The NSPCC head of Child Safety Online Policy commented “YouTube should be taking steps to make sure children aren’t being unwittingly directed to pornographic material or lured into clicking such links.”
  • You can read the full story on the iNews website.

Instagram testing Reels templates

  • Instagram is testing out a new feature called ‘Templates’.
  • This will let creators make ‘Reels’ by borrowing formats from other videos on the platform, the aim of this is to make ‘Reels’ simpler to create.
  • The feature is currently available for testing for a small number of users and no wider release date has been announced.
  • You can read the full story on The Verge’s website.

EU agrees rules to force big tech to rein in illegal content

  • New European Union will mean large online platforms including Facebook, Google and Twitter will have to do more to tackle illegal content or face fines.
  • The Digital Services Act (DSA) aims to ensure that what is illegal offline is seen and dealt with as illegal online.
  • The new rules will come into force in 2024 and include banning advertising aimed at children and allowing EU governments to request removal of illegal content.
  • You can read the full story on the Guardian’s website.

‘Worryingly inconsistent’ identification and response to child sexual abuse

  • A new report shows that services in England and Wales are identifying and responding to “only a small minority” of child sexual abuse (CSA) cases.
  • Figures show police forces in England and Wales recorded 89,200 identifiable CSA offences.
  • Responses across local areas are “worryingly inconsistent”, with large regional variations in forces recording CSA offences and in child protection plans in local authorities.
  • You can read the full story on the Police Professional website.