Sex abuser used vapes to groom 14-year-old girl
- A 14-year-old girl has reported that she was sexually abused by an older man who groomed her by posing as a teenager offering to buy her vapes.
- This started an abusive, sexually exploitative relationship.
- A charity working with the girl, and other vulnerable young people said the promise of vapes was an increasingly used tactic to lure children.
- For more, please visit the BBC News website.
EU proposes criminalising AI-generated child sexual abuse and deepfakes
- The European Commission is proposing new laws to combat child sexual abuse (CSA) online, including making AI-generated imagery, and deepfakes depicting CSA illegal.
- They are also proposing to create a new criminal offence of livestreaming CSA.
- It also wants to criminalise the possession and exchange of “paedophile manuals.”
- For more, please visit the Tech Crunch website.
Where can people turn for help with ‘digital addiction’?
- Currently, digital addictions are not recognised by the NHS or World Health Organisation., unlike gaming disorders which were recognised from 2022.
- People with internet addiction may experience negative impacts on their relationships, academics, and mental health.
- The Priory, the UK’s biggest private provider of mental health services, reported that enquiries to their addiction services about gaming, internet or social media, gambling and porn addictions more than doubled between 2020 and 2023.
- For more, please visit the BBC News website.
The following stories may be regionalised:
Brianna Ghey’s mum wants mindfulness taught in schools
- The mother of murdered Brianna Ghey is calling for mindfulness to be placed back on the national curriculum.
- She has already launched a campaign in Warrington, which has raised £50,000 to deliver mindfulness training in schools in the local area.
- A spokesperson for the Department for Education said there are currently no plans to introduce mindfulness into every school.
- For more, please visit the BBC News website.
More than half of British girls lack confidence learning maths, poll finds
- A YouGov poll found that 54% of girls aged 11-16 lacked confidence in math, compared to 41% of boys.
- The gap was even wider in science, with 43% of girls lacking confidence compared to 26% of boys.
- Girls outperform boys in STEM subjects at GCSE, but fewer girls take these subjects at A-level and go on into STEM careers.
- For more, please visit The Guardian website.
