Daily Safeguarding Update

Roblox announces ‘World Party’ – a metaverse experience

Roblox has partnered with electronic music event promoter and producer Insomniac to bring the “world’s largest dance music festival” to the Roblox metaverse.
The festival will be held in the new persistent Roblox world, ‘World Party’, featuring over 50 electronic dance music artists.
Throughout the festival, artists will hop between the World Party experience servers for virtual meet and greets.
Players will have the opportunity to play an array of mini-games, such as races, dance battles, and building their own home in Camp EDC – the festival campsite.
The festival takes places from October 23rd to October 25th.
To find out more about Roblox, check out our blog post.
Full story, here.

Nearly 1,500 people have been arrested in England and Wales in a week-long operation against county lines drug dealing networks.
Approximately 139 county lines were closed and £2M in Class A drugs, including cocaine and heroin, were seized.
Officers are using modern slavery and human trafficking laws to prosecute gangs exploiting vulnerable children.
Between the 11^th and 17^th of October, 2,664 vulnerable people, including 2,209 children, were identified and 1,468 people were arrested.
County lines gangs groom children and vulnerable adults to move drugs and participate in other criminal activities.
The Children’s Society, a charity that works with young people facing abuse, neglect, and exploitation, wants the government to boost the law on the criminal exploitation of children.
Full story, here.

A group that spreads false and conspiratorial claims about COVID-19 has more than doubled the average number of interactions on their content on Facebook.
This increase took place in the first six months of 2021.
The figures were included in a report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
This follows whistle-blower Frances Haugen’s claims that the company knew its products were damaging young people’s mental health.
The group received 617,000 interactions in June 2021, up from 255,000 in January 2021.
Posts by the group include claims that COVID-19 is a ‘hoax’ and that vaccines cause widespread harm.
The group is comprised of current and former medical professionals and academics from seven countries.
For information on COVID-19 misinformation, check out our blog post.
Full story, here.

The UK should legislate to stop scam adverts online, to help combat a surge in fraud attacks on consumers, regulators, and lawmakers.
The Financial Conduct Authority said paid-for advertising promoting scams should be included in the government’s planned Online Safety Bill.
The bill currently only covers user-generated content.
Fraud should be classed as ‘priority’ illegal content and online platforms such as Google and Facebook should be required to monitor and take preventative action.
Fraud resulted in the loss of 754 million pounds in the first six months of 2021 for UK consumers.
Full story, here.