Meta calls for parental control laws for under-16s
- Meta has called for laws that would force app stores to get parental approval when a child downloads an app.
- The proposal would put app stores, like those run by Apple and Google, on the hook for implementing parental controls – rather than social media companies.
- The firm’s safety chief called for a “simple, industry-wide solution” to govern children’s social media use.
- Meta’s global head of safety, Antigone Davis reported: “Parents should approve their teen’s app downloads, and we support federal legislation that requires app stores to get parents’ approval whenever their teens under 16 download apps,”
- Ms Davis also said that placing the responsibility for parental controls on app stores would “help to preserve privacy” by limiting how many individual companies collected “potentially sensitive identifying information”.
- For more, please visit the BBC News website.
Sextortion: ‘I sent a nude and was blackmailed for money’
- A 15-year-old boy said he feared his life would be ruined after falling victim to a sextortion scam.
- He was sent intimate photographs of a girl he thought he was speaking to online and sent nude pictures in return.
- Scammers then asked him for money and threatened to leak the images online.
- Police have warned teenage lives could be lost due to the rising number of sextortion cases.
- According to North Wales Police, anyone can be a victim, typically teenage boys who are targeted with some as young as 13.
- Hayley Laskey from the Revenge Porn Helpline stated: “We need to take the stigma away of victim blaming. It’s not your fault, it’s theirs.”
- For more on the article, please visit the BBC News website.
- For more information you can visit INEQE’s Protecting Young People from Sextortion article.
The following story may be regionalised:
‘Crippling’ childcare costs are putting parents off having more children, Oxfam report finds
- Oxfam Cymru have released a report stating that the “crippling” childcare costs are forcing Welsh parents into poverty.
- The report found that 27% of parents are spending over £900 a month on childcare costs, and 43% reporting they haven’t been able to pay other essential costs after paying for childcare.
- The report says the lack of Welsh Government funded childcare provision is part of the issue.
- The Welsh Government say the scheme is “successful”, provides “high quality childcare” and that “addressing child poverty is an absolute priority”.
- They are “continuing to invest £70m in this sector” and stress that their childcare offer is more generous than England’s.
- For more, please visit the ITV News website.
