Record number of UK under 18s facing ‘sextortion’ online as experts say no time to lose on nudity blockers for teens’ phones
Child protection groups brace for record numbers as half-year ‘sextortion’ reports have already eclipsed 2025 total.
Published: Tue 5 Dec 2017
The Internet Watch Foundation’s CEO, Susie Hargreaves OBE, spoke to students from the University of Cambridge on Thursday about the positive aspects of social media in a lively debate at Cambridge Union.
The debate explored whether social media is truly as social as it can be in design and effect, with the house believing that social media is antisocial.
Arguing for the opposition in defence of social media was Susie Hargreaves OBE, alongside Judith Donath, a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Centre and the founder of the Sociable Media Group at the MIT Media Lab; Adnan Sawar, The Economist's Community Editor; and Glenn Brown, Chief Digital Officer of the Obama Foundation.
Arguing for the proposition was Ian Walden, Professor of Information and Communications Law at Queen Mary University London and former Internet Watch Foundation board member and trustee; Page Nyame-Satterthwaite, the outgoing Cambridge Union President studying law at Christ's College; Tom Hashemi, Director of We are Flint, a research, design and communications agency; and Ziad Ramley, former social media lead at Al Jazeera English, who now works as a digital news consultant in London.
Photo by Chris Williamson
Photo by Chris Williamson
Photo by Chris Williamson
Child protection groups brace for record numbers as half-year ‘sextortion’ reports have already eclipsed 2025 total.
New data shows a concerning rise in the number of AI-generated child sexual abuse images identified in the first half of this year, with girls featuring most often.
As EU negotiations on the Child Sexual Abuse Regulation resume in Brussels, the Internet Watch Foundation places a choice before the public and policymakers – to either push for legislation that protects children online or make it easier for child sexual abuse content to spread.