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The Independent
20 minutes ago
- The Independent
Children must not grow up at mercy of toxic algorithms, says tech secretary
A generation of children will not be allowed to grow up 'at the mercy of toxic algorithms', the Technology Secretary said as new online safety protections came into force. Peter Kyle said the Government was laying the foundations for a safer, healthier, more humane online world, as he warned tech firms they 'will be held to account' if they fail to adhere to the measures. The changes, as part of the Online Safety Act and set to be enforced by regulator Ofcom, require online platforms to have age checks in place – using facial age estimation or credit card checks – if they host pornography or other harmful content such as self-harm, suicide or eating disorders. They also require platforms to ensure algorithms do not work to harm children by, for example, pushing such content towards them when online. Actions which could be taken against firms which fail to comply with the new codes include fines of up to £18 million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater, and court orders potentially blocking access in the UK. Campaigners have warned the measures must be enforced strictly, with the NSPCC urging Ofcom to 'show its teeth' if companies fail to make changes in line with the regulator's protection of children codes. But the Molly Rose Foundation – set up by bereaved father Ian Russell after his 14-year-old daughter Molly took her own life having viewed harmful content on social media – said there is a 'lack of ambition and accountability' in the measures, and accused the regulator of choosing to 'prioritise the business needs of big tech over children's safety'. Mr Kyle insisted the Government has 'drawn a line in the sand' and that the codes will bring real change. He said: 'This Government has taken one of the boldest steps anywhere in the world to reclaim the digital space for young people – to lay the foundations for a safer, healthier, more humane place online. 'We cannot – and will not – allow a generation of children to grow up at the mercy of toxic algorithms, pushed to see harmful content they would never be exposed to offline. This is not the internet we want for our children, nor the future we are willing to accept.' He said the time for tech platforms 'to look the other way is over', calling on them to 'act now to protect our children, follow the law, and play their part in creating a better digital world'. He warned: 'And let me be clear: if they fail to do so, they will be held to account. I will not hesitate to go further and legislate to ensure that no child is left unprotected.' Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes has previously defended criticism of the reforms, insisting that tech firms are not being given much power over the new measures, which will apply across the UK. Dame Melanie said: 'Prioritising clicks and engagement over children's online safety will no longer be tolerated in the UK. 'Our message to tech firms is clear – comply with age checks and other protection measures set out in our codes, or face the consequences of enforcement action from Ofcom.' The regulator said X, formerly Twitter, and others including Bluesky, Reddit and dating app Grindr are among those to have committed to age assurances, and described its safety codes as demanding that algorithms 'must be tamed and configured for children so that the most harmful material is blocked'. It said it has launched a monitoring and impact programme focused on some of the platforms where children spend most time including social media sites Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, gaming site Roblox and video clip website YouTube. The sites are among those which have been asked to submit, by August 7, a review of their efforts to assess risks to children and, by September 30, scrutiny of the practical actions they are taking to keep children safe. Chris Sherwood, chief executive at the NSPCC, said: ' Children, and their parents, must not solely bear the responsibility of keeping themselves safe online. It's high time for tech companies to step up.' He said if enforcement is 'strong', the codes should offer a 'vital layer of protection' for children and young people when they go online, adding: 'If tech companies fail to comply, Ofcom must show its teeth and fully enforce the new codes'. Echoing this, Barnardo's children's charity said the changes are 'an important stepping stone' but 'must be robustly enforced'. England's Children's Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, said Friday 'marks a new era of change in how children can be protected online, with tech companies now needing to identify and tackle the risks to children on their platforms or face consequences', and said the measures must keep pace with emerging technology to make them effective in the future. But Andy Burrows, chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, said: 'This should be a watershed moment for young people but instead we've been let down by a regulator that has chosen to prioritise the business needs of big tech over children's safety.' He said the 'lack of ambition and accountability will have been heard loud and clear in Silicon Valley'. He added: 'We now need a clear reset and leadership from the Prime Minister. That means nothing less than a new Online Safety Act that fixes this broken regime and firmly puts the balance back in favour of children.' Earlier this week, Mr Kyle said children could face a limit on using social media apps to help them 'take control of their online lives'. He said he wanted to tackle 'compulsive behaviour' and ministers are reportedly considering a two-hour limit, with curfews also under discussion. The Cabinet minister said he would be making an announcement about his plans for under-16s 'in the near future'.
The Sun
21 minutes ago
- The Sun
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood heaps pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to recognise state of Palestine
JUSTICE Secretary Shabana Mahmood has heaped fresh pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to recognise a state of Palestine. She said it would send a 'strong message' to the Israeli Government amid the escalating situation in Gaza. 2 The PM is under pressure from ministers for the UK to immediately recognise Palestine as a state. Ms Mahmood said on a visit to Oxford yesterday: 'There could be multiple benefits, a lot of people would argue that recognition on its own has a symbolic value that could send a strong message to the Israeli government. 'We here in Britain, my colleague the Foreign Secretary David Lammy, have sent a very clear signal to the Israeli government that we are deeply concerned and appalled and outraged at the situation in Gaza - particularly the escalation that we have seen in recent days. 'It is completely unacceptable and you'll have seen from the things that the Prime Minister and David Lammy have said that we as a government are outraged at what is going on. 'At the moment, it feels like it's falling on deaf ears, but there is this further push, particularly from the Americans, for a ceasefire.' The UK plans to formally acknowledge Palestine as part of a peace process alongside other western countries. Ms Mahmood echoed the Government's stance, adding: "It's a tool that you can use only once." 2
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
One Day in Southport review – a sombre portrait of how a tragedy was hijacked
Most of the six to 10-year-old girls gathered in the Hart Space dance studio in Southport, Merseyside, on 29 July last year for a Taylor Swift-themed workshop were making friendship bracelets ('It's a very Swiftie thing to do,' says the older sister of one, who was watching them), when 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana burst in with a knife. His attack left two children dead at the scene and another died the next day from her injuries. Six other children, including the sister who was watching, and two adults were injured and taken to hospital. One Day in Southport focuses largely on what happened afterwards interspersed with the memories of the injured older girl and her family, because what happened next was the result of so many social, cultural and political issues that you could spend a lifetime unpacking them. This documentary does the best it can in an hour. It interviews people from different sides of the various debates, and shows social media posts and footage from the riots that sprang up around the country and caught the police and the establishment unawares. The prime minister was left floundering and unable to address the mixture of feelings and motivations behind them quickly or directly enough. The attacker – his name then kept from the public – was quickly arrested. The police held a press conference and described him as a 17-year-old from Lancashire and originally from Cardiff. The latter detail was included to attempt to tamp down the speculation already rife online and in the local area (arising because the one thing witnesses to the attack did know about the stranger was that he was Black) that he was an immigrant, which quickly became an illegal immigrant, which quickly became a Muslim illegal immigrant and ignited all sorts of rage. The usual suspects from the manosphere and others with their own agendas to push then stoked the fires, including Nigel Farage ('It shows how unhappy people are with the state of law and order in this country … Your children don't matter to them, they don't care') and Tommy Robinson, the leader of the far-right anti-Islam English Defence League. The hour tracks the evolution of local grief and anger directed at a specific event into widespread violence and unrest. One of the many YouTubers and other people outside the mainstream media who recorded events is Wesley Winter. He began feeling at one with the righteous fury felt by others. By the time he was filming a few days later in Middlesbrough, he realised that the people walking along a residential street in a Muslim area of the town and smashing windows 'was a very different crowd' and he became frightened that they might turn on him next. A call from his wife trapped in her car as people smashed the windows of vehicles around her led them to leave the area as quickly as possible. His naivete is astonishing, but more admirable than the craven avoidance of those supposedly charged with leading the nation in times of strife to address the difficult, sensitive issues with which the tinderbox had been – and remains – stuffed. Because what have we here? We have a section of the population, that's suffering greatly under the cost of living crisis. This fact has receded from the headlines, but not from life – the housing crisis, the proliferating brutal effects of austerity that the current government seems to be doing nothing to alleviate, and much more. We have people who see the advent of more people to these isles as competition for increasingly scarce resources. Even the co-convener of Stand Up to Racism, Weyman Bennett, makes the point that 'people are protesting against something that is really happening to them … they are rightfully angry' before explaining how this is leveraged and exploited by far-rightwingers (and whatever Reform are pretending to be) so that 'they're blaming the wrong people'. The absence of anyone in authority addressing this, instead of lauding the arrests and sentencing of rioters, was and remains conspicuous. Why not publicly delineate the difference between legitimate concerns and far-right agitation – bring the worried into your fold and denounce those burning mosques and terrifying the asylum seekers in besieged hotels? Because there is a difference and it matters hugely. The documentary gives no facts or figures about immigration, costs or anything else apart from the number of arrests and the 1,000 years-plus total to which rioters were sentenced. It is essentially a mood piece, tracking the development of the hijacking of grief to violent ends and leaving us to draw our own conclusions about where, why and if we would have stepped back to say: 'This has gone too far.' One Day in Southport is on Channel 4 now.
