Campaigners say watchdog must ensure Online Safety Act is rigorous enough, after allegations about gaming platform Child safety campaigners have urged the UK communications watchdog to make a “step change” in its implementation of new online laws after a video game firm was accused of making its platform an “X-rated paedophile hellscape”. Roblox, a gaming platform with 80 million daily users, was accused of lax safety controls last week by a US investment firm. Continue reading...

It cannot be right that Musk can sow discord without personal risk. He’s a jetsetter: perhaps fear of unexpected detention will concentrate his mind The way social media is making headlines currently is not without precedent: a fragile narcissist posting relentlessly on a social network he’s made his own. We know well how this has ended in the past; Donald Trump’s furious posts after his election defeat led to the assault on the Capitol on 6 January 2021. The aftermath of that episode saw the then president suspended from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and even, to the dismay of those hoping to mood-board the Mar-a-Lago aesthetic, Pinterest. This time is likely to be different, not least because the person agitating the social media furore, Elon Musk, owns the platform he is using. Continue reading...