Anonymousabout 9 hours ago
The UK's National Police Chiefs' Council and National Crime Agency have called for blocking under-16s from social media platforms whose design features enable child exploitation, as the government's consultation on children's online safety closes on 26 May 2026. While police cite nearly 100,000 annual child sexual abuse referrals and 840,000 adults in the UK who pose a sexual risk to children, critics including Oxford researchers, digital rights groups, and LGBTQ+ advocates warn the proposal raises serious legal, technical, and human rights concerns — and that Australia's similar ban, enacted in late 2024, has already shown significant enforcement failures.