It has been a distressing and troubling period for those of us who struggle to maintain a meaningful relationship with social media and internet technology. The revelation that Facebook had undertaken a grotesque experiment in mind-bending and emotional manipulation by altering the news feeds of around 700,000 of its users in 2012 has been greeted with some outrage.

Then we discovered that prominent people are beginning to deploy some arcane European privacy legislation to force Google to "forget" about their historical misdemeanours. Thus references to an American financier Stan O'Neal who helped drive his bank to ruination in 2007 were "deleted". (In truth, they are not deleted; instead Google hides specific articles for specific searches; and you can get round it by using google.com).

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 Complaints originating from social media make up "at least half" of calls passed on to front-line officers, a senior officer has told the BBC.

Chief Constable Alex Marshall, head of the College of Policing, said the number of crimes arising from social media represented "a real problem".

He said it was a particular problem for officers who deal with low-level crimes.

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The DinnerTime app is the simplest solution you'll find for parents who want to give their kids time-outs from their phones and tablets. The free app currently works only for Android for kids, but parents can use either Android or iPhone.

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The DinnerTime app is the simplest solution you'll find for parents who want to give their kids time-outs from their phones and tablets. The free app currently works only for Android for kids, but parents can use either Android or iPhone.

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Facebook announced a new feature for its Facebook app that can automatically identify music and TV shows playing in the background as you're writing a status update. When you activate it, the opt-in feature uses your smartphone's microphone to scan your surroundings; you'll see a sound icon moving on the screen as it does. If the Shazam-like feature finds a match, you can share songs or shows with your friends as part of your update.

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The announcement from Facebook about two new features aimed at helping users to control their privacy is to be welcomed. Facebook's privacy controls have always provided the user with flexibility as to who information is shared with, but the new features will help people make a more informed choice.

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