Roblox has announced it will block under-13s from messaging others on the online gaming platform as part of new efforts to safeguard children.
Child users will not be able to send direct messages within games by default unless a verified parent or guardian gives them permission.
Parents will also be able to view and manage their child's account, including seeing their list of online friends, and setting daily limits on their play time.
The messaging app Snapchat is the most widely-used platform for online grooming, according to police figures supplied to the children's charity the NSPCC.
More than 7,000 Sexual Communication with a Child offences were recorded across the UK in the year to March 2024 - the highest number since the offence was created.
Snapchat made up nearly half of the 1,824 cases where the specific platform used for the grooming was recorded by the police.
It’s become a familiar pattern of events: a violent, terrifying attack unfolds, innocent people are killed, and social media is set alight with unfounded - and often incorrect - accusations about about the assailant's identity and what the motivation was.
Think back to the stabbing attacks in Sydney earlier this year, falsely blamed on a Jewish student, or even the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in July.
It’s the same with Monday’s attack on a children’s holiday dance and yoga session in Southport, England.
A TikTok dance resource for adults and young people designed to raise awareness about online grooming.
Sexual predators are grooming children under six into performing “disturbing” acts of sexual abuse via phones or webcams a charity has warned.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said it had discovered more than two thousand remotely filmed child abuse images of three to six-year-olds online in 2023.
(Police) Data collection was "unreliable", it said, and intelligence gathering "wasn't prioritised".
It found most offenders were white, despite the concerns of politicians about "Asian" grooming gangs.
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