Most social media platforms have a minimum age limit of
13, but research shows a growing number of children
aged under 13 are using social media, with 3 in 4 children
aged 10-12 having their own accounts.
While much is known about how teenagers use social
media, this research provides the missing piece to the
story, exploring the social media lives of children before
they reach the teenage years. In October and November
2017, we conducted 8 focus groups with 32 children
aged 8-12 to understand the impact of social media on
the wellbeing of this age group.

Read the report

The Canadian Centre for Child Protection, which is behind the campaign, said it’s seen an 89% increase in so-called “sextortion” cases among teenage boys over the last two years.

Think about what you shared with your friends on Facebook today. Was it feelings of “stress” or “failure”, or perhaps “joy”, “love” or “excitement”? Each time we post on social media, we leave traces of our mood.

Our emotions are valuable commodities, and many companies are developing automated tools to recognise them in a process known as sentiment analysis.

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Facebook is breaking data privacy laws in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands and faces investigations in Spain and the German city of Hamburg, privacy regulators from those respective areas announced today. French authorities also announced they were slapping Facebook with the maximum fine allowed under French privacy law, of €150,000 ($164,000). To put that in perspective, Facebook generated $27.6 billion in revenues last year.

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Reducing The Impact

This is a National Cyber Security Resource

Most cyber attacks are composed of four stages: Survey, Delivery, Breach and Affect. The following security controls, applied at each stage of an attack, can reduce your organisation’s exposure to a successful cyber attack.

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From advice to message boards, you can now get everything you need from Childline in an app. It's quick, easy and you can lock it with a PIN. By downloading the app, you're in control. You can talk to us whenever - and wherever - you need to.

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