Feedback

Simfin

online safety and digital citizenship specialist

 Tagged with article


03 February 2023

The UK boss of Samsung Mobile has said he did not give his daughter a smartphone until she was 11.

"I personally wouldn't have given her one early, but it is a parental decision as to when you should get your child a phone," said James Kitto.

He said whatever age people get phones, it was important to make sure they were safe online.

It comes after Ofsted's chief inspector said she was "surprised" when primary school children have smartphones.

Read more

20 January 2023

Daria Gusa was 16 and still at school, when she says she received a private message on Instagram from Andrew Tate, a high-profile influencer almost 20 years older than her.

"It just read 'Romanian girl' and he put some flirty emoji," Daria told me. "I was confused because I [only] had 200 followers, and it was a private account."

She is one of two teenagers who have described to the BBC how Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan approached them online, apparently using a standard formula.

 

Read more

12 January 2023

Intelligent, articulate and disciplined - that's how secondary school teacher Charlotte Carson describes Andrew Tate, the online influencer who is a role model to many of the boys at her school in Belfast.

But the problem is, she says, Andrew Tate is also pathetic, insecure, and promotes "Taliban beliefs" about how to treat women.

Schools across the UK are encountering increasing numbers of pupils who admire Tate - and so teachers are having to work out how to respond.

Read more

29 November 2022

Controversial measures which would have forced big technology platforms to take down legal but harmful material have been axed from the Online Safety Bill.

Critics of the section in the bill claimed it posed a risk to free speech.

Read more

27 November 2022

The encouragement of self-harm will be criminalised in an update to the Online Safety Bill, the government has said.

Content that encourages someone to physically harm will be targeted in a new offence, making it illegal.

The government said the changes had been influenced by the case of Molly Russell - the 14-year-old who ended her life in November 2017.

Read more