Teenage boys targeted as hotline sees ‘heartbreaking’ increase in child ‘sextortion’ reports
The IWF and NSPCC say tech platforms must do more to protect children online as confirmed sextortion cases soar.
Published: Tue 5 Dec 2017
The Internet Watch Foundation’s CEO, Susie Hargreaves OBE, spoke to students from the University of Cambridge on Thursday about the positive aspects of social media in a lively debate at Cambridge Union.
The debate explored whether social media is truly as social as it can be in design and effect, with the house believing that social media is antisocial.
Arguing for the opposition in defence of social media was Susie Hargreaves OBE, alongside Judith Donath, a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Centre and the founder of the Sociable Media Group at the MIT Media Lab; Adnan Sawar, The Economist's Community Editor; and Glenn Brown, Chief Digital Officer of the Obama Foundation.
Arguing for the proposition was Ian Walden, Professor of Information and Communications Law at Queen Mary University London and former Internet Watch Foundation board member and trustee; Page Nyame-Satterthwaite, the outgoing Cambridge Union President studying law at Christ's College; Tom Hashemi, Director of We are Flint, a research, design and communications agency; and Ziad Ramley, former social media lead at Al Jazeera English, who now works as a digital news consultant in London.
Photo by Chris WilliamsonPhoto by Chris WilliamsonPhoto by Chris Williamson
The IWF and NSPCC say tech platforms must do more to protect children online as confirmed sextortion cases soar.
A major 18-month trial project has demonstrated a first-of-its-kind chatbot and warning message can reduce the number of online searches that may potentially be indicative of intent to find sexual images of children.