Source: National Crime Agency (NCA) published on this website Tuesday 20 May 2025 by Jill Powell

A couple from Wales have been jailed for 23 years each after footage was shared online of them sexually abusing a child.

Jonathan Leonard, 58, from Caldicot, Monmouthshire, and Ann Bray, 62, from Newport were arrested by officers from the National Crime Agency in September 2024 after information was received from the FBI.

Both Leonard and Bray's devices were seized upon arrest, and Bray's device contained videos and images of the pair abusing a child from 2021 to 2024.

NCA investigators discovered Bray had been grooming the child to participate in sexual activity with the pair.

Videos and images of the abuse were taken by Bray and shared to Leonard. Officers found chat messages between them discussing the abuse, their fantasies, and making plans to commit the offences. Leonard subsequently shared some of these images online.

Both Bray and Leonard were also found to be in possession of a number of other indecent images of children and extreme pornography.

They were interviewed by NCA officers but refused to answer any questions about their involvement.

They were charged with multiple child abuse offences and pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court on 24 January.

Leonard and Bray were both sentenced to 23 years' imprisonment, with eight years to be spent on licence today (19 May).

Daniel Waywell, Senior Investigating Officer at the NCA, said: "Leonard and Bray worked together to support one another's sexual interest in children, subjecting a child to years of horrific abuse, which they filmed and shared online with other paedophiles.

"This child, and every one of the victims of abuse in the indecent images and videos found on their devices, are re-victimised each time this material is viewed and shared online.

"The NCA is committed to safeguarding children from sexual abuse and we will continue to work tirelessly, alongside international partners, to remove children from harm and bring offenders like Leonard and Bray to justice."

Source: UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC) published on this website Friday 16 May 2025 by Jil Powell

Safer Internet Day 2025 reached more young people than ever before, with 57% of UK children aged 8-17 hearing about the day, alongside 50% of UK parents and carers, an increase of almost 20% compared to the previous year.

The impact report looks at the reach of Safer Internet Day 2025 and the positive impact that it had on children, young people, parents, carers, and teachers.

The theme of Safer Internet Day this year was: Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online

 It was so inspiring to see schools and organisations across the UK getting involved and starting conversations about scams online. We are so proud of the impact the day has had, as can be seen through some of the key statistics of the day:

• Over 160,000 downloads of education materials
• The #SaferInternetDay hashtag trended at no.1 throughout the day on X
• 1,726 organisations and schools across the UK registered as official supporters

More than just reach

Although the day reached more people than ever before, what is truly impressive is to see the real-life impact that Safer Internet Day has on those that get involved.

Young people told us that as a result of the day:

• 76% felt more confident about what to do if something is worrying them online
• 57% talked to their parent or carer about how to stay safe on the internet​
• 34% spoke to their parent or carer about something or someone that had been worrying them online​
• 43% spoke to someone about online scams ​
• 28% talked to someone about their experiences online that they had not spoken about before ​
• 79% learnt something new about online safety as a result of Safer Internet Day 2025

We also saw similar results from parents and carers:

• 71% feel better prepared to keep their child safe online​
• 69% felt more confident about what to do if their child came to them with a problem they had online ​
• 34% said their child spoke to them about something that had been worrying them online​
• 77% talked to their child about using the internet safely​
• 73% are more aware of the impact online scams can have on their child

Read the full impact report

Safer Internet Day in schools

Over 1,400 schools registered their support for Safer Internet Day, and it was great to see the impact this had in their classrooms. UKSIC asked educators who had used the education resources for their feedback and found:

• 96% agreed Safer Internet Day encouraged conversations about online safety between staff and young people​
• 87% agreed Safer Internet Day plays a significant role in my setting’s online safety provision ​
• 76% agreed that because of SID25 the setting will follow up with further online safety input for young people​
• 58% agreed SID25 led to concerns being raised about potential safeguarding issues online

The statistics in the impact report show what an important date Safer Internet Day is in the online safety calendar, creating invaluable opportunities for young people to seek help and support on the issues which matter to them – some of which they have not been able to talk about before.

Help us make Safer Internet Day 2026 a reality

Each year we work together to make Safer Internet Day the pivotal point in the education calendar, creating space for conversations about the topics that matter, and helping young people to seek support and guidance that they otherwise may not get.
In order to help make Safer Internet Day 2026 even bigger and better than ever, UKSIC need your support. For more information about partnership opportunities, and to help support the work that is done, please email will@childnet.com.

Source: Department for Science, Innovation and Technology published on this website Monday 19 May 2024

The Online Safety Act 2023 (the Act) is a new set of laws that protects children and adults online. It puts a range of new duties on social media companies and search services, making them more responsible for their users’ safety on their platforms. The Act will give providers new duties to implement systems and processes to reduce risks their services are used for illegal activity, and to take down illegal content when it does appear. 

The strongest protections in the Act have been designed for children. Platforms will be required to prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content and provide parents and children with clear and accessible ways to report problems online when they do arise. 

The Act will also protect adult users, ensuring that major platforms will need to be more transparent about which kinds of potentially harmful content they allow, and give people more control over the types of content they want to see. 

Ofcom is the independent regulator of Online Safety. It will set out steps providers can take to fulfil their safety duties in codes of practice. It has a broad range of powers to assess and enforce providers’ compliance with the framework. 

Providers’ safety duties are proportionate to factors including the risk of harm to individuals, and the size and capacity of each provider. This makes sure that while safety measures will need to be put in place across the board, we aren’t requiring small services with limited functionality to take the same actions as the largest corporations. Ofcom is required to take users’ rights into account when setting out steps to take. And providers have simultaneous duties to pay particular regard to users’ rights when fulfilling their safety duties.

To read the full document

Source: Department for Education published on this website Thursday 15 March 2025 by Jil Powell

This new non statutory guidance Protective security and preparedness for education settings was published on the 29 April.

 This non-statutory guidance is for:

• security and incident leads
• all staff, including non-teaching staff

It applies to:

• all education settings and childcare providers
• all organisations and agencies that have functions relating to learners

The guidance:

• aims to improve security awareness
• helps staff and learners identify security vulnerabilities and suspicious activities
• sets out practical, low-costs steps to improve preparedness and response plans

The Act for Education interactive e-learning resource will teach learners:

• how to identify security vulnerabilities and suspicious activity
• how to respond when there is an incident

The Summary states:

“This non-statutory guidance provides advice to help educational settings be better prepared and able to respond to terrorism and other major incidents. It sets out practical steps to keep learners, staff and volunteers safe in the event of an incident through simple and cost-effective methods. The guidance is aimed at those working in settings who have existing responsibilities for emergency planning and response, site security, and staff new to concepts of protective security and preparedness. It is recommended that all staff read this guidance to ensure they are able to identify security vulnerabilities, suspicious activity and how to respond when there is an incident. For the purpose of this guidance, educational settings cover settings from early years, all schools, further and higher education (including colleges, sixth-form colleges and independent training providers), and alternative provisions (including special schools and children’s social care settings). This guidance can also be adapted to out-of-school settings (OOSS)”.

Key Actions for Schools: (summarised by Claire Stewart safecic’s Development Manager)

• Appoint a Security Lead to oversee emergency planning and act as incident lead if needed.
• Review and test plans for lockdown, invacuation, evacuation, and bomb threats, ensuring they meet the needs of all learners, including those with SEND.
• Train all staff to recognise suspicious behaviour (SCaN), assess suspicious items (HOT protocol), and respond to incidents (RUN HIDE TELL).
• Use the self-assessment tool (Annex D) to review current plans and identify gaps.
• Prepare a ‘grab kit’ with essential items to support response efforts, especially for those with additional needs.

This guidance has been developed in collaboration with the National Counter-Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) and sector partners.