Source: Department of Science, Innovation and Technology published on this website Monday June 1 2026

Following talks at the G7 Digital Ministers in Paris Friday 29 May, the UK and G7 partners have for the first time agreed a common approach to shielding children and young people from harm online.

G7 countries have agreed to a set of new shared principles to help tackle the growing risks children face in a digital world, from harmful content to exploitation. These are centred around promoting digital literacy, addressing risks to children from AI chatbots, and pushing digital services providers to take a robust approach to online safety.

The landmark G7 agreement sets clear expectations that children’s safety should not be an afterthought, but built into digital services from the start, underpinned by effective age assurance. There is also a commitment to closer cooperation between digital service providers and children, parents and guardians.

The agreement comes just a few days after the UK’s consultation on protecting children from online harms closed, which asked for views on measures including potential bans or curfews for under-16s, restrictions on harmful app features like infinite scrolling, and stronger parental controls. The consultation received thousands of responses from children, parents and experts alike, with the Government intending to respond in the very near future.

As part of the discussions at the G7, countries also agreed that data sharing between online platforms, parents and researchers should be improved, to better understand how digital services impact children’s wellbeing.

Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said:

“AI and other technologies have the power to transform our economies and create prosperity for people across all our nations.

“But ordinary citizens and businesses will only see those benefits when they have trust that these technologies are being developed safely and responsibly — and when children can grow up in a digital world designed with their wellbeing in mind.

“The agreements we have reached today are an important step on that journey: outlining a shared approach to protecting our children, backing our small businesses to adopt AI, and ensuring AI is developed safely and responsibly.”

While much of today’s discussions in Paris focused on online safety, they also recognised the immense potential for emerging technologies like AI to unlock economic growth and improvements to the everyday lives of citizens.

G7 countries reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring AI is developed and used in ways that people can trust, all while recognising the transformative benefits of the technology.

Ministers highlighted the importance of staying ahead of a range of threats such as cyberattacks, and the development of chemical and biological capabilities. Under France’s Presidency, G7 countries agreed to further discussions on a mutual understanding of AI risk assessment frameworks, to ultimately boost public trust in the technology and ensure innovation can flourish.

To ensure the benefits of AI are felt more widely across society, Ministers agreed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be supported to adopt the technology with a tool developed in partnership with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development that will also help small businesses better their AI-readiness and identify areas where they can improve their workforce’s knowledge to speed up AI adoption. G7 leaders also agreed a Vision on AI Openness, recognising that AI models play a key part in supporting innovation, scientific discovery, and economic growth.

Taken together, these steps will help ensure AI delivers real improvements to people’s lives and that people can trust that these technologies are being developed with their safety in mind. G7 members will now take forward these commitments in partnership with international organisations, industry and academia.

Source: Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) published on this site Thursday 28 May 2026 by Jill Powell

Immaterialism will be among the first registrars to receive the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)’s dedicated Registrar Alerts.

The UK-based domain name registrar has joined the IWF to help stop the spread of child sexual abuse images and videos online. Use of the new Registrar Alerts will enable even faster action when harmful domains are identified.

Immaterialism provides domain registration services with a focus on fairness, transparency and user protection. Drawing on a blend of technology, openness and a commitment to building a better internet, Immaterialism works to offer customers a balanced and responsible service across the domains it manages.

Online safety sits at the heart of Immaterialism – teams actively monitor for suspicious or abusive domain registrations, taking swift action when services are being misused. This includes shutting down domains linked to scams or any attempt to facilitate the distribution of child sexual abuse online. The new partnership with the IWF reinforces this proactive work and reflects a joint belief that safeguarding children is a shared responsibility across the internet ecosystem.

As well as taking the Registrar Alerts, Immaterialism will integrate the IWF’s Keywords List and Top Level Domain Hopping List into its domain monitoring and enforcement processes. This will build upon its ability to detect and disrupt domains associated with child sexual abuse images or videos, helping prevent both accidental and deliberate access.

The Keywords List is among several unique services the IWF provides to Members, helping to detect and disrupt the spread of the criminal content online.

These tools will support rapid intervention when abusive activity appears, contributing to safer online environments across the domains Immaterialism manages.

Immaterialism said: 

“Immaterialism is proud to be joining the Internet Watch Foundation, which reinforces our ongoing commitment to making the internet safer for everyone. As a domain registrar, partnering with the IWF strengthens our ability to rapidly identify and act against online child sexual abuse material. Harmful content has no place on the domains we manage and this collaboration reflects our belief that trust and safety must be embedded in the very foundations of the internet.”  

Kerry Smith, Internet Watch Foundation CEO, said: 

“We’re delighted to have Immaterialism come on board as a Member, and to be one of the first to receive our Registrar Alerts. The IWF is dedicated to stopping child sexual abuse online and our custom-built tools are designed to help identify, block and disrupt the spread of this criminal content.

“Last year our analysts found more child sexual abuse material than ever before. There has never been a more important time for organisations to work together and tackle this issue. Children’s safety online depends upon it.”  

Source: National Crime Agency (NCA) published on this website Friday 29 May 2026 by Jill Powell

Banks could provide critical intervention to stop UK offenders who pay for livestreamed child sexual abuse overseas, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has said. 

For the first time, the NCA has worked with financial institutions, through their Public Private Partnerships unit, to show how banks can identify possible child sexual abuse (CSA) livestreaming payments and help law enforcement to stop the ongoing abuse of a child.

With the UK as one of the worst offenders for facilitating child abuse through livestreaming overseas, the NCA has been sharing real case examples and live investigations with private sector members to identify and understand patterns of behaviour and transaction history.

And today (Monday 18 May), at an event held in partnership with Natwest Group, the NCA’s Director General (Threats) Steve Rodhouse launched an alert for financial institutions to highlight this offending, encouraging them to build processes to detect livestreaming payments on their platforms.  

The event encouraged banks to proactively detect potential child sexual abuse offenders through their financial patterns, investigate transactions they believe could be funding livestreamed child sexual abuse, and help law enforcement in monitoring Sexual Harm Prevention Orders (SHPOs).

These often include restrictions on the number of bank accounts held, bans on international money transfers or travel abroad. This type of initiative demonstrates how everyone - including industry - has a role to play in protecting children, but also an example of how the NCA will explore every opportunity to disrupt offenders and bring them before the courts.

Livestreamed CSA offences have grown in recent years and involve criminals paying facilitators overseas, often in the Philippines, to abuse children in the country on a live feed to their device. In many cases, UK offenders direct the abuse through video.

Earlier this month, 37-year-old Jamie Beckett was sentenced to 23 years after being convicted of sexual abuse offences involving seven children. Beckett offered to send the facilitator in the Philippines cash for medical appointments, electricity and WiFi in exchange for images and videos of child abuse.

The payments ranged from as little as £6.20 to a maximum of £187 per request and in a two-year period, Beckett had exchanged almost 9,500 messages and 356 media files with the facilitator. 

Under the new initiative, banks will be provided guidance and advice to identify transactions to stop offenders like Beckett earlier and safeguard children no matter where they are located.

Steve Rodhouse, Director General (Threats) at the National Crime Agency, said: 

“We must not shy away from what this livestreaming of abuse means. It is a practice whereby, mainly, men in the UK pay to watch the rape and sexual abuse of children overseas. It is serious crime and it is right that the NCA works with partners across the financial industry to put an end to this horrendous criminality.

“Offenders in the UK who view livestreamed child sexual abuse from overseas may also pose a risk to children in the UK. These are rarely isolated offences – criminals will often also have downloaded large volumes of child sexual abuse material and may also directly abuse children themselves.

“Behind every instance of livestreamed child sexual abuse is an exchange of money and a financial footprint. Every time this happens, there is an opportunity for offences to be prevented and children to be protected.”

While the NCA has worked with the private sector on traditional economic crime threats, such as fraud and money laundering investigations, this is the first time we have worked with the finance industry on the threat of child sexual abuse.

Mr Rodhouse added: “The NCA works internationally and borders are not barriers for us pursuing those committing offences against children, wherever they are in the world.

“This is another way we can strengthen our approach to tackling child sexual abuse. We look forward to continuing our work with the finance industry and take opportunities to stop offenders earlier.”

Marcus Wogart, Director of non-financial risk, NatWest Group, said:

“Banks and payment service providers can play an important role in combating livestreamed child sexual abuse. This work demonstrates the power of public private partnerships. By bringing together financial insight from industry with law enforcement intelligence, we can strengthen detection, improve reporting and meaningfully disrupt those responsible.”

Source: Kent Police published on this website Wednesday 27 May 2026 by Jill Powell

A care worker has been sentenced to a lengthy jail term after repeatedly sexually assaulting two vulnerable residents under his supervision.

In 2025, staff had grown increasingly concerned about David Jones’s behaviour towards certain residents. One colleague noted that Jones would visit one resident far more frequently than required, while neglecting to check on others in his care. On Wednesday 5 February 2025, Jones was working a night shift alongside two colleagues at a care facility in east Kent.

At around 3am, staff who were concerned for the welfare of the resident, followed Jones to the victim’s room. When they opened the door, they found him acting indecently towards the resident. He was immediately confronted and instructed to leave the room, and the victim was placed into the care of other staff members.

Staff reported the incident to Kent Police and officers attended Jones’s home address in South Road, Herne Bay, less than 24 hours later. They arrested him on suspicion of engaging in sexual activity with a person without consent. During the arrest, he was searched and a mobile phone was seized.

Investigators downloaded the content and uncovered multiple photos and videos of a sexual nature involving a second victim. Officers conducted a number of lines of enquiry and established that the images were taken during times Jones was on duty at the care home.

Evidence found on the phone concluded that the material strongly indicated the victim had been seriously sexually assaulted.

In addition to the images of the elderly victim, officers also discovered hundreds of indecent images of children.

The 53-year-old was later charged with multiple sexual offences including the possession of incident images of children. He pleaded guilty to all charges and on Friday 22 May 2026, at Canterbury Crown Court, he was sentenced to 19 years’ imprisonment.

Detective Sergeant Richard Allingham said:

“Instead of fulfilling his duty of care, Jones exploited vulnerable women for his own sexual gratification. His actions were deplorable and a profound breach of trust. I welcome the sentence handed down by the court today, and I want to thank the victims' families for their courage and support throughout this investigation.”