Internet Matters

Whether the person in the picture agreed to be in it Putting your own face on a superhero is play, but putting a classmate's face onto something embarrassing without asking them, that's appropriation, however funny it might seem at the time.

There was an Internet Matters study where 1,000 UK children and 2,000 parents were surveyed in 2024.

Now, 13% of teenagers reported some level of experience involving a nude deepfake at that time.

And I suspect that that number has risen since then.

If you'd like some support after this episode, the NSPCC has guidance for parents on pornography and explicit content.

Internet Matters has practical age by age advice on how to have some of these conversations, but also setting up filters and parental controls.

Children and young people can talk to Childline in confidence.

And if a sexual image or a video of someone under 18 has been shared, then the Report Remove service run by Childline and the Internet Watch Foundation works.

But under the rules, platforms must be safe by design, which means that they can't show harmful content to children or allow unwanted contact or have addictive features such as, like, infinite scroll.

Uh, these proposals do still need to be approved before they come into effect, but it would apply to platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, uh, online games, and AI chatbots, which according to a survey by Internet Matters, children use AI chatbots to help with schoolwork, seek advice, or talk to as a friend.

The European Commission said that online platforms must prove they are safe to use for children, or they could be charged fines of up to six percent of the money that they make every year.

And the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said the rules will put parents back in the driving seat, giving them the tools to help their children navigate a safer online world.