Online safety for adults
Europol - Radicalisation on Gaming Platforms
Over the last week or so there has been increased reporting on terrorist organisations ramping up their recruitment, specifically using AI as a means to spread their messaging. At the same time Europol carried out a Referral Action Day on 13th Nov 2025 where, in the weeks prior, experts combed through a variety of online gaming and streaming platforms used by children and young people which resulted in thousands of illegal links being found related to extremist, terrorist and racist content.
This is concerning on multiple levels: not only are children and young people potentially being exposed to this content, but it also makes you wonder what (if any) moderation is being carried out to prevent this content in the first place.
You can read the Europol article HERE.
Online Grooming Offences Reach Record High
As a result of FOI requests to all police forces across the UK, the NSPCC have obtained data which shows that online grooming offences are at a record high with 7,623 offences recorded from January to March this year alone. Remember, these are the KNOWN figures, the real number is likely to be much higher. Where a tech platform was identified around 40 percent took place on Snapchat, 9 percent on WhatsApp and 9 percent on Facebook and Instagram. Where the gender was known, girls made up 80 percent of victims, with the youngest age being 4.
Whilst this is an obvious concern we should remember that there could be a number of factors at play here such as better moderation (particularly using AI and machine learning), better reporting by platforms and more victims coming forward. That doesn't take away the fact that one victim is one too many, we need to continue being vigilant and curious in school and at home.
You can read the full article in The Independent HERE.
For Parents - Discord Family Center
Discord, the app, is still very popular particularly with gamers and like many apps it has safety features, including features for parents/guardians. The Discord Family Center is quote a tool built to help parents and guardians stay informed and involved in your teen's Discord experience while respecting their privacy and autonomy unquote. The safety features have recently been updated and now include:
- Ability to view the activity feed.
- Get weekly email summaries,
- Manage safety and privacy settings.
To find out more about these features and more, and how to set up Family Center you can view the Discord Family Center HERE. There is also a parent hub which has lots of information and resources for parents such as user controls, moderation, reporting and more. You can find the parent hub HERE.
For Parents - Shopping Scams
Every year hundreds of thousands of people here in the UK fall victim to fraud when buying something online. With Xmas and Xmas sales rapidly approaching, fraud and scams will be significantly on the increase.
GetSafeOnline has a plethora of information to help with this such as:
One piece of advice I couldn't see on either of these pages is related to the legitimacy of the company. Particularly on social media such as Instagram I will often see ads for things like clothing and gifts which look interesting and unique. When I click on the ad to take a closer look I will always tap on the 3 dots on the top right and tap on "open in external browser." The reason for this is that if it is a company I'm not aware of, I want to know the details of the company before I purchase. Often when I go onto the website there are no company details, no contact details (apart from a web form), and either no reviews or perfect reviews. These are all red flags to me and I would never purchase from such a site.