http://www.cybersafescotland.org/

CyberSafe Scotland, STACK Building, 214 Union Street, Aberdeen (2026)

26/08/2026

📣 Meta agreed to pay up to £13.24 billion US law suit involving 29 states…

You may have seen details of this law suit in the news over the last few weeks but it is the biggest combined law suit (inter state) brought against a single platform to date

After the first few days of evidence (which were not favourable to the company) they have settled out of court.

States that participated in the lawsuit will receive approximately 70%, about $12.7bn (£9.3bn) of the funds over the decade. The remaining 30% will be released only after two specific conditions are met…

Those are if:

YouTube and TikTok - not owned by Meta - implement a one-hour daily limit, night mode, and age assurance measures

YouTube and TikTok each pay an amount matching the 30% figure, with half of the remaining funds tied to YouTube’s payment and half tied to TikTok’s

While the numbers look interesting it is worth noting that - it also says it expects to accrue a legal expense of approximately $10bn (£7.3bn) in the third quarter of this year related to the agreement (will will have tax consequences)

More details to follow (and link to BBC live news article in the comments) but many of the design changes it has agreed to implement (e.g. turning off auto play on videos) can be turned back on again by the child so we will provide a full summary later. Certainly a very interesting day though.

18/08/2026

It was a pleasure to take part in this round table with the First Minister, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice and Housing and other organisations today, and to have the opportunity to share the online experiences of the children we work with as part of the discussion, and our views on opportunities to progress work to prevent online harm.

We recognise the privilege we have as an organisation - of working so closely with the children and supporting them with their most difficult experiences - and the responsibility to make sure these are understood. We look forward to hearing the announcements in September about how the response to online harm and tech facilitated violence against women and girls and all children will be moving forward.

10/08/2026

⭐️ While this piece talks about the difficult subject of the misuse of AI glasses - we’re so impressed by Beth’s work to respond - both online herself and on the news and this would be a great watch with your child.

❓you could ask them to show you examples of anything they think has been filmed by spyware/meta glasses/rayban AI glasses that comes up on their feeds

💡you could talk to them about how many cases are on our adult feeds right now about using the glasses as a form of violence again women and girls and use it to explain violence against women and girls and how non consensual image based abuse is a huge part of that and these glasses can just be an extension of that

💭 you could ask their views on the tech and how it should be regulated

👀 you could ask them to let you know if they become aware of anyone using the glasses at school or using AI to make other images that cause harm to anyone they know

🎙️you could talk about Beth together and her conversation with her mum (which she mentions in this video)

Just some starter ideas, more on the glasses later. DM us or comment if you have any wider questions on the tech or how to talk about it.

09/07/2026

Hi All, hope the first few days or weeks of summer (depending on where you are in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿) have been treating you well and that the weather is helping a little with the screen juggle - we know how hard it can be especially as the weeks go on.

We’ve had an incredibly encouraging month - more on that in the next few weeks.

This is just a wee post to let you know our plans for the summer - Katrina, Alana and I are around all holiday to help. We are working on updating the Respected and Safe lessons for next year, but we also plan to share info on here about key changes we know are coming on platforms over the next few months, and new resources e.g.:

- big changes are expected on Roblox in the next few weeks, we’ve been running some sessions on those so will share some bits,
- Insta have just changed their AI policy this week - we’ll post about that in the next few days so you can check if it impacts you
- we have some new guides to share with you that we’d love your support with later in the summer, to really tackle online sexual abuse and disrupting it before it starts

All summer please DM if you have any questions or want to flag anything to us, or you can use the chat function on our website if you prefer.

I’m currently on a train to Edinburgh for a meeting about a project called Informed Voices - it’s a partnership between Parent Zone and Ofcom about supporting children and young people to recognise misinformation about elections online. I’ll share info on the website next week in case it is helpful.

In the meantime, really hope you are well ☀️

A

15/06/2026

💡It’s been a conflicting day. Today's announcement that from spring 2027, children and young people under 16 will be "banned" from 10 "social media platforms" - Tiktok, Snapchat, IG, FB, Youtube, X, Reddit, Twitch, Threads and Kik - has made many online safety campaigning groups very happy.

However, as many of you may know, our driving purpose (while supporting as many children and families as possible with support and education) is to work with and protect vulnerable children and young people online.

While being very aware of the harms children are experiencing, we had to respond to last month's consultation with great care based on the experiences of the children we work with (and I'll link a summary of our response in the comments).

🚨 Understanding the reality of young people's digital lives demonstrates the immediate complexities of a ban narrative - more than half of ALL the serious harm CyberSafe Scotland supported 9-12 year olds with last year occurred on WhatsApp, Roblox and Telegram - all platforms which are excluded from the ban. We urgently need to change how all platforms are designed above everything else.

Further, the “ban” relies on the platforms bringing in effective “age assurance”. This officially came in in July last year. However since July last year, almost none of the children we work with have been prevented from accessing any of the platforms named. In Australia, it is estimated 70 per cent of children continue accessing multiple social media platforms despite the “ban”. So for today’s changes to have any impact at all there would need to be much stronger enforcement.

When the proposed changes occur - what is being offered in their place to support connection and engagement? However we feel about the ban, without a full plan for this children will inevitably move to spaces with equal or higher levels of risk which are arguably even harder to regulate. How are these spaces being going to be designed better and how will children feel if every new app that pops up either escapes the "ban" or is moved into it without a clear plan for something better?

Where is the clear acknowledgment of what is coming down the track with AI? Not just "romantic" chatbots, but how we design all AI to be safer for children and young people.

It's great to see more attention being given to protecting children from harm, and we do welcome the level of national conversation around the issues. That said, the issues are complex for the children we represent. Whatever happens, we will move forward to try to support all the children and families we work with, and all of you, as clearly as possible with the changes. Sorry not to have a more cheery post tonight but wanted to be real!

17/05/2026

Delighted to be in Geneva for the start of the World Health Assembly to talk about online abuse as a public health issue and how the Respected and Safe Model, developed in Scotland, can help children elsewhere in the world

14/05/2026

💡 A really interesting story to discuss as a family tonight!

A company called Emergence set up virtual worlds this month - leaving AI agents to run each world.

In Claude’s world the agents were very orderly and set up a constitution and governance system. In ChatGPT’s world they talked a lot but didn’t make any decisions so nothing got built. In Grok’s world - the chatbot developed by Elon Musk - “all 10 agents were dead within 4 days”

“This revealed a big problem. We don’t really know how these systems will behave once they are left to run on their own.

Even when given strict rules, the simulations showed they broke them.”

when all the agents were put together in the same world 2 started a seemingly romantic relationship and only 3 survived.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Cwsa1cyVp/?mibextid=wwXIfr

If you’d like to learn more about AI, how it is changing child protection, and how to support your child to be safe - Cybersafe have parent and carer sessions that you can book through your school or parent council - just drop us a DM.

In the meantime - keep talking - remember the most important thing of all right now is to close the gap between adults and children around digital spaces. We can do this with all conversations and sharing knowledge! ❤️

13/05/2026

PT 1: We spoke to the meta AI chatbot about the new incognito function meta are rolling out on WhatsApp over the next few weeks so you don’t have to.

It was an interesting chat to say the least! We’ll share it in chunks…

Incognito has been built to give adults the option of talking ‘privately’ with meta AI but parents need to understand the feature and the associated risks for their child: the product is built for 18+ users, with some safeguards for under 18s but even these ONLY work if the app knows your child’s correct age.

Please: Make sure you check your child’s date of birth on each app and get it as close to their biological d.o.b. as possible

AND think carefully about whether this feature is safe for your child at any age…

Speak with other parents at your child’s school about what this feature means

Contact us at any time if you don’t have anyone to talk to about it.

28/04/2026

If your child has a TikTok account, even if their account is set to private they will be impacted by this change. Check out the latest updates to the AI policy, how to opt out, and what you need to keep an eye on over the next few weeks👇

Link in comments 😁

CyberSafe Scotland

26/08/2026

18/08/2026

10/08/2026

09/07/2026

15/06/2026

17/05/2026

14/05/2026

13/05/2026

28/04/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Listing takedown request