Brussels opens investigation into Snapchat amid concern over children’s safety
Brussels has opened an investigation into Snapchat over concerns the social messaging app is exposing children to grooming, sexual exploitation and other criminality,In a separate decision on Thursday, the European Commission also said four pornographic websites were failing to prevent minors seeing adult content, harming young people’s mental health and fuelling negative gender attitudes,The investigations into five tech companies were brought under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which has come under fire from Donald Trump since coming into force two years ago,Aiming to protect European society from a wide range of internet harms, the DSA includes child safety provisions to combat cyberbullying, exposure to adult content and illegal products,The announcements came after a landmark ruling in a Los Angeles court found that two social media companies, Meta and YouTube, had deliberately created addictive products that harmed a young user.
The EU is weighing whether to follow Australia and ban social media for under-16s.Opening its first case against Snapchat, the commission said it suspected the messaging app was allowing its services to be misused by adults who pretended to be minors to lure children into sexual exploitation and other criminal activities.Regulators also fear the app is a source of information about drugs and age-restricted products, such as alcohol and vapes.Snapchat reports 94.7 million monthly users in the EU and is hugely popular among teenagers and young people.
According to the commission, half of 10-year-olds in Denmark and a third of 11-year-olds in France use Snapchat – despite the app’s own terms and conditions that require users to be at least 13 years old.But EU regulators believe the company is failing to ensure this age limit is respected.They also believe users are not given adequate guidance on privacy and safety features, while mechanisms to report illegal content are not user-friendly.The latest decision means EU regulators will carry out a detailed investigation and can order the company to take preventive steps to protect children, pending any final decision.In response, a Snapchat spokesperson said the safety and wellbeing of their users was a top priority.
“Snapchat is designed to help people communicate with close friends and family in a positive, trusted environment, with privacy and safety built in from the start – including additional protections for teens,” the spokesperson said.“As online risks evolve, we continuously review, strengthen and invest in these safeguards.”In a separate announcement on Thursday, the commission accused four pornographic websites, Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos, of failing to prevent children from accessing adult content.After an investigation launched last May, the commission concluded the four websites “did not diligently identify and assess the risks that their platforms pose to minors”.To access the sites, children and young people could simply click a button saying they were over 18, a self-declaration system deemed ineffective by EU regulators.
Announcing the findings, the commission’s tech spokesperson, Thomas Regnier, said the situation was “quite terrible” in EU member states.In France, he said, more than half of boys from age 12 visited pornographic websites each month; in Ireland more than 50% of boys first encountered such adult content between 10 and 13; in Poland, one of the companies being investigated featured among the nine most popular websites for boys between seven and 12.Regnier said: “What harms may arise from exposure to pornography at such a young age? Mental health issues, negative gender attitudes, and increased tolerance and normalisation of violent sexual behaviours, to name just a few.The message is clear.These platforms have to get their house in order.
”The companies may now examine the findings and mount a defence, before any final decision is taken.They could end the investigation by producing forms of age verification deemed effective by EU regulators.But if the complaint is upheld the four websites could be fined up to 6% of global annual turnover.The parent companies of Pornhub and Stripchat were approached for comment.A Brussels-based lawyer who appears to have previously represented the parent companies of XVideos and XNXX in EU legal proceedings was also contacted for comment.
Resident doctors in England to begin six-day strike after rejecting offer in pay dispute
Resident doctors in England will strike for six days after Easter after rejecting what they said was the final offer by the health secretary, Wes Streeting, to end the long-running pay and jobs dispute.The British Medical Association blamed the government for its decision to undertake its longest stoppage so far, from 7am on Tuesday 7 April to 6.59 on Monday 13 April.This will be the 15th industrial action that resident doctors have staged in their campaign for “full pay restoration” and means they will strike for the fourth year running.NHS leaders warned the strike would cost the health service an estimated £300m, lead to appointments being cancelled, and force patients to wait longer for tests, treatment and surgery
Fifteen new councils to be created in south and east of England
Fifteen new councils will be created in the south and east of England under the latest round of a major local government overhaul, aimed at boosting economic growth and accelerating mass housebuilding plans.The new unitary councils will replace 43 counties and districts across Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Hampshire, with hundreds of councillors’ roles axed. A decision on future arrangements for East Sussex and West Sussex has been delayed.Ministers said the new councils, which will come on stream in 2028, will sweep away outdated administrative structures and enable local authorities to focus on government priorities such as building 1.5m new homes by 2029
Kent meningitis outbreak prompts rush for routine vaccinations in England
School immunisation services and pharmacies are reporting surging demand for routine vaccinations after the Kent meningitis outbreak in which two teenagers died.Thousands of teenagers across England have booked or received jabs in the past fortnight against the A, C, W and Y strains of meningitis (MenACWY), and diphtheria, polio and tetanus (Td/IPV).Experts said the increase in immunisation was a small silver lining to the meningitis B outbreak, which has also left 18 people in hospital. Latest figures show that only 72% of year 9 pupils received the MenACWY or booster Td/IPV inoculations in the 2024-25 academic year, well below the recommended 95%.The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) and the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) have reported burgeoning demand for routine year 9 inoculations across England
More frequent ejaculations may boost men’s fertility, research suggests
Encouraging men to have more frequent ejaculations may boost their fertility, according to researchers who found that sperm deteriorates over time as it remains in the body.The longer men went without sex, the more their sperm showed signs of DNA damage and oxidative stress, and the more tests rated the sperm as less viable and poorer swimmers.The work has implications for fertility clinics and suggests that if doctors want to collect the best quality sperm, men should probably not abstain from ejaculating for several days as guidelines suggest.“In men, the negative effects we found on sperm DNA damage and oxidative damage were large-ish, so we are confident that this is a biologically meaningful and important effect,” said Dr Krish Sanghvi, a biologist at the University of Oxford and lead author on the study.The findings emerged from a meta-analysis that combined 115 human studies involving nearly 55,000 men, and 56 studies that looked at the impact of sperm storage in 30 non-human species
Public satisfaction with the NHS rises for first time since 2019
Public satisfaction with the NHS has risen for the first time since 2019, but people remain deeply frustrated with stubbornly long waits to receive GP, A&E or hospital care.The proportion of voters in Great Britain satisfied with the way the NHS runs has increased from the record low of 21% seen last year to 26%. At the same time dissatisfaction with the health service fell 8% – the biggest drop since 1998 – although it remains high at 51%.Wes Streeting hailed the findings as proof that the NHS, which he said was “broken” when Labour won power in July 2024, was now “on the road to recovery”.The health secretary will cite them as evidence of progress in a speech on Wednesday in which he will set out plans to improve care at five badly performing health trusts
Polyurethane coating reduces implant complications after mastectomy, cancer study finds
Women with breast cancer who have reconstructive surgery after a mastectomy are much less likely to have complications if they have a polyurethane-coated implant, according to research.About 55,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK every year, of whom about 30% have a mastectomy. Many of these will subsequently have radiotherapy.Many women opt to have reconstructive surgery. But hard, painful scar tissue can form around the implant, especially if they have had radiotherapy
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