During the wait for improved online safety laws, tens of thousands of grooming crimes have been recorded. The Online Safety Bill, which is meant to become law this autumn, has encountered numerous delays and changes since it become a proposed legislation. As a result, the children’s charity NSPCC has called on MPs and tech giants to support the Bill, especially since 34,000 online grooming crimes had been recorded by UK police forces over the last six years, since first calling for more robust safety regulations in 2017. Based on data from 42 UK police forces, the NSPCC said that last year, 6,350 offences related to the sexual communication with a child were recorded. Some 5,500 took place against primary school-aged children, and 73% of the crimes were related to Meta-linked platforms or Snapchat. NSPCC chief executive Sir Peter Wanless said: “The number of offences must serve as a reminder of why the Online Safety Bill is so important and why the ground-breaking protections it will give children are desperately needed. “We’re pleased the government has listened and strengthened the legislation so companies must tackle how their sites contribute to child sexual abuse in a tough but proportionate way, including in private messaging.” Here are some of the red flags parents should be on the look out for. Being secretive about how they are spending their time On their website, Childline define grooming as someone building a child’s trust to make a connection in order to do something sexual or illegal. “Studies show parental supervision typically declines as children get older, however online abuse does not,” said Mark Bentley, safeguarding and cyber security lead at charity The National Grid for Learning (LGfL). From being secretive to omitting relevant information, changes in behaviour can vary from child to child. But it’s something for all parents to be mindful of when their child starts using social media more. “Unfortunately, as in many areas of child protection, indicators of abuse can often mirror natural markers of growing up,” said Bentley. “As children and adolescents develop, they seek independence from parents, engage in risk taking and have changes in mood and friendship group. “Nonetheless, these markers remain vital to watch out for, even if it is just to support your growing child. Those who are being groomed online are much more likely to be defensive and secretive about phone usage and loathed to be separated from their device.” Having unexplained gifts, big or small Buying gifts for children, whether big or small, can be another grooming technique used to flatter children and their families. “Some groomers have been known to provide alternative phones just to contact them, and this is always a red flag if you suspect your child may have a secondary device,” said Bentley. They are spending too much time onlineSocial media may promote negative experiences if no boundaries have been established.“Of course, some of these [red] flags can also be a sign of the child going through adolescence but it’s important to discuss any unusual behaviour with them as soon as possible,” said Simon Newman, member of International Cyber Expo’s advisory council and of the Cyber Resilience Centre for London.“The way groomers target children varies, but is often done through social media sites, text messages and apps, emails or online forums – particularly gaming sites.”They develop friendships with a much older person Children and young people can be groomed by a stranger or by someone they know – such as a family member, friend or professional, according to NSPCC. But the age gap between a child and their groomer can also be relatively small. The groomer may also work towards building a relationship with the family to gain trust, so they can be left alone with the child. “There are various models of the stages of grooming, but at heart it revolves around building up trust and making a child feel understood and listened to in a way they do not feel elsewhere, and then breaking down the links of trust to family, school, friends and other adults,” said Bentley. “Any parent thinking that this might be happening should definitely reach out for help.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Rumer Willis says she is ‘grateful’ to her body following birth of daughter Sugary cereals and yoghurts must remove child-friendly packaging – health group Clever kitchen storage solutions to clear the clutter

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A top engineer at Twitter has announced he is quitting his role with the company following the glitch-ridden launch of Florida governor Ron Desantis’s 2024 presidential campaign on the social media platform. “After almost four incredible years at Twitter, I decided to leave the nest yesterday,” Foad Dabiri, who was an engineering chief at Twitter, tweeted on Thursday. The Twitter engineer’s exit from the company comes a day after Mr DeSantis’s long-anticipated 2024 campaign bid for the White House on a Twitter livestream. Mr DeSantis’s campaign launch announcement on Twitter Spaces – the platform’s audio group-chat feature – was marred by a a host of glitches, including long silences and persistent echoes. The Twitter app reportedly crashed for several users who tuned in to listen to the announcement and at one point the Republican governor himself disappeared from the livestream. Mr Musk – who had boasted about several overhauls to the microblogging site since his takeover of the company to make Spaces better – shut the initial Spaces event and started a new one. The second event where Mr DeSantis read a short speech, reportedly gathered fewer listeners than the first, attracting about 161,000 people, according to Twitter’s public-facing data. The buggy event, according to many users on the social media platform, is a reflection of how Twitter under Mr Musk is far from operating smoothly. Since Mr Musk’s takeover of Twitter, he has laid off nearly three-fourths of the company’s workforce, following which the platform has faced several technical issues. Earlier this week, a bug caused tweets deleted by some users in the past to resurface on their timelines, and weeks earlier, many users complained that they were unable to post images and share external links. Mr Dabiri was the engineering lead at Twitter’s Growth Organisation. He tweeted on Thursday that during his stint with the company, he “experienced two distinct eras” before and after Mr Musk’s takeover. “And then came ‘2.0.’ What an extraordinary journey it has been. To say it was challenging at the outset would be an understatement,” Mr Dabiri said. The engineering chief however did not comment on why he was leaving Twitter, and whether it is linked to the problems with the DeSantis livestream. Both Twitter and Mr Dabiri did not immediately respond to The Independent’s request for comment. “Working with Elon Musk has been highly educational, and it was enlightening to see how his principles and vision are shaping the future of this company,” he tweeted. Read More Ron DeSantis news – live: DeSantis floats pardoning Trump and Jan 6 rioters after ‘train wreck’ Twitter launch AOC jokes more people watched her gaming online than listened to glitch-ridden DeSantis launch DeSantis pushes past embarrassing campaign start, outlines travel schedule for early state visits AOC jokes more people watched her gaming online than listened to DeSantis launch What is Twitter Spaces and why did it go so wrong during DeSantis’s 2024 launch? What are Elon Musk’s political beliefs?

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The price of bitcoin has experienced the strongest first half of a year since 2019, nearly doubling in value since the start of 2023. The world’s leading cryptocurrency reached above $31,000 this week, up from $16,000 in January, pushing its market cap above $600 million for the first time in more than a year. Some crypto analysts suggest the approaching ‘halving’ event, which will see bitcoin mining rewards drop by 50 per cent, could be one factor behind the cryptocurrency’s positive price trend. Bitcoin’s halving takes place roughly every four years, with the crypto’s price cycles viewed by many traders and investors as being intrinsically link to the event. Sometimes referred to as “the halvening”, the seismic event is built-in to bitcoin’s technological foundations, and is aimed at making the digital currency anti-inflationary by reducing its supply. “The months prior to the halving have historically seen the start of a bullish trend for the market, hence the market participants are carefully looking at the second half of 2023,” Matteo Greco, a research analyst at the fintech investment firm Fineqia International, told The Independent. “Riot Platforms, an industry leader in bitcoin mining and data centre hosting, announced a $162 million investment to purchase 33,280 miners, aiming to nearly double its computational power in anticipation of the next halving.” Mr Greco pointed to the cryptocurrency litecoin, once referred to as the silver to bitcoin’s gold, which typically experiences its halving event a few months before its more famous rival. In the months leading up to Litecoin’s halvings in 2015 and 2019 its price saw massive gains, which were then replicated by bitcoin. Litecoin’s next halving is currently scheduled for 3 August 2023 and it is once again experiencing a significant price increase, outperforming broader market trends. “Litecoin often served as a sentiment metric on the bitcoin halving,” Mr Greco said. “The big increase in price, while most of the altcoins keep lagging, suggests bullish sentiment is increasing ahead of the next BTC halving.” Bitcoin’s halving is currently scheduled for 26 April, 2024, with pseudonymous crypto trader PlanB noting another historic price trend that could signal more gains over the coming months. “Buy bitcoin six months before a halving and sell 18 months after a halving has historically beaten ‘buy and hold’ [trading strategy],” he tweeted on Monday. “The next halving is in April 2024... Will this strategy work again?” Read More How bad is bitcoin for the environment really? Crypto experts discuss bitcoin price predictions What is Solana? The crypto rising 200-times faster than bitcoin Could Norwegian fjords and waterfalls stop bitcoin from destroying the planet?

The viral gaming hit Only Up has been surprisingly removed from gaming platform Steam with the creator of the title citing "stress" as the reason. Only Up became a big hit with gamers on various streaming platforms earlier this year with players attempting to complete the seemingly easily but hard-to-master platformer which involved a character scaling various objects higher and higher into the sky. However, the game has now been pulled from Steam's storefront so it's creator who goes by the alias of SCKR Games can focus on their next title, which according to IGN has a codename of Kilth. In a statement, SCKR Games said that Only Up is "a game I did for creativity, to test myself, and where I made a lot of mistakes." They added: "The game has kept me under a lot of stress all these months. Now I want to put the game behind me." "What I need now is peace of mind and healing. I plan to take a pause, and continue my education in game design and further with new experience and knowledge to direct my energies to my next game with the working title ‘Kith’ — it will be a new experience and a new concept with realism, a completely different genre and setting, and the emphasis is on cinematography. “This time I hope the project will be created by a small team. This is a challenging project on which I want to significantly improve my skills in game design.” The game had been removed from Steam back in June and later returned in July after copyrighted assets from another developer managed to get into the game but was soon resolved. It's unknown whether the game will return to Steam at a later date but its page remains available on the website although it cannot be purchased. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.