Child protection experts have fiercely criticised social media giant Meta over its plans for end-to-end encryption, accusing the tech firm of prioritising profit over children’s safety. Simon Bailey, a former police chief constable who was national lead for child protection at the National Police Chiefs’ Council, accused Meta of a “complete loss of social and moral responsibility” over the plans. John Carr, who is secretary of a coalition of UK children’s charities to deal with internet safety, called the move “utterly unconscionable”. Their comments came after head of the National Crime Agency Graeme Biggar said introducing end-to-end encryption on Facebook would be like “consciously turning a blind eye to child abuse”. Speaking at a lecture in Westminster earlier this month, the law enforcement chief said it should be up to the government rather than technology companies to draw the line between privacy and child safety. Meta responded by saying it has robust measures in place to combat abuse and that it expects to make more reports to law enforcement after end-to-end encryption is brought in. Mr Bailey said as he had seen the scale of online sexual abuse grow, he also saw “big tech companies, like Meta, absolve themselves of any responsibility when it comes to tackling online child sexual abuse”. The former chief constable said: “Big tech facilitates and, through their algorithms, encourages this abuse to take place. It is time their complete loss of social and moral responsibility is highlighted and challenged Simon Bailey “In response to what they know and can see as a global pandemic of online child sexual abuse, they have consciously decided to take the easy way out of dealing with the problem. “Meta, one of the largest carriers of this abuse, has decided to implement end-to-end encryption by default, and effectively stop law enforcement’s ability to identify and arrest offenders and, ultimately, to protect children. “They are using the guise of privacy to justify their position and in doing so, are continuing to put profit before child protection. It is time their complete loss of social and moral responsibility is highlighted and challenged.” Mr Carr, who is secretary of the UK Children’s Charities’ Coalition on Internet Safety said: “If introduced without the appropriate safeguards that will allow law enforcement to detect and prevent online child sexual abuse, end-to-end encryption threatens to deny justice to huge numbers of children. “Children are major user of social media. A great many use Meta’s platforms, including Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct. “The design and nature of these platforms make them a perfect space for dangerous people to discover, befriend, groom and sexually abuse children – and if end-to-end encryption is introduced without appropriate safeguards, Meta will be willingly blinding itself to the abuse taking place online. “Their plans are utterly unconscionable – particularly when there are tech solutions out there that enable end-to-end encryption to exist and child sexual abuse to be detected, reported, and justice to be served. “Big tech companies, like Meta, must think again before introducing a blanket roll-out of end-to-end encryption across their platforms. “If they don’t, thousands of children will be at risk, and we will fail to solve the growing problem of online child sexual abuse. Do better Meta – it’s time to prioritise child safety over profit.” I cannot emphasise enough the impact this has on me and other victims of this abuse Rhiannon-Faye McDonald Rhiannon-Faye McDonald, head of advocacy at the Marie Collins Foundation, was herself sexually assaulted at the age of 13 after a predator contacted her online. She said: “To say I am disappointed that Meta is continuing with their plans to roll out end-to-end encryption is an understatement. The measures they say will be in place – using metadata to identify patterns of behaviour rather than content – are not good enough. “This move gives child sex abusers the ability to act undetected on its platforms as Meta will also lose the ability to use technology to detect and remove child sexual abuse images and videos. “As a victim of child sexual abuse myself, where my abuse was documented and shared online by the perpetrator, I cannot emphasise enough the impact this has on me and other victims of this abuse. “I am horrified that the images of my abuse could be infinitely reshared across the globe with no hope of them being blocked or taken down. How is this protecting my privacy?” She said it is “incredibly worrying” that big tech companies “can unilaterally make decisions that limit our ability to protect children”. A Meta spokesperson said: “The overwhelming majority of Brits already rely on apps that use encryption to keep them safe from hackers, fraudsters and criminals. “We don’t think people want us reading their private messages so have spent the last five years developing robust safety measures to prevent, detect and combat abuse while maintaining online security. “We recently published an updated report setting out these measures, such as restricting people over 19 from messaging teens who don’t follow them and using technology to identify and take action against malicious behaviour. “As we roll out end-to-end encryption, we expect to continue providing more reports to law enforcement than our peers due to our industry-leading work on keeping people safe.” Read More Call of Duty launch sparks record traffic on broadband networks Crypto investment fraud warning issued by major bank Council investigating extent of cyber attack that affected website and systems Setback for Ireland as EU legal adviser recommends revisit of Apple tax case Smartphones ‘may be able to detect how drunk a person is with 98% accuracy’ Ireland and Apple await major development in long-running EU tax dispute

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In late September, scientists at NASA and around the world eagerly awaited the arrival of the OSIRIS-REx capsule containing a sample of the asteroid Bennu. The capsule safely landed on Earth on Sunday 24 September in a Utah desert containing a sample of the asteroid Bennu – categorised as one of the two “most hazardous known asteroids”. When the capsule was first opened, it sparked audible gasps from scientists. Since its arrival, NASA has kept its cards fairly close to its chest but a new blog post from the space agency suggests that progress is going slowly for the “best reason” as there is more sample material than they had anticipated. They explained: “The abundance of material found when the science canister lid was removed earlier this week has meant that the process of disassembling the TAGSAM (Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) head – which holds the bulk of material from the asteroid – is off to a methodical start.” The OSIRIS-REx’s mission took 7 years to complete, with the sample currently being analysed by NASA taken three years ago before making its way down to Earth. Imagery from the moment the sample was taken confirmed to scientists that there would be asteroid material where they found it, but the quantity of dark particles were far more than they had anticipated. “The very best ‘problem’ to have is that there is so much material, it’s taking longer than we expected to collect it,” said deputy OSIRIS-REx curation lead Christopher Snead of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “There’s a lot of abundant material outside the TAGSAM head that’s interesting in its own right. It’s really spectacular to have all that material there.” In the coming weeks, experts will continue to work through the particles and begin the complex process of carefully disassembling the TAGSAM to reach the bulk of the Bennu sample inside. Sign up to 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.

The universe appears to be speaking to us, after a centuries old “echo” from a supermassive black hole was detected by scientists. The black hole located inside the Milky Way became active around 200 years ago and produced a sound that is now being studied. The research was published in Nature and focuses on the black hole named Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) found 26,000 light-years away from Earth. The noise was triggered when the object consumed gas and dust, with particles moving into the event horizon. The findings could teach us more about the activity of supermassive black holes, which continue to intrigue and confound scientists. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Author of the research Dr Frederic Marin of Strasbourg University said: “It reveals the past awakening of this gigantic object – which is four million times more massive than the Sun. “Our work presents the missing piece of evidence that X-rays from the giant molecular clouds are due to reflection of an intense, yet short-lived flare produced at or nearby Sagittarius A*. These results can further constrain the past activity of the galactic centre.” By their very nature, black holes are difficult to study as they absorb light around them, and these new findings offer insight into a fascinating part of space. Dr Marin said: “To get an idea of the increase in intensity of the X-ray emission when the black hole emerged from its quiescent state, it is as if a single glow-worm hidden in a forest suddenly became as bright as the Sun. “These findings explain why galactic molecular clouds near Sgr A* are shining more brightly than usual. It is because they are reflecting the X-rays emitted by Sgr A* 200 years ago.” 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.

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