Today's Home Office stories include backlash by advertisers over the alleged use of YouTube videos by paedophiles, and the latest on the Shamima Begum case
YouTube ads pulled over use of videos by paedophiles
Brands including Nestle and Disney have suspended advertising on YouTube after it emerged their adverts appear on videos that are being exploited by paedophiles, the Times, Mail and Metro report.
The reports add that some videos were being exploited by a “softcore paedophilia ring”.
The Times report claims that paedophiles had used the comments section of videos to ‘time-stamp’ moments in videos in which children “appeared in suggestive positions”.
A Home Office spokesperson said:
We expect tech companies to remove child sexual abuse content when they find it and do everything possible to stop online grooming.
The Home Secretary was encouraged by companies coming together to develop and deploy new tools to tackle online grooming at the Hackathon he co-hosted last year.
But he has also been clear that platforms must go further and faster in their efforts, and we will be setting out plans for legislation in the forthcoming Online Harms White Paper.
Shamima Begum latest
There is once again widespread coverage of Shamima Begum in the papers. The Home Office issued a statement in response to the coverage earlier this week.