Google

• We wanted to know which of these methods was the most reliable during the first two years of the pandemic.
• The gold standard surveillance was the Office for National Statistics (ONS) COVID survey.
• This data tracked the ONS estimates very closely, though the reported numbers were usually only about 45% of the ONS data.
• The Zoe app also tracked the ONS survey estimates closely and was a good estimate of whether infections were rising or falling.
• For COVID, the question was can wastewater testing indicate how much infection is present in the population?
• In our analysis, we found that counts in wastewater were moderately correlated with the prevalence of COVID in the population.

Useful additional insights

• Even so, the other approaches provided useful additional insights.
• NHS 111 call and website data provided useful information early in the pandemic, before other surveillance methods were established.
• Although wastewater surveillance did little to increase our understanding of the course of the pandemic in England, this surveillance method may be useful in countries that don’t have easy access to human testing.

• Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Grant, has found X (formerly Twitter) guilty of serious non-compliance to a transparency notice on child sex abuse material.
• The commissioner has issued X with an infringement notice for A$610,500.
• The commissioner first issued transparency notices to Google, X (then Twitter), Twitch, TikTok and Discord in February under the Online Safety Act 2021.

How severe is the issue?

• It was the first quantitative analysis of child sex abuse material on the public sites of the most popular social media platforms.
• The researchers’ findings highlighted Instagram and X (then Twitter) are particularly prolific platforms for advertising the sale of self-generated child sex abuse material.
• As for X, they found the platform even allowed the public posting of known, automatically identifiable child sex abuse material.

Why does X have this content?

• All major platforms - including X - have policies that ban child sex abuse material from their public services.
• Most sites also explicitly prohibit related activities such as posting this content in private chats, and the sexualisation or grooming of children.
• They should scrutinise content shared voluntarily by minors, and ideally should also weed out any AI-generated child sex abuse material.

Does the fine go far enough?

• For instance, last year US federal regulators imposed a US$150 million (A$236.3 million) fine on X to settle claims it had misleadingly used email addresses and phone numbers for targeting advertising.
• This year, Ireland’s privacy regulator slapped Meta, Facebook’s parent company, with a €1.2 billion (almost A$2 billion) fine for mishandling user information.
• The latest fine of A$610,500, though small in comparison, is a blow to X’s reputation given its declining revenue and dwindling advertiser trust due to poor content moderation and the reinstating of banned accounts.

What happens now?

• If it doesn’t, eSafety can initiate civil penalty proceedings and bring it to court.
• Depending on the court’s decision, the cumulative fine could escalate to A$780,000 per day, retroactive to the initial non-compliance in March.
• To get out, it’ll need to make a 180-degree turn on its approach to moderating content – especially that which harms and exploits minors.

• Among the Commission’s final recommendations was the implementation of such a service to help stop people from committing such abuse.
• Australia
  was launched, an anonymous service for people worried about their own or someone else’s sexual thoughts and behaviours in relation to children.
• Read more:
  Use proper names for body parts, don't force hugs: how to protect your kids from in-person sexual abuse

The need for a perpetration prevention service

• Research shows one in three girls and one in five boys in Australia are victims of child sexual abuse.
• But real and lasting progress in decreasing child sexual abuse will only occur when we work with (potential) perpetrators to prevent harm.
• We need to work with these individuals to prevent child sexual abuse occurring in the first place.
• They felt that if the service saves just one child from sexual abuse, it is worthwhile.
• UK and Ireland, which collaborated closely with the Australian team ahead of the local service, has operated for more than 20 years.

Early intervention is key

• This indicates the service is reaching people before they come to the attention of authorities, and in this way is providing early intervention.
• They talk about struggling with problem thoughts or behaviours for years and wanting to change, but not knowing how.
• Australia offers an anonymous space for individuals to manage and change their thoughts or behaviours, and this helps prevent child sexual abuse.
• The service’s limited opening hours has been identified as a barrier for some people being able to access the program.
• Australia is focused on putting the responsibility for child sexual abuse prevention on adults and (potential) perpetrators.

• Press briefing on next week’s plenary session - Friday, 29 September, at 11.00
  Spokespersons for Parliament and for political groups will hold a briefing on the 2 - 5 October plenary session on Friday at 11.00, in Parliament’s Anna Politkovskaya press room.
• Interpretation of the press briefing will be available in English and French.
• When connecting, enter your name and the media you are representing in the first name / last name fields.
• Contacts:
  Jaume DUCH GUILLOTEP Spokesperson and Director General for Communication
  Delphine COLARDHead of Spokesperson’s Unit and Deputy Spokesperson
  Neil CORLETTHead of the Press Unit