‘I don’t take no for an answer’: how a small group of women changed the law on deepfake porn

For Jodie*, watching the conviction of her best friend, and knowing she helped secure it, felt at first like a kind of victory. It was certainly more than most survivors of deepfake image-based abuse could expect.They had met as students and bonded over their shared love of music. In the years since graduation, he’d also become her support system, the friend she reached for each time she learned that her images and personal details had been posted online without her consent. Jodie’s pictures, along with her real name and correct bio, were used on many platforms for fake dating profiles, then adverts for sex work, then posted on to Reddit and other online forums with invitations to deepfake them into pornography

Pornography company fined £1m by Ofcom for not having strong enough age checks

A pornography company that runs 18 adult websites has been fined £1m by the watchdog Ofcom for not having strong enough age checks, in the largest fine yet under the UK’s Online Safety Act.The Belize-based AVS Group has been hit with the punishment, plus a further £50,000 for failing to respond to information requests.It is the third time that the internet and communications watchdog has fined a company in relation to the Online Safety Act, which brought into force strict age-checking requirements in July.While AVS has implemented what it claims is an age verification regime, the regulator’s investigation did not deem it to be highly effective.The company now has 72 hours to introduce age checks that Ofcom will view as effective or face a penalty of £1,000 a day

Probation officers in England and Wales to be given self-defence training after stabbings

Probation officers will be given self-defence training, bleed kits and body-worn cameras for the first time under plans before ministers in the wake of two stabbings, the Guardian has learned.Knife arches and handheld metal-detecting wands, which can be used to search people for weapons, have been approved for pilot schemes in selected offices.The disclosures come days after a staff member was stabbed in a probation office in Oxford. Separately, a man has admitted the attempted murder in July of a female officer in another probation centre in Preston, Lancashire.The probation officers’ union, which believes these are the first knife attacks in probation offices, has said members have a “palpable fear” about going to work since the attacks

Leasehold ‘wild west’ under scrutiny as minister criticises FirstPort’s fees and failures

A senior minister has said he has “significant concerns” about one of Britain’s biggest property managers after dozens of residents complained of high charges, slow repairs and aggressive debt collection techniques.It is the latest sign of growing anger in Westminster over the behaviour of FirstPort, which manages properties on behalf of 1 million people, and other leasehold management companies.Pennycook has previously called the unregulated leasehold market a “wild west” of operators and is planning to publish a draft bill in the coming weeks that would all but end the leasehold system.Matthew Pennycook recently met Martin King, the managing director of FirstPort, to raise his concerns. The minister made clear in a subsequent letter he had been unconvinced by some of the company’s responses

Wes Streeting orders review of mental health diagnoses as benefit claims soar

The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has ordered a clinical review of the diagnosis of mental health conditions, according to reports. Streeting is understood to be concerned about a sharp rise in the number of people making sickness benefits claims because of diagnoses for mental illness, autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the Times reported. He has asked leading experts to investigate whether normal feelings have become “over-pathologised”, the newspaper said, as he seeks to grapple with the 4.4 million working-age people now claiming sickness or incapacity benefit. The figure has risen by 1

Discussing breast density after mammograms may cause unneeded anxiety, study finds

Telling women whether they have dense breasts as part of their breast cancer screening results may leave them feeling unnecessarily anxious and confused, according to a study.Breast density refers to the level of glandular and fibrous tissue relative to fat in breasts. Dense breast tissue is a risk factor for breast cancer, and can also make mammograms more difficult to read.Those undergoing breast screening in Australia are already told of their breast density, and the measure is being considered in the UK by the National Screening Committee (NSC).The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Sydney and published in the BMJ, looked at data from 2,401 women who had been screened for breast cancer in Australia between September 2023 and July 2024 who were classified as having dense breasts