The UK government is considering extending an upcoming social media ban for under-16s to commercial services like Vinted, eBay, Depop, and Facebook Marketplace. Safety organizations warned that predators exploit direct messaging features to solicit indecent images and scrape personal marketing photos to create non-consensual artificial intelligence deepfakes. While ministers prepare to bring regulations to parliament in December, critics warn a blanket exclusion could isolate young people and cut off a crucial income source for adolescents from low-income families.
Key points
Government officials are considering mandatory age verification rules to bar individuals…: Government officials are considering mandatory age verification rules to bar individuals under 16 from major online resale marketplaces.
Personal clothing photographs posted by users are being scraped from marketplace apps and…: Personal clothing photographs posted by users are being scraped from marketplace apps and manipulated into non-consensual artificial intelligence deepfakes.
Critics argue an outright ban fails to solve platform design flaws and denies low-income…: Critics argue an outright ban fails to solve platform design flaws and denies low-income adolescents opportunities to earn money.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
In June, Hannah* listed her seven-year-old daughter’s pink swimming costume for sale on Vinted, hoping other parents surfing the reselling site would snap up the £1 offer. Her inbox pinged.
“So a little girl wore this yh [yeah]?” wrote a user with a male handle.
“She did yes,” Hannah replied.
“Naked?”
After sending back a barbed “What do you think?”, Hannah swiftly blocked the user and reported the incident to Vinted. She described the exchange as “disgusting” and “disturbing”.
Her experience is just one of the many innocuous listings of children and young people’s secondhand clothes on reselling apps that are attracting unwanted sexualised comments through their direct messaging function.
The Children’s Society has warned that some young users of resale sites are increasingly being asked for indecent photos in exchange for money or gifts. Some photos of young users posted on the platforms have been AI deepfaked into nudes without their consent.
In response, ministers are considering banning under-16s from platforms such as Depop, eBay and Facebook Marketplace, according to the Sunday Times, over mounting fears that their private…
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