TL;DR: Italy Sues Platforms, Kentucky Targets Roblox, Australia Issues Violence Warning

In this week's Plugged In by Wired Parents, Italian families sued Meta and TikTok over child safety failures, Kentucky filed a lawsuit against Roblox over predators, and Australia issued an urgent warning about children exposed to graphic violence online. Here's what parents need to know.

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What happened: A group of Italian families filed a lawsuit against Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok on October 7, accusing the platforms of failing to enforce age restrictions and using addictive features that harm children's mental health.

What they're demanding: The Milan court case asks platforms to adopt stronger age-verification systems for users under 14 (in line with Italian law) and to remove potentially manipulative algorithms. The plaintiffs estimate that more than three million of the 90 million Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok accounts in Italy are used by children under 14.

Why this matters: This is one of the first major European lawsuits directly targeting both age verification failures and algorithmic harm together. Italy has strict laws requiring parental consent for children under 14 on social media - these families argue the platforms ignore those protections.

What other countries are watching: Similar parent-led legal actions are being considered across Europe. Italy's case could set precedent for how platforms verify children's ages and whether algorithms designed to maximise engagement violate child protection laws.

What parents need to know: The lawsuit highlights what many parents already suspect - age restrictions on platforms are easily bypassed, and the companies know it. Even when children claim to be older, platforms continue serving them addictive algorithmic feeds designed to keep them scrolling.

Source: Reuters | Full story →

What happened: Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman filed a lawsuit against Roblox on October 7, alleging the platform knowingly created an environment where predators distribute child sexual abuse material and groom victims.

What the lawsuit claims: Coleman's office says Roblox is home to extremist sextortion groups and notes that nearly two-thirds of all U.S. children between ages 9 and 12 play games on the platform. The lawsuit cited disturbing examples including "assassination simulators" that were briefly accessible to young children.

Why this matters: Roblox is one of the most popular platforms for elementary and middle school children. This is the first major state-level legal action specifically targeting Roblox's child safety failures, and it could trigger similar lawsuits from other states.

What could change: If Kentucky succeeds, Roblox could face significant fines and be required to implement much stronger safety measures, content moderation, and age verification systems. Other platforms popular with young children may face similar scrutiny.

What parents need to know: If your child plays Roblox, this lawsuit reveals serious safety gaps in the platform's protections. The Attorney General's office specifically highlighted that predators use the platform's social features to target children. Parents should review privacy settings, friend lists and consider whether younger children should use the platform at all.

Source: Fox News | Full story →

What happened: Australia's eSafety Commissioner issued an urgent Online Safety Advisory on October 6 after research showed 22% of children ages 10-17 have seen extreme real-life violence online, including recent assassinations, brutal murders, mass casualty events, and conflict footage.

How kids are seeing this content: So-called "gore" content is reaching young people through autoplay, algorithm recommendations, direct messages, and reposts on platforms including X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube. Children aren't seeking this content - it's finding them.

Why this matters: This isn't about kids deliberately searching for violent content. Platforms are algorithmically serving graphic real-world violence to children, often without warning. The eSafety Commissioner's urgent advisory signals that this is a widespread problem requiring immediate parental action.

What other countries are seeing: While this data comes from Australia, the platforms involved operate globally with the same algorithms. There's no reason to believe children in other countries aren't seeing similar content.

What parents need to know: Check your child's social media feeds yourself - don't just ask if they've seen anything disturbing. Many children don't report graphic content because they're shocked, desensitized, or afraid of losing device access. Talk to your kids about what to do when violent content appears: scroll past immediately, don't share it, and tell a trusted adult.

Source: eSafety Commissioner | Full story →

When parents think about protecting their children online, they often focus on social media platforms and gaming apps. But a growing body of evidence from mainstream news outlets suggests that even music streaming services like Spotify pose serious risks to young users.

The Grooming Case That Made Headlines

In January 2023, the Manchester Evening News revealed that an 11-year-old girl from Stockport was sexually groomed through Spotify for months, with predators encouraging her to upload multiple explicit pictures of herself to the music streaming platform before her account was deleted.

The mother, referred to as Rachel to protect her daughter's anonymity, described how users exploited the app's playlist feature to communicate with children. Without a private messaging feature, predators created empty playlists and exchanged messages by changing playlist names and song titles. As playlists were shared, more groomers joined, contact details were exchanged to communicate outside Spotify and demands became increasingly inappropriate.

The case shocked local authorities. The police officer who responded said she had never heard of Spotify being used for grooming, and the NSPCC confirmed they had not seen this type of grooming on Spotify before, calling it evidence of how predators will exploit any app children use if possible.

Rachel, a teacher who considered herself a strict parent, had kept her daughters off Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok specifically to keep them safe online. She allowed her eldest daughter to use Spotify only because she enjoyed listening to podcasts before bed—what seemed like a safe choice turned into a nightmare.

A Widespread Problem with Explicit Content

The grooming case was just one symptom of a larger problem. Media investigations have repeatedly uncovered widespread inappropriate content on Spotify:

2022: Vice Investigation In July 2022, Vice reported finding a surprising amount of hardcore pornographic images on Spotify, easily discoverable by typing periods or commas into the search bar. A father contacted Vice after his eight-year-old daughter accidentally found hardcore porn by typing a single period.

Loudwire independently verified the existence of hardcore pornographic images and explicit sex recordings on Spotify, noting that this content was "accidentally discoverable through typing in just one comma or period into the search bar."

2024-2025: Problem Persists In late 2024, users discovered pornographic videos appearing in Spotify search results. The Verge reported finding sexually explicit material tucked into search results for famous artists, with the content slipping through Spotify's filters using the podcast upload feature. Even with explicit content filters enabled, these videos appeared in results.

Child Safety Experts Sound Alarms

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) placed Spotify on their "Dirty Dozen List" for multiple years, citing sexually explicit images, sadistic content, and networks trading child sexual abuse material as evidence that Spotify is "out of tune with basic child safety measures."

NCOSE researchers using minor-aged accounts with explicit content filters enabled were still exposed to graphic deepfake pornography of female celebrities within larger collections of pornography and suspected child sexual abuse material.

Child safeguarding specialist Gabriella Russo, who worked with the NSPCC for five years managing abuse prevention teams in primary schools, emphasised: "The message has got to be that everybody, in every corner of the internet needs to be actively seeking out and prohibiting child sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse."

What Parents Can Do

While Spotify offers a Kids version for children under 12 and has updated some policies, the problems persist. For families who choose to use Spotify:

Rachel's message to other parents: "I am so determined to spread awareness of this to make other parents aware as we had no idea this could happen."

The bottom line: What seems like a simple music app has proven to be another digital danger zone requiring constant parental vigilance and open family communication about online safety.

Sources: Inkl, Prolific North, Vice, Loudwire, Digital Music News, Headphonesty, NCOSE

Share this Spotify warning with other parents →

What Changed: Reports surfaced this week that TikTok's algorithm has been serving pornographic and sexually explicit content to underage users, including children as young as 13. The content appears in "For You" feeds despite TikTok's community guidelines prohibiting such material for minors.

Who It Affects: Teen and preteen TikTok users, particularly those who have interacted with any borderline content that triggers the algorithm to serve more explicit material.

What this means for families: TikTok's algorithm learns from user behavior and can quickly escalate content from innocent to explicit. Even brief interactions with certain videos can trigger a feed of increasingly inappropriate material. The platform's existing age restrictions and content filters have failed to prevent this.

What parents can do:

Source: BBC

For more articles from the week, head over to Wired-Parents.com

Three lawsuits, one urgent warning, and ongoing platform failures. The pressure is building globally.

We'll keep tracking what's happening so you can stay informed.

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