Adolescents are more likely to drink and smoke weed if their friends posted online about it, research has found.

The Home Secretary has called on social media platforms to adopt technology to detect and remove sexual abuse of children.

Social media companies will be forced to change their algorithms – which have been heavily criticised for pushing harmful content to youngsters.

Misogynistic abuse will be banned online through a new law in order to combat violence against women and girls.

Facebook posts that appeal for information about a missing five-year-old girl called Sofia have been declared hoaxes.

TikTok has introduced a new feature that allows parents to control the content their children can view on the app.

TikTok has come under fire for allowing misogynistic videos of controversial influencer Andrew Tate to circulate on its platform – which experts say are being viewed by children as young as 13.

Meta has announced new parental control tools across Instagram, Facebook and Messenger – but child protection organisations argue the new measures provide little protection for youngsters who are most vulnerable to exploitation.

Britain will tighten protections to prevent children from viewing pornography and dangerous challenges and stunts on apps.