Security News > 2024 > February > Cutting kids off from the dark web – the solution can only ever be social

The murder of 16-year-old schoolgirl Brianna Ghey has kickstarted a debate around limiting children's access to the dark web in the UK, with experts highlighting the difficulty in achieving this.

Ciaran Martin, the National Cyber Security Centre's first CEO and current Oxford University professor, weighed into the discussion on Thursday, saying that there is no single technology-based solution and that there should be a greater focus on the dark web in the country's schools.

It was revealed in the recent trial of Brianna's two child killers that one had accessed real-life torture and murder material on the "Horror-filled corner of the internet," as BBC Radio 4 presenter Nick Robinson put it, which raised questions about the accessibility of the dark web for children.

"There are technological limitations. So if you said, for example, 'just block access to dark web browsers,' that's not really possible in the way that the UK internet works because communication service providers - if you're using one of these things - won't know what your IP address is."

"So parents will need to be asking their children if they know what the dark web is and if they're using it. They could be searching devices for Tor. We educate children in schools about sharing indecent images when they're underage, we should be educating them about the dark web as well. It's a really complicated problem with no single tech solution."

One of the obvious difficulties of limiting access to the dark web for anyone in the UK is the Tor browser, required for accessing corners of the deep web and the dark web.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/dark_web_kids_limit_uk/