It follows a review by the regulator in May that criticised the platform for not being "safe enough" for children
Governments worldwide are increasingly regulating digital platforms to reduce online harms, particularly those affecting children. However, access restrictions can alter user behaviour and introduce new privacy and security risks. The UK Online Safety Act (OSA), passed in October 2023, illustrates this trend: it extends age-assurance and safety requirements to social media, search, and pornography services, and rolled out in phases. Ofcom's illegal content enforcement duties came into force in March 2025, and mandatory age verification for adult content took effect in July 2025. This phased rollout enables real-time observation of behavioural responses to regulation. To address this, we analyse Reddit discourse across VPN and UK Politics communities and conduct a privacy-policy risk analysis of 69 unique VPN services. We find that each of these three milestones produced significant stepwise increases in VPN-related discussion on Reddit: among UK-based users, posts and comments explicitly about VPN use in a regulatory or privacy context rose by +100%, +217%, and +415% respectively. UK Politics communities showed even larger effects, with OSA-related political discourse rising by +21
The U.S. has adopted four power regimes for opera tion in the shared unlicensed 6 GHz band -- standard power (SP), low-power indoor (LPI), geofenced variable power (GVP), and very low power (VLP) -- with maximum permitted EIRP levels of 36 dBm, 30 dBm, 24 dBm, and 14 dBm, respectively. Although these regimes are primarily intended to protect incumbent services, their heterogeneous transmit power levels also introduce additional coexistence challenges within 6 GHz Wi-Fi networks. In this paper, we develop an ns-3 Wi-Fi 6E/802.11ax coexistence testbed to study coexistence under heterogeneous power regimes and to provide a reproducible simulation methodology. To the best of our knowledge, prior work has not specifically examined self-coexistence issues within 6 GHz Wi-Fi networks. We evaluate two coexistence scenarios: one in which both the LPI AP and the SP AP are indoors, and another in which the LPI AP is indoors while the SP AP is outdoors. Results are compared against an indoor LPI--LPI baseline when applicable. Our findings show that: (i) the presence of an indoor SP AP can significantly degrade the goodput of an LPI AP; (ii) channel bandwidth is a key factor in determining the
Aim: This research proposes the first solely sociodemographic measure of digital accessibility for Great Britain. Digital inaccessibility affects circa 10 million people who are unable to access or make full use of the internet, particularly impacting the disadvantaged in society. Method: A geodemographic classification is developed, analysing literature-guided sociodemographic variables at the district level. Analysis: Resultant clusters are analysed against their sociodemographic variables and spatial extent. Findings suggest three at-risk clusters exist, "Metropolitan Minority Struggle", "Indian Metropolitan Living" and "Pakistani-Bangladeshi Inequality". These are validated through nationwide Ofcom telecommunications performance data and specific case studies using Office for National Statistics internet usage data. Conclusion: Using solely contemporary and open-source sociodemographic variables, this paper enhances previous digital accessibility research. The identification of digitally inaccessible areas allows focussed local and national government resource and policy targeting, particularly important as a key data source and methodology post-2021, following the expected fin
In this paper we investigate the usage of cognitive radio devices within the service area of TV broadcast stations. Until now the main approach for a cognitive radio to operate in the TV bands has been to register TV broadcast stations locations and thus protecting the broadcast stations service area. Through information about TV receivers location, we show that a cognitive radio should be able to operate within this service area without causing harmful interference to the TV receivers as defined by Ofcom and FCC. We provide simulations based on real statistics from Norway that show that especially in rural areas TV receiver registration can provide a substantial gain in terms of exploitable frequencies for a cognitive radio.
Scientists have rewritten the story of gallium after discovering that its unusual atomic bonds re-form at high temperatures, contradicting decades of accepted theory。 The finding changes how researchers explain why the metal melts so easily and behaves unlike almost any other metal。 Beyond solving a long-standing scientific mystery, the work could
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has revealed new details about the blistering lava planet 55 Cancri e, where temperatures are high enough to melt rock。 The data indicate the planet likely has a hydrogen-rich atmosphere shaped by gases escaping from its molten interior, with signs that volcanic outgassing may even create temporary clouds
NASA has chosen 41 commercial technology projects that could solve critical challenges for future missions to the Moon and Mars。 From powering lunar outposts to protecting spacecraft from Moon dust, the innovations are designed to push both space exploration and the commercial space economy forward
K2-18b is one of the most promising worlds for the search for extraterrestrial life, so astronomers conducted an unusually powerful radio survey using both the VLA and MeerKAT telescopes。 Advanced software analyzed millions of signals, filtering out Earth-based interference and other false positives。 No convincing artificial radio transmissions wer
Researchers have achieved a major milestone by creating a long-sought two-dimensional quantum material and confirming its unusual conducting edge states。 The ability to control these states through strain could make the material a promising platform for future room-temperature quantum electronics
Four nearby white dwarf stars have been discovered hiding in plain sight beside brighter red dwarf companions。 Hubble's ultraviolet observations finally revealed the long-hidden stellar remnants, including one just 25 light-years away that took nearly three decades to confirm。 The findings match long-standing predictions and suggest our corner of t
Ultra-fine bubbles may offer a cleaner way to perfect inkjet printing for next-generation electronics。 By simply changing the number of bubbles in each droplet, researchers were able to dramatically reshape the final printed pattern without leaving behind unwanted chemical residues
The anticipated deployment cost of 5G communication networks in the UK is predicted to be in between £30bn- £50bn, whereas the current annual capital expenditure of the mobile network operators (MNOs) is £2.5bn. This prospect has vastly impacted and has become one of the major delaying factors for building the 5G physical infrastructure, whereas other areas of 5G developments are progressing at their speed. In this paper, an extensive study is conducted to explore the possibilities of reducing the 5G deployment cost and developing business models. This study suggests that the use of existing public infrastructure has a great potential to contribute to a reduction of about 40% to 60% in the anticipated cost. Also, the recent Ofcom initiative of location-based licensing of radio spectrum is reviewed. Our study suggests that simplification of infrastructure and spectrum will encourage the exponential growth of scenario-specific cellular networks and will potentially disrupt the current business models of telecommunication stakeholders -- specifically MNOs and TowerCos. Moreover, the dense network connectivity will encourage extensive data harvesting as a business opportunity and funct
A detailed independent study found that SpaceX's Starship is every bit as revolutionary as expected, while revealing both its impressive capabilities and its biggest remaining hurdles。 It also introduces an ambitious European rocket concept that could offer a very different route to affordable super heavy launches
Researchers discovered that electricity can dramatically reshape how heat flows through certain ceramic materials, increasing heat conduction by almost threefold in a preferred direction。 The unexpected result could lead to much more efficient cooling technologies and energy-saving devices