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Daniel Lynch, now 50, was jailed for life in 2009 for arranging the sickening assault that left the then 24-year-old model and presenter with devastating burns and blind in one eye.

fjo3 shares a report from Reason Magazine: Effective January 1, 2027, providers of computer operating systems in California will be required to implement age verification. That's just part of a wave of state and national laws attempting to limit children's access to potentially risky content without considering the perils such laws themselves pose. Now, not a moment too soon, over 400 computer scientists have signed an open letter warning that the rush to protect children from online dangers threatens to introduce new risks including censorship, centralized power, and loss of privacy. They caution that age-verification requirements "might cause more harm than good." The group of computer scientists from around the world cautions that "those deciding which age-based controls need to exist, and those enforcing them gain a tremendous influence on what content is accessible to whom on the internet." They add that "this influence could be used to censor information and prevent users from accessing services." "Regulating the use of VPNs, or subjecting their use to age assurance controls, will decrease the capability of users to defend their privacy online. This will not only force regular users to leave a larger footprint on the network, but will leave a number of at-risk populations unprotected, such as journalists, activists, or domestic abuse victims." It continues: "We note that we do not believe that trying to regulate VPN use for non-compliant users would be any more effective than trying to forbid the use of end-to-end encrypted communication for criminals. Secure cryptography is widely available and can no longer be put back into a box." "If minors or adults are deplatformed via age-related bans, they are likely to migrate to find similar services," warn the scientists. "Since the main platforms would all be regulated, it is likely that they would migrate to fringe sites that escape regulation." With data on everyone collected in order to restrict the activites of minors, data abuses and privacy risks increase. "This in itself increases privacy risks, with data being potentially abused by the provider itself or its subcontractors, or third parties that get access to it, e.g., after a data breach, like the 70K users that had their government ID photos leaked after appealing age assessment errors on Discord." Instead of mandated age restrictions, the letter urges lawmakers to consider the dangers and suggest regulating social media algorithms instead. They also recommend "support for parents to locally prevent access to non-age-appropriate content or apps, without age-based control needing to be implemented by service providers."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mark Richards was filmed running into woods, wearing just a black T-shirt and socks and flashing his bare backside, just seconds after the pile-up.

Think before you download

OpenClaw, the AI agent that can manage just about anything, is risky all by itself, but now fake installers for it are wreaking havoc. Users who searched Bing’s AI results for “OpenClaw Windows” were directed to a malicious GitHub repository that delivered information stealers and GhostSocks onto their machines.…

Nick Reiner, 32, appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court on February 23 where his lawyer entered a plea of not guilty to the murder of his parents two months after they were found stabbed to death.

Jorjah Beagley (pictured, with her family), 33, from Blackwater, Hampshire, had only been at home for 20 minutes after watching him run a half-marathon when the blaze began.

The former glamour model, 47, has made her marriage to her fourth husband Lee Andrews legally binding in a secret second ceremony in Dubai.

Daily Mail reporter recounts seeing the Iron Dome in action when she arrived in Tel Aviv in 2024 and how its protection has left a feeling of ease among Israelis despite the war with Iran.

Longtime Slashdot reader linuxwrangler writes: Dark Reading reports that a team of researchers has determined that signals from tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMSs), required in U.S. cars since 2007, can be used to track the presence, type, weight, and driving pattern of vehicles. The researchers report (PDF) that the TPMS data, which includes unique sensor IDs, is sent in clear text without authentication and can be intercepted 40-50 meters from a vehicle using devices costing $100. "Researchers have discovered that most TPMS sensors transmit a unique identifier in clear text that never changes during the lifetime of the tire," the researchers pointed out. "This unencrypted wireless communication makes the signals susceptible to eavesdropping and potential tracking by any third party in proximity to the car."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

They were fined £15k and ordered to pay £10k in costs

Potters Crouch, a designated conservation area in Hertfordshire, is at risk of being 'completely wrecked' and turned into an 'island surrounded by a sea of solar panels by a 107-hectares development

Fresh concerns have been raised at the state of the UK's warship and submarine fleet in the wake of an Iranian attack on RAF Akrotiri.

Italian golfer Andrea Pavan has been discharged from hospital after the DP Tour star suffered a 'freak' accident falling down a lift shaft at private accommodation in South Africa.

The AI giant is also trying to walk back some terms of its deal with the Defense Department

OpenAI says GPT‑5.3 Instant, the latest addition to its GPT-5.3 family of models, is less inclined to moralize.…

Kate Moss's latest outfit (left) - a vintage pink colour block jacket designed by Yves Saint Laurent in 1988 - was famously worn once by the disgraced Sarah Ferguson (right).

A 23-year-old man was arrested on Monday following a stand-off with armed police, who rushed to a tower block in Calder, west Edinburgh, at around 8.30am.

Cupertino grabs an aging A18 Pro from parts bin to power its latest attempt at an entry-level MacBook

You'll soon be able to get a MacBook that's cheaper than many budget PCs. Apple on Wednesday unveiled the MacBook Neo, a $599 exercise in cost cutting powered by the same silicon as an iPhone 16 Pro.…

Zack Polanski's party has also leapfrogged the Tories following last week's by-election humiliation for the Prime Minister.

Ford has introduced a new kind of airbag into its Explorer and Capri EVs. The side airbag technology is inspired by whipped cream canisters. It works to reduce side-impact injuries.

Meadows had fallen overboard from the fishing vessel Aleutian Lady on the Bering Sea on February 25, 2026 as his death is currently being investigated by the US Coast Guard.