it is polling day in the ukraine for the first round of the presidential election. there are 39 candidates on the ballot paper. the current leader this is bbc news, i'm ben brown. is seeking the election but the the headlines at 12pm: unexpected front runner is a comedian. among that very long list of candidates... this is a polling station in central kiev. this is where people come and register to vote. they get given a ballot paper and it is a monster ballot paper and it is a monster ballot paper. valentino has agreed to show us her ballot paper. there are 39 names on the ballot paper here. all the candidates‘ names are here. all the candidates‘ names are here. the incumbent president is there. we had the comedian

candidate and here we have something that has proved quite controversial. they look very similar. the two—time prime minister, and another candidate who has no chance whatsoever. people are worried they might makea whatsoever. people are worried they might make a mistake and vote for the wrong person. the polls are under way in the ukraine. this is the first round. if no one gets more than 50%, which seems almost certain, everyone will come back in three weeks‘ time for the run—off of the top two. let‘s take a look at some of the other stories making the news. in slovakia the anti—corruption and outsider candidate zuzana chaputova has won the presidential election. she‘s become the country‘s first

female head of state. ms chaputova defeated a high—profile diplomat, marosh sebjovich, from the governing party. police in bangladesh have arrested the two owners of the office block that caught fire in dhaka on thursday, killing 26 people. they‘re due to appear in court on sunday. the authorities say the building did not meet fire safety standards emergency exit doors were locked and the building had no sprinkler system. in mozambique, the authorities say the number of cases of cholera in the port of beira has doubled over the past 48 hours. 271 people have now been infected with the disease since cyclone idai struck beira two weeks ago. following the livestreaming of a terror attack in new zealand two weeks ago, the debate over who should regulate social networking sites, is back in the spotlight. just as facebook boss mark zuckerberg has called for more government regulation on the internet, the australian government has announced plans for new laws which put more accountability on the social networking sites. sophia tran—thomson has this report.

he founded the biggest social network in the world. a role that comes with a serious social responsibility. now mark zuckerberg says it is time regulators and governments play a more active role in controlling internet content. in an open letter, he has called for regulation of what he describes as harmful content online, saying private firms can‘t do it alone. he says they should be new rules relating to political advertising and the creation of common standards. they should be effective privacy and data protection for all users with countries adopting a common framework. and he has called for data portability, meaning people should be able to move data from one service to another. it comes as facebook faces questions over its role in the cambridge analytic scandal about data misuse during election campaigns and two weeks after a gunman used facebook to

lifestrea m after a gunman used facebook to lifestream his attack on a mosque in new zealand. but mark zuckerberg says those at the top need to step up. some say it is the social media giants who are responsible. on saturday, australia‘s prime minister announced plans to introduce laws which could see the sites find and executives sent to prison if they failed to quickly remove violent material from their platforms. the social media laws we will be introducing are about calling out the social media companies on their responsibilities. they have a responsibility when they put these platforms into public use to make sure they are safe and that they cannot be weaponised by terrorists. the debate over who is responsible for regulation is far from the debate over who is responsible for regulation is farfrom over, as is the question of how to monitor social media content globally and to what level. theresa may is considering her next move ahead of another decisive brexit week in the commons. with her cabinet and party deeply divided over the way forward, mps will hold another debate on alternative options.

emily thornberry, a senior member of the opposition labour party, suggested a vote of no confidence might be around the corner. our political correspondent jonathan blake is at westminster. the government will be looking to see what mps in the house of commons decide on monday. if anything, they are going to have another attempt at finding an alternative they can support to the prime minister‘s brexit deal, but the most likely outcome is a customs union with the european union and the government has repeatedly ruled that out. downing street has said before it would break the conservatives‘ ma nifesto would break the conservatives‘ manifesto commitment to take the uk out of the customs union and the single market. a lot of people in theresa may‘s own party are putting pressure on her to not go down that road but she is also facing presser from the other side —— pressure from the other side. so no clear next move for theresa may. the husband of the jailed

british—iranian charity worker nazanin zaghari ratcliffe is continuing to push for his wife‘s release. is continuing to push he marked britain‘s celebration of mother‘s day by delivering a giant card to the iranian embassy in london. nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe was detained in tehran in 2016 and jailed for five years after being convicted of spying, a charge she denies. a short time ago, i spoke to richard ratcliffe from outside the iranian embassy. this is the third anniversary, the third mother‘s day that she has been in prison and we just wanted to mark the fact that we are still going, we haven‘t forgotten her, we still want her home, and it is a nice soft one to say that it would be great if she could be released. amnesty have organised 155 bunches of flowers, one for each week she has been held, we have been delivering them to the embassy, as well as a card with the

signatures of over 25,000 people. and how is she at the moment? you talk to her quite regularly, don‘t you? more frequently since the foreign secretary granted diplomatic protection. i spoke to her yesterday and she was very pleased this was happening. she said she didn‘t believe the iranians government deserved flowers but i think, obviously, it was iranians holiday period so being stuck in prison was stuff —— tough. partly doing beautiful things like today helps. but she is obviously in the waiting room of life. and what about her health because we heard about her going on hunger strike a few weeks ago in protest at the lack of medical help she was getting. how is she physically? you are right, she went on hunger strike. she was promised treatment and that treatment hasn‘t happened. in

fairness, she sounded ok on the phone. she didn‘t complain about the figures —— physical problems. there has been some talk in the prison of her being given an assessment but that has not been completed. if i am honest, the part that i always get concerned about is her mental health. she can be sometimes very dark on the phone. she was lifted by today‘s events. last week was very dark and deep. that is all from me. thank you very much for watching. good afternoon. new stop and search powers are being given to police in england and wales to try and tackle rising knife crime. the home secretary sajid javid is making it easierfor officers to intervene where they think serious violence may occur. but opponents say it‘s intrusive and won‘t work. our home affairs correspondent, danny shaw has more. another knife off the streets. this three—and—a—half inch blade was found when a young man was stopped and searched

in north london. now police in the seven areas worst affected by knife crime will be able to carry out more searches because the government is relaxing rules brought in when theresa may was home secretary. the whole government agree that stop and search is a vital power. we still of course want it to be targeted and focused and intelligence—led, which it will be, but with these new powers and increased powers, we all agree, including the prime minister, this is exactly what is needed to help fight the rise in serious violence. under the changes, police will be able to search anyone in areas where they believe serious violence may occur. police inspectors can approve the powers rather than more senior officers. police say stop and search acts as a deterrent, helping to prevent violence and keep weapons off the streets but it is an intrusive tactic and highly controversial. too many of my experiences and stories i've heard have

been very unpleasant, which leads to building a lot of tension between the police and young people to the point where you have young, innocent civilians running away from police just to avoid being stopped and searched. but for the vast bulk of knife searches police conduct, they need reasonable suspicion that someone is carrying a weapon and those powers remain the same. danny shaw, bbc news. i‘m joined now via webcam by alison cope. alison‘s sonjosh died in 2013 when he was stabbed in birmingham. she now gives talks to schools on knife crime and is an anti—knife crime campaigner. thank you very much for being with us. thank you very much for being with us. new stop and search powers being given to police in england and wales. do you welcome that decision? ido wales. do you welcome that decision? i do welcome it. my only hesitation is that if this is what they are doing to stop knife crime, i don‘t think it is going to work. it goes

some to taking knives off the street, which is a really good thing. i would like to see them invest as much time and effort in preventing young people leaving their homes with a knife. it is a positive step in my opinion, if it is done correctly and if it is not targeted to only one kind of person. if it is a very general and then consistently i think it is positive thing. are you confident it would be done correctly and intelligence led stop and search? if i am done correctly and intelligence led stop and search? ifi am honest, i don‘t know, because if the police have their control, they will say they have done it within the rules. i have seen it happen in birmingham. that was during the day at a train station. that doesn‘t add up to where they feel there is going to be violence, because in the middle of a train station on a friday lunchtime isn‘t really high risk. if it is just being done to make the public

believe that the government are taking knife crime seriously, again thatis taking knife crime seriously, again that is an issue. because many of these conversations over the last yea rs, these conversations over the last years, they take it seriously, but then they don‘t seem to be moving forward in doing a good job of preventing it because the figures haven‘t dropped, we haven‘t seen them stabilise, they are increasing every year, so what they are doing isn‘t working. every year, so what they are doing isn't working. we know there has been quite a dramatic reduction in the use of stop and search powers in recent yea rs. the use of stop and search powers in recent years. was that a mistake, do you think? what the correlation between that reduction and a rise in knife crime? i think there has been a combination of issues as to why it has risen that young people on the streets will carry a weapon knowing it is unlikely they will be stopped, so it is unlikely they will be stopped, so bringing it back in is a good thing. they stopped it because of their own mistakes. they made m ista kes their own mistakes. they made mistakes in the way they were delivering stop and search. it

caused a public outcry so they pulled back. what they should have done is carried on, done it correctly and did the job they are paid to do. so for them to be brave enough, because a lot of young police officers are scared they will get into trouble, but if they are using their body cameras, doing it correctly and explaining to the young people why they are doing this, i don‘t think there is a problem. but if they are not explaining it and they are just targeting a certain kind of people, it is going to cause an upset. i just hope they do it as they should and it will take knives off the street, which can only be a positive thing. thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with us. the prime minister is considering her next move in the brexit process ahead of yet another decisive week in the commons. her withdrawal agreement was defeated for a third time on friday.

our political correspondent jonathan blake has been explaining what the theresa may might do next. no expectation that the government will make any big moves after that defeat of their withdrawal agreement in parliament on friday. we are told the prime minister was having conversations over this weekend and we‘ll be waiting for the outcome of those votes that you mentioned in parliament on monday before deciding on what the next move should be, although it remains, we are told, her ambition to get her deal passed through parliament, but after three defeats and time running out, just a couple of weeks until that new deadline set by the eu to either get their withdrawal through parliament 01’ come up their withdrawal through parliament or come up with another plan, theresa may‘s time is running out and her options are narrowing, but the justice secretary and her options are narrowing, but thejustice secretary has been speaking on the andrew ma programme this morning and giving a hint that if parliament does coalesce behind the option of a customs union with the option of a customs union with the eu, as their preferred alternative to mrs may‘s deal, she

would have to consider that. if parliament is voting overwhelmingly against leaving the european union without the deal but is voting in favour of a softer brexit, than i do not think it is sustainable to say, we will ignore parliament pass my position and therefore leave without a deal. i do not think that is a sustainable position for the government to take. that is thejustice secretary. hard to know these days with cabinet ministers are speaking for themselves or for the cabinet and government? other cabinet ministers may have given a different answer to that question and put the emphasis elsewhere, and delivering on the ma nifesto elsewhere, and delivering on the manifesto commitments, leaving the european union in an orderly manner, in good time, david gauke is among that group in cabinet who are very much in favour of a softer brexit and dead against leaving with no deal. he mentioned parliament having

voted against that, it would be difficult for the government to ignore. what have labour been saying today? the position of labour has been somewhat confused over time about exactly how the party would approach brexit if it were in power, butjeremy corbyn approach brexit if it were in power, but jeremy corbyn and approach brexit if it were in power, butjeremy corbyn and after the party conference last year came out in favour of having a further referendum as an option if labour could not get its preferred form of brexit deal through parliament or if there was not a general election. this morning tom watson, the deputy leader, has been speaking about the promises that labour would make if there were an election on the idea ofa there were an election on the idea of a second referendum. obviously i do not write the labour manifesto, i am one vote around the table but it seems inconceivable that if there was a general election tomorrow and we hope there will be, we have been calling for one, that the people is what will be in that manifesto. tom watson has been slightly at odds with the party leadership at times

over the last few weeks but making it very clear in his view that if we find ourselves with the general election in the offing, labour should promise to hold a further referendum and that is one of the options that parliament will vote on in that further series of votes tomorrow, which could influence the next move of the government from hereon. jonathan blake, a political correspondent. now the sports news. good afternoon. after manchester city‘s win yesterday, liverpool can move ahead of the champions in the premier league title race if they beat tottenham at anfield later. it‘s been 29 years since liverpool last won a league title. they remain unbeaten at home this season. their opponents are on a dismal run having seen their title challenge fade having lost three of their last four league games.

we expect a strong start because there are no injury problems or whatever. they have had some over the season, but not at the moment, so the season, but not at the moment, so it will be a strong side, a world —class tea m, so it will be a strong side, a world—class team, and even without preparing the game, we could see the champions league games, we saw totte n ha m champions league games, we saw tottenham playing, so it is a very good football team, unfortunately. they are unbeaten in the premier league this season at anfield. it is going to be a massive challenge. in the same way, we respect them. they are doing a very good job, they are are doing a very good job, they are a very good team and it is going to be tough. kick off at 4:30pm. before that, cardiff city play chelsea. celtic can all but wrap up an eighth straight league title if they beat rivals rangers at celtic park. that match under way in the scottish premiership. caretaker manager neil lennon

yet to taste defeat since replacing brendan rodgers. they are ten points clear, and on the cusp of another title. it remained scoreless inside the first half at the moment. —— remains. portsmouth and sunderland are expected to be backed by a sell—out crowd in the checkatrade trophy final at wembley today. the attendance set to be the biggest for any final in the competition‘s history. the two league one sides will have their eyes on a chance to win some silverware, but both are also firmly in contention for promotion to the championship. it is not a normal game, it is a one—off game, cup competition and it isa one—off game, cup competition and it is a final, so for us, we have recently been playing in the league in that format, and as we know, this isa cup in that format, and as we know, this is a cup competition and it changes slightly. with such a big prize of winning it anyway, myjob is to make sure that we can separate the two and really focus on the football. to get to the stage of this competition, you have got to win a lot of games, it is a long

competition through the group stage in the knockout stages and lots of different challenges within it, so ha rd different challenges within it, so hard work and effort goes into it. it was satisfying to get to this point, and the truth is that the only way we'll enjoy it properly is if we win it properly. british heavyweight boxer david price has refused a rematch with last night‘s opponent kash ali after he was bitten twice in the ring. firstly on his shoulder in third round, and then again on his stomach in the fifth round as the pair collapsed on the canvas, and was disqualified. a british boxing board of control spokesperson said ali would appear before its council "in the future" and is likely to face further sanction. beating tiger woods doesn‘t happen all that often so only right danish golfer lucas bjerregarrd is rewarded with a place in the semifinals of the world matchplay and will play matt kuchar later this evening. bjerregaard beat woods in the quarterfinals after the former world number one missed this putt on the 18th. and sergio garcia struggled

with the bunker at the 18th, ending up finishing two down on kuchar. live coverage of the women‘s super league is under way on the bbc sport website. kick—off between birmingham and league leaders is at 12:30. you can find more on that and the rest of today‘s stories on the website. that‘s bbc.co.uk/sport. there‘s been a sharp rise in the number of adults calling a national helpline for the children of alcoholic parents, according to figures seen by the bbc. in 2013, the majority of calls to the national association of children of alcoholics were from children but now more than 80% of calls are from people

over the age of 18. the department of health said it was investing £6 million to tackle the issue. adrian goldberg from five live investigates gave us more details. these figures come from the national association of children of alcoholics. back in 2013, they tell us that the majority of the calls that they received seeking help and support from their helpline, the majority of those calls were from children. they did at that time have around 6,500 calls a year from adults, anybody over the age of 18. that figure has rocketed between 2013 and 2018 to the point where last year they had 23,000 calls from people over the age of 18. that now makes up around 81% of their caseload at their helpline. a really significant increase in the number of adults contacting that helpline for support and assistance. do we know why there has been such a big rise? it‘s very interesting.

around 2015, when you had high—profile figures like labour mp liam byrne talking as an adult about his experiences, having been a child of an alcoholic, and finally overcoming what he perceived to be the shame and stigma, coming forward to talk about that, that has prompted other adults to come forward and say that they too had problems like this as a child with a parent who had turned to drink. joining me now is amelia, who grew up with an alcoholic father. she sought help after his death two years ago. thank you very much for being with us. thank you very much for being with us. tell us about your experience of growing up with an alcoholic father. you were very young at the time? yes, i was about five when my dad, alcoholism took over, so that was a lot of, you know, drunk pick—ups from school, things like that. it

was really difficult but you grow up and you realise as you get older that that is not normal, it is not 0k. and that that is not normal, it is not ok. and what were the symptoms of his alcoholism. he used to get pretty angry? very aggressive. a lot of drunkenly passing out. luckily i am the youngest of four. i had older siblings who were able to help me deal with that. it was a lot of really difficult times, and u nfortu nately, really difficult times, and unfortunately, my dad passed away from alcoholism about three years ago now. how old were you then, and what were your feelings than when she died? i was 21. i was at university. to be perfectly honest, i felt this massive university. to be perfectly honest, ifelt this massive relief, because

when you have an alcoholic parent from a really young age, you are grieving for that person from when they become an alcoholic, you lose your parent anyway. when that person actually dies, i felt this horrible relief, and then a lot of shame associated with feeling that relief associated with feeling that relief as well. at the time when you were a child and he was still alive and an alcoholic, did you try to talk to people about it, did you try to get help? not really. i had a good family, good support system. we had oui’ mum family, good support system. we had our mum and my siblings and a big extended family and we used to talk about it a lot within the family but it was not something i sought help for externally until i became an adult. do you think that is important that children who have alcoholic parents to try to get help? definitely. when i was younger, we did not have the

internet the way that we do now. we we re internet the way that we do now. we were not aware of those things as much, so charities like the national association for children of alcoholics, the rise of the internet and social media, it brings awareness of those things and means children can contact those places if they need to. thank you very much indeed for speaking to us openly. i am gratefulfor your time indeed for speaking to us openly. i am grateful for your time today. thank you. thank you. if you, or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised, you can find details here: the chairman of the official brexit campaign, gisela stuart, has refused to apologise for breaking electoral law.

on friday, the vote leave campaign dropped its appeal against a £61,000 fine for electoral spending offences during the eu referendum. vote leave was fined injuly after the electoral commission said it broke legal spending limits by donating hundreds of thousands to pro—brexit youth group beleave days before the vote in 2016. earlier on the andrew marr programme, gisela stuart explained the reasons behind dropping the appeal. what it shows is that we have been outspent at every stage of this process. before the referendum started the government spent 9.4 million on a leaflet. during the campaign, money was the question. collectively they remain side spent more than going to pills cost money, too. sorry to interrupt. there is one other point. if people now argue for a second referendum, if we had a

campaign where we honestly always tried to be compliant, we had a compliance committee, and every other organisation across the board has been found wanting at some stage. the legislation for a referendum... you did not try very ha rd referendum... you did not try very hard because you overspent to the tune of £675,000, a massive amount of money which the electoral commission thought was a very serious electoral offence. you broke the law, it happened under your watch in this organisation, will you apologise to people for that? watch in this organisation, will you apologise to people for that7m watch in this organisation, will you apologise to people for that? it was in relation to one particular donation for the electoral commission interpreted the rules as acting in concert, and we had legal advice which said it was not, so the key question is, if anybody wants a second referendum, the referendum legislation as it stands and the way the electoral commission and the information commission interprets them, the law needs rewriting and thatis them, the law needs rewriting and that is something which we also have to face. the electoral commission is

trusted by many people. at the time of their original judgment, vote leave said it was wholly inaccurate and can send false accusations that do not stand up to scrutiny. do you stand by that statement? our biggest problem in the end was we destroy dollar data so some of the evidential basis that people were asking for. all i can tell you is that every stage, in terms of the processes , we that every stage, in terms of the processes, we did our level best to being compliant with the rules. if they were interpreted afterwards in a way which was different from the advice we got at that time, so be it. the regulators always have the final word. you destroyed the data. the electoral commission were upset that you did not cooperate with the more clearly at the time. do you understand why people on the other side of the argument feel that this referendum was corrupted and cannot be trusted because of the way that vote leave behave? the electoral commission never sought any evidence from the people in the vote leave

campaign. yes, they did. no, they did not, we offered more evidence. if this was based, as people are saying, on a lie, that people did not know what they were voting for, that they were somehow unaware of what this vote was, opinions which have changed. opinions have not changed, they have hardened, the one thing that we have not done is look at what remains in the context of the rest of the european union would mean. the weather forecast now. for england and wales, a lot more cloud, and it could threaten one or two showers, particularly across southern counties as we go through the afternoon. temperatures may hit 15 but that will be tempered by the strength of the wind. tonight, the breeze coming

from an easterly direction will push cloud back towards northern ireland and north into the west of scotland. a few showers here stopping temperatures from dropping too much but elsewhere across much of scotland, england and wales, away from city centres, it will be a cold night with a widespread frost. a bright start today for the vast majority but already showers in northern ireland, western scotland, becoming more abundant through the day, some heavy with hail and thunder, spreading into central scotland, too. some parts of eastern scotland may stay dry, even with the breeze picking up, showers into the isle of man, cumbria later, but much of england and wales dry. sunniest towards the south—east and with lighter winds, we may see temperatures up a bit but they will drop drastically for tuesday and wednesday and it is a story of april showers for all. this is bbc news. the headlines: police in england and wales are being given greater stop and search powers to tackle rising knife crime. theresa may considers her next move to break the brexit deadlock following the latest defeat of her withdrawal plan.

there‘s been a sharp rise in the number of adults calling a national helpline for the children of alcoholic parents, according to figures seen by the bbc. the founder of facebook, mark zuckerberg, last week, the vote leave campaign dropped its appeal. this week: we investigate the sexual exploitation of children on unencrypted messaging apps, and the undercover bot trying to catch the perpetrators.

often on the show, we talk about the positive impact of tech on our lives — its powerfor social good, bringing us together, solving pressing problems, and generally enriching our lives. but there are, of course, much darker sides to technology. we have often heard stories of paedophiles exchanging material on the so—called ‘dark web‘ or grooming children in chat rooms, sometimes to meet up with them and physically exploit them. but in recent years, the un has been warning of a trend towards what is being called ‘webcam sex tourism‘. and in some countries,

like the philippines, it‘s become particularly acute. the un‘s children‘s agency, unicef, has dubbed the nation the global epicentre of the live streaming sexual abuse trade. we sent richard taylor to investigate the problem and look at how technology is being turned against the perpetrators, to help try and bring them to justice. children crying. in a remote sanctuary in the central philippines, the trauma of child cyber sexual abuse rings out. this is primal therapy, used to release negative emotions. it‘s one of a number of different approaches used here. the preda foundation‘s mission is to rescue kids from sexual exportation. the facility can house around 30, but it is thought as many as 100,000 kids across the country

may be at risk. and recent technological risks are threatening to turn what has long been an endemic, nationwide scourge into a global epidemic, with the philippines at its core. over the past decade, police have been trying to catch facilitators of abuse in so—called cybersex dens, shacks in urban slums where kids are taken to engage in sex acts over webcams for the pleasure of a largely western audience with the means to pay. a handful of the victims who were rescued end up at specialist cybersex rehabilitation centres, like this one in the capital, manila. stories abound of abuse, shockingly often sanctioned by their own families. angela is one such victim, taken by a family friend and trafficked across the country into a cybersex den at the age ofjust 12. it‘s really shocking because i did not expect that.

i don‘t have communication with my parents and i don‘t have phone. i cannot go out. they just controlled me. i do not have the right to say no, because he is going to slap me or smack me too. cybersex abuse, it really breaks our heart because a lot of the victims' parents are actually part of the crime and sometimes, they even believe that there is really no harm brought to these children because they are just performing. but in reality, that is not what happened, because the psychological impact of the abuse to the girls is really severe. but what makes the philippines the epicentre of this cybersex trade? it‘s complex, but poverty clearly plays its part — using kids to make a fast buck is especially alluring for large families struggling to get by. and the widespread use of english here smooths direct communication with westerners. but today, this already combustible mix is being fuelled by yet another

ingredient — access to cheap smart phones and internet, which together are threatening to transform this already toxic phenomenon into something far more deeply rooted in philippine society. investigators say it‘s been a game changer. in the past, when we were combating this form of crime, what we were finding was we were looking for computers. and now really, what we‘re looking for is what is mobile and what is cheap, and so it is really cellphones with a camera, internet service through the cellphone company that is usually not registered, and that broadens who can actually abuse a child in this way. and initial contact today takes place in live streamed porn and dating sites. alongside consentual adult interactions, some women here themselves act as facilitators, not simply flaunting their own sexual wares, but pimping out younger girls too. you will have girls of 12 years old trying to sell a girl of eight,

seven years old. you have girls of 17 year olds selling a sister of four years old. ay age you want. any age you can imagine. you know, some will even show a baby. today, the online monetary transactions are frictionless, the performances take place in private settings, using legitimate mainstream apps where anonymity is practically but guaranteed and paedophiles can realise their wildest fantasies. there is no break on their behaviour, so the most female—unfriendly, aggressive and violent things come out of these men. some pay for really maiming a child orfor cutting a child. so what can be done? police resources have been mobilised but there has only been a handful of successful prosecutions over the years, and the impermanence of live—streaming means evidence is hard to amass. the internationaljustice mission specialise in this kind

of fieldwork. they believe successful law enforcement will be a big deterrent, but the tech companies themselves need to take responsibility. the police actually requires the capacity to investigate but aside from that, you know, they don‘t operate in a vacuum and so, since online sexual exploitation of children involves electronic service providers, they are part of the solution. we contacted some of those tech companies, where the cybersex abusers carry out their abuse. both whatsapp and viber told us they co—operate with the authorities and law enforcement when requested. whatsapp also says it uses microsoft‘s photo matching technology, photodna. this flags users‘ photos to those already on a database. but this doesn‘t address the core problem — namely that all photos, viudeos and live streams between users are encrypted and not subject to any oversight.

some organisations, though, are proactively creating technology to ward off the predators. my name is sweetie. i am ten years old. sweetie began five years ago as the brainchild of the kids‘s welfare organisation, terre des hommes. i am not real. what sweetie does is it is primarily a chat bot but it also involves an avatar, that can be used on occasion. the chatbot goes into chat rooms, is present in the room, never initiates a conversation, for legal purposes, and is approached by predators that will be in this chat room. the main purpose, really, is to identify people to a sufficient degree of detail so that you can say "hey, we really do know who you are and you can't get away with this." early versions of sweetie required human operators. today, she‘s fully automated. they will start chatting with her and through a preprogrammed set of lines, of course, the conversation take place, and she can do that simultaneously

with tens of people of perpeatrators at the same time. but despite amassing troves of detailed personal information, resulting prosecutions have been thin on the ground. ideally, we have sweetie out there deployed 24/7 globally, but realities of course is that we need to find that within the legal systems in which we can operate. actually having law enforcement use the software, developing their own messages makes it so much more effective. so that is what we try to do when we‘re working with law enforcement in the various countries in asia and also now in africa, where we are developing cooperation with law enforcement as well. here in the philippines, many are at least waking up to the urgent need to protect their young. the hope is that step by step, a co—ordinated international response can save more vulnerable children from falling prey to the cybersex predators.

hello and welcome to the week in tech. it was the week in which the galaxy‘s first all—female spacewalk was cancelled due to a lack of appropriately sized spacesuits. the eu passed a law which holds tech firms responsible for material posted without copyright permission. and google announced an ai ethics panel to oversee projects such as facial recognition and potential algorithmic bias — something which will be handy in estonia, which is to create its own ai—powered judge. it‘s hoped it would be able to rule on small claims disputes of less than £6,000, and so clearing the backlog of cases faced by human judges. new cars sold in europe will probably have to be fitted with speed limiters from 2022. the new rules, provisionally agreed by the eu, will mean on—board cameras and gps systems will be used to spot road signs and automatically slow speeding vehicles down.

speak to the hand, the world‘s first palm vein airport security system went operational this week in korea. fujitsu says palm secure product is more accurate than other biometric tests. passengers taking part will be able to take domestic flights without the need to show their national id card. and finally, researchers at google seem to have had some time on their hands. they‘ve created the tossingbot. it‘s a robot that uses deep learning and trial and error to figure out the best way to throw something. we are back at the steve jobs theater at apple hq once again. but this time, the announcement will be a little different. instead of a new device, apple now wants to talk about entertainment. from spielberg to big bird,

apple is bursting into hollywood with what it hopes will be a wildly popular tv service of its own. unlike anything that has been done before. it has announced apple tv+. a subscription service launching later this year, designed to rival what is already out there from netflix and amazon. the company hasn‘t said how much it will cost, but it has promised you will be able to access exclusive content from stars like oprah, reese witherspoon, jennifer aniston, kumail nanjiani and more. and you‘ll be able to get shows from other networks for an additionalfee, just as you can on amazon prime video today. because of that, i think it is fair to say apple will need to stand out. oprah winfrey is obviously a big star and it is great for her to come in and say i will do uplifting stuff that will raise everyone‘s spirits,

i don‘t know if you can sell a tv service with that. speaking of additional fees, you may find yourself being asked to pay a lot more of them from now on. also announced here was apple news+, a subscription news service that costs $9.99 per month. for that, you get access to around 300 or so magazines you‘d ordinarily have to subscribe to individually. however, only two newspapers have signed up to apple‘s plan — the la times and the wall streetjournal. apple also came up with a gaming subscription service called apple arcade, which, if you watched the show last week, you‘ll know sounds pretty similar to some of what google recently unveiled. you won‘t find these games on any other mobile platform or in any other subscription service. and then there was this. apple card. a credit card apple has made in partnership with megabank goldman sachs and mastercard. what apple is trying to do with all of this,

if you haven‘t noticed, is make more money from what you do with your phone. so, apple is seeing a dip in demand for its hardware. theiphone is its biggest moneymaker and sales of smartphones have kind of dipped. they still sell millions and millions, don‘t get me wrong. but as a growth engine, it is not the growth engine it was. over the past year, we have heard them talk about services, making money from services. and certainly, in the last few quarters of their earnings, they have been getting a lot of money from services — that is where the big growth is. so, when it comes to tv, apple did just about what we expected. big stars, all paid up and ready to go. but i‘m wondering whether they can truly be as creative as netflix and even amazon when it comes to making exciting television. but maybe it will not matter because as soon as they launch this thing, it will be on a billion devices just like that. that was dave in california. now, an estimated 700,000 people are living with autism

in the uk alone. across the world, more and more people are being diagnosed with the condition. april the 2nd is world autism awareness day, which aims to help us all to understand more about the challenges faced by people with autism on a daily basis. high levels of anxiety are one of the most common difficulties faced by people on the spectrum. and paul carter has been looking at some of technologies which aim to help manage the stress levels. the situations that can kind of make me really anxious is almost every time i leave the house, because then it leaves my control and i don‘t really know what is going to happen beyond that. being in a big crowd of noisy people can just make my whole brain shut down. i get anxious in social situations, when there is a group conversation. i feel anxious when meeting new people.

the autistic people i have been speaking to have