DESPICABLE. That’s the reaction of one MP to news that online scammers have been using pictures of sick Oscar Saxelby-Lee to try and con people out of money.
Can there be any image quite so heart-rending as that of a sick child in his hospital bed? To take this and use it for your own ends is despicable.
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But to make matters worse, Oscar’s family have faced a further fight to have the fake profiles deleted finding, as others have before them, that social media giants such as Facebook (and Instagram, which it owns) say all the right things on harmful online content but aren’t always the fastest to act.
Worcester MP Robin Walker and Mid Worcestershire MP Nigel Huddleston have promised to intervene on behalf of Oscar’s parents but all this is an extra burden on a family already struggling to cope with a situation most of us cannot even begin to imagine.
Mr Huddleston says new laws will soon be brought in to ensure that online service providers deal with harmful content - or face the penalty. Let’s hope he is right and a bright light soon shines on the shady corners of the internet.
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