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Tonya Lopez, Вулиця Госпітальна, 4, Kyiv (2026)

26/03/2026

Parents should monitor children '24/7' on Roblox, says developer

An independent game developer for Roblox says he believes the platform's child safety measures, including age verification checks, do not go far enough.
Roblox is the most popular gaming platform in the UK among eight to 12-year-olds.
In an exclusive interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, the developer - whom the BBC is not naming at their request - said parents should monitor their children on the platform "24/7, and if that's not possible then they shouldn't be playing Roblox".
A spokesperson for Roblox said "safety is a top priority, and we have advanced safeguards and filters designed to prevent harmful content and communications on our platform to keep all our users safe".
In 2024, Roblox averaged more than 80 million global players per day - with roughly 40% of them under the age of 13.
The developer, "Sam", did not want us to use his real name but contacted the BBC after hearing an interview on 5 Live Breakfast with Matt Kaufman, Roblox's chief safety officer.
In the interview, Kaufman spoke about the numerous safety checks the platform employed, including the mandatory age verification checks which were rolled out in January 2026 for all users in the UK.
Sam, who is not employed by Roblox, is an independent developer on the platform that is contracted by Roblox to make games. He also works in a voluntary capacity for a non-profit online safety organisation.
He said he had seen first-hand how safety is nothing like he [Kaufman] was portraying it to be.

Harmful or violent content

Roblox is a platform where users can create their own games or play games made by other creators. It is set up like an open world, where players can interact with each other. Creators also have to provide a description of the game and a content maturity label, which is used to assign it to an appropriate age range.
Any player can create games and make money from advertising or by charging other users to play. Some are also on Roblox's creator programme, where they are paid directly by Roblox depending on user engagement or bringing in new audiences.
Critics say the platform should do more to protect the millions of very young players on the platform, with some alleging it is a target for groomers. Others claim it can expose children to harmful or violent content through the types of games created.
Sam said: "I've seen people on this platform be lured into engaging in ways that they shouldn't with complete strangers."
He said, in his role as a safety monitor, he had also seen reports of "people leading others off platform" to have conversations away from the game, something he said "Roblox does not allow".
Sam added: "I have seen games where the goal is to shoot as many people as possible in the depicted version of Sandy Hook or Columbine. I've seen remakes of Epstein Island on Roblox."
He said concerns were flagged via a form, but added "maybe 30% actually get accepted".
Asked what advice he had for parents of children entering the world of gaming who had never used Roblox before, Sam said: "When playing Roblox, children need to be monitored 24/7. And if that's not possible, then they shouldn't be playing Roblox."
In a statement given to the BBC, Roblox said it took "swift action against those found to be breaking our rules". It said it operated an age check process certified by independent experts so children were limited, by default, to chatting with users who were of a similar age.
"We also continuously monitor user behaviour. If we detect signs their actions do not match their checked age, we prompt users to age check again," it added.

Global bans

This is not the first time the platform has answered questions about the safety of its young players online.
In March 2025, Roblox Chief Executive Dave Baszucki told BBC News that the company went to great lengths to keep children safe.
However, he also urged parents to be guided by their own instincts.
"My first message would be, if you're not comfortable, don't let your kids be on Roblox," he said.
"That sounds a little counter-intuitive, but I would always trust parents to make their own decisions."
The platform has since rolled out mandatory age verification worldwide, and has made changes to safety on its platform including blocking children from being able to chat to adults.
Countries including Russia and Turkey have banned Roblox altogether, citing child safety concerns.
Indonesia has also included it in a list of platforms banned for under-16s, which comes into force on 28 March.
Australia's social media ban for under-16s does not include Roblox, though some campaigners there have called for it to be prohibited.
The UK government is also consulting on banning children from using social media, as well as examining other measures to keep young people safer online, including app time limits and curfews.
It announced trials of these potential measures on Wednesday.
It is not clear whether Roblox would be affected by any UK social media ban as the government has not set out which platforms would be in scope for such a restriction.

23/03/2026

Counting calories doesn't work. Try eating smarter instead

The time of day you have a meal, how fast you scoff your food and even how much you chew it can affect how many calories you get from it.
The key to maintaining a healthy weight, accepted wisdom suggests, is to count the calories we eat against the calories we expend. It makes sense – energy in versus energy out. Sounds simple, doesn't it?
But this way of thinking misses an important truth: not all of our food's calories are the same. There's actually a complex biological interaction taking place inside our bodies, influenced by the type of food we eat, how quickly we consume it and its interaction with the bustling community of microbes living inside our guts.
"This is a huge expanding area of research," says Sarah Berry, professor of nutrition at King's College London in the UK. "We're really starting to see just how variable our responses are to food – and that I could eat something that I would metabolise in a very different way to how you might metabolise the same food."
When we eat
What we eat clearly still matters – a diet filled with fresh vegetables is going to be better for you than one dominated by cheeseburgers. But it's far from the only consideration. The timing of food, for example, also plays a role in how well we digest it and what nutrients our bodies extract.

One study showed that overweight and obese women lost more weight when they consumed the majority of their calories at breakfast time, compared to those who ate most in the evening, even though they were eating the same total number of calories.
Another small study by researchers in the UK found that reducing the amount of time between your first and last meal of the day may lead you to eat fewer calories overall. When healthy but slightly overweight adults delayed their first meal of the day by 1.5 hours and ate their last meal 90 minutes earlier than normal, their energy intake was lower and they saw a drop in body fat compared to a control group, even though they had access to the same amount of food.

Scientists believe that this could be because our circadian rhythms are connected to our how we digest and metabolise our food – an emerging field of research known as chrononutrition.
Eating earlier can help too, as researchers in Spain found that those who ate lunch earlier lost weight or maintained a lower weight more easily than those who ate after 15:00.

We can also reconsider when we snack, as research has also shown that snacking after 21:00 has been linked to high blood sugar and higher levels of bad cholesterol, which could increase the risk of obesity and cardiovascular diseases.
In the US and in the UK, about a quarter of our daily energy comes from snacks, so thinking about what we snack on and when we do so could improve our health.
How fast we eat
But when we eat isn't the only time-related issue we need to think about when it comes to food. It's worth looking at how fast we eat too.
Those who speed through their meals tend to eat more and therefore consume more calories. One study gave participants ice cream and asked them to either eat it quickly – in five minutes, or savour the taste over 30 minutes. Slower eating increased the release of gut hormones that regulate appetite, including GLP-1, the glucagon-like peptide that modern weight loss drugs such as semaglutide mimic to reduce hunger.
It takes 15 minutes for concentrations of a gut hormone called cholecystokinin – which is responsible for early feelings of satiety – to rise to sufficient levels in our blood stream. It takes 30-60 minutes before GLP-1 and another hormone called peptide tyrosine-tyrosine (PYY) reach their peak levels and reduce our appetite. These then remain elevated for three to five hours. This explains why some of us might prefer a sweet treat immediately after a meal, but the craving goes away if we wait a while.

Slowing down while we eat helps us feel fuller for longer. In one study participants who ate more slowly also better remembered what they ate and consumed less later on too. Their brains subsequently showed activity in areas related to fullness and reward.

By changing the structure of the food, it also changes how quickly the food is metabolised – Sarah Berry
Eating slowly can also change how your blood sugar responds to food. This was shown in a study where individuals ate a meal in 10 minutes on one day and the next day ate the same meal in over 20 minutes. When eating faster, the participants showed increased blood sugar, which over time can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Food structure
When we eat food, the number of calories we absorb depends on the structure of the food in front of us, as this can determine how easily the nutrients are released.
Take almonds. A handful consists of about 160-170 calories. How much of these we absorb depends on how we eat them. Some of us may absorb the full amount while others will absorb fewer calories despite eating the same number – it all comes down to how we chew the nuts and how they were processed beforehand. If we carefully chew the almonds, chances are we'll absorb all the calories, but if we only partially chew them, we won't, says Berry. Our bodies will also extract more calories from ground almonds than whole ones.

Similarly we can eat pureed apple sauce much quicker than a whole apple for instance, which then also changes how full we feel.
Berry says this also explains why we tend to consume more calories when eating ultra-processed food, which can lead to weight gain. "By changing the structure of the food, which changes the texture of the food, it also changes how quickly the food is metabolised, where it's metabolised and where the nutrients are absorbed."

Microbial variation
But it is also worth remembering that research shows there's considerable individual variation in how we process food.
In 2015 researchers discovered that even when eating the same food, blood glucose levels vary widely between people. Some individuals show greater sugar spikes to tomatoes and some to bananas, for instance.

The scientists suggest this may be due to the microbes that live in our guts – our microbiota. The species and balance of microbes in our gut differ from person to person, meaning they also metabolise the food we eat differently. This goes some way towards explaining why some people seem to find it easier to maintain a healthier weight than others.

19/03/2026

Amazon's Alexa has had an AI upgrade. Now she's got more to say

Amazon's Echo smart speaker - more commonly known as Alexa - is getting an AI-powered upgrade which will roll out across the UK.
Alexa+ turns the digital assistant into a more chatty device which Amazon says will be able to follow threads and be more proactive in its responses.
There has been criticism the Echo has stagnated since its launch in 2016, while AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude have become much easier to communicate with.
"It will be interesting to see how users react to this - we expect this could be polarising, with some enjoying the more relaxed, familiar interactions while others may find it disconcerting," said Jessica Miller, head of data insights at FDM/CCS Insight.

"UK consumers will notice an immediate difference," she added. "Using Alexa+ is a very different experience."
For example, I asked the current Alexa whether I needed an umbrella today. It responded, "no rain is expected today".
At a UK demo of Alexa+, it responded, "actually, you can leave the brolly at home, with sunny skies and no rain in the forecast, you'll be sorted without it".
Ed Freed from the marketing agency Rapp UK once described Alexa as "nothing more than expensive kitchen timers" for most users.
However, Amazon claims 52% of the UK has tried the Echo out, and there have been 114 billion "interactions" with Alexa in the UK since 2023 - roughly 1,500 interactions per person in the population.
Smart speakers have faced criticism for languishing while other AI tools have rapidly taken off.
One of Alexa's rivals, Google Nest, is becoming Gemini for Home, incorporating the tech giant's Gemini AI platform, but its smart speaker screen display hardware has not been updated since 2021, notes the Android Police website.
Alexa+ will be free for those with an Amazon Prime account (currently £95 per year) or £19.99 a month.
New Echo devices will have immediate access, while those with older devices will have to sign up online.
The Echo has reportedly cost Amazon billions of dollars in losses and failed to generated a revenue stream, as customers tended to purchase the device itself and then did not buy anything else with it.
In 2022 and 2025 Amazon targeted its "device and services" department for redundancies.
Even if Alexa+ does not attract huge subscription revenue, having more detailed conversations with the Echo could provide Amazon with more data about its users and help it target ads.

17/03/2026

Is this product 'human-made'? The race to establish an AI-free logo

Organisations worldwide are racing to develop a universally recognised label for "human-made" products and services as part of the growing backlash against AI use.
Declarations like "Proudly Human", "Human-made", '"No A.I" and "AI-free" are appearing across films, marketing, books and websites.
It is in response to fears that jobs or entire professions are being swept away in a wave of AI-powered automation.
BBC News has counted at least eight different initiatives trying to come up with a label that could get the kind of global recognition that the "Fair Trade" logo has for ethically made products.

But with so many competing labels - as well as confusion over the definition of "AI-free" - experts say consumers are in danger of being left confused unless a single standard can be agreed on.
"AI is creating significant disruption and competing definitions of what is 'human made' are confusing consumers," says consumer expert Dr Amna Khan from Manchester Metropolitan University.
"A universal definition is essential to build trust, clarification and confidence" she told BBC News.

The movement to create AI-free certification systems follows generative AI tools being used to replace human work and creativity in range of industries including fashion, advertising, publishing, customer services and music.
The organisations trying to come up with the labels include companies as well as non-profits, based in the UK, Australia and the US.

How the certifications work
Some labels like no-ai-icon.com, ai-free.io and notbyai.fyi, can be downloaded by anyone for free or for a fee without much or any auditing.
Other systems like aifreecert require payment and have a strict process of vetting whether or not a product has used AI or not. Auditors use professional analysts and AI-detecting software.
But AI experts say that getting industries to agree what truly counts as "human made" will prove complicated as AI is integrated into so many everyday tools.

"AI is now so ubiquitous and so integrated into different platforms and services, that it's truly complicated to establish what 'AI free' means," says AI Research Scientist Sasha Luccioni.
"From a technical perspective, it's hard to implement. I think that AI is a spectrum, and we need more comprehensive certification systems, rather than a binary with AI/AI-free approach," she said.

Generative AI-free
Some think that the line should be drawn at the use of generative AI - chatbots that create text, code, music or video with human prompts.
In the closing credits of the 2024 Hugh Grant thriller Heretic producers wrote a disclaimer saying: "No generative AI was used in the making of this film."
Film distributor The Mise en scène Company has taken this idea on and recently added a 'No AI was used' stamp to the poster for its latest film which was written, directed and edited largely by one person.
The distributor has also published its own classification online that it hopes others in the industry will follow.
"We support the AI industry and we think its an exciting time but we think that as a result of AI content there is an economic premium put on human-made content and we want to lean into that," says CEO Paul Yates.

AI disruption
The arts industry is particularly rife with AI-made products and seems to be the current focus for the push back against AI use.
Entire books and films are being made with AI far faster and more cheaply than using traditional methods.
Bollywood film studio Itelliflicks specialises in making films with AI and proudly boasts about it.

But sometimes products that rely on AI don't make that clear to consumers.
This was the case last year with the viral band Velvet Sundown that was revealed to be fully AI.
Elsewhere in the book industry, publishing giant Faber and Faber began putting a "Human Written" stamp onto some of its books.
Author Sarah Hall requested the stamp be added to her novel Helm. Hall also described the intellectual property theft of books used to train AI models as "creative larceny at scale".
But Faber has not said how it classes 'Human Written' books or what auditing it does to ensure no AI is being used.
UK company Books by People agrees there needs to be a trusted standard for how human authorship should be disclosed.
"Publishers are grappling with a new landscape where books can be produced in minutes rather than months or years and readers can no longer be sure if a book reflects a human experience or machine imitation," says co-founder Esme Dennys.

The company has signed up five publishers and put its first stamp on the book Telenova which came out in November.
Books by People charges publishers and requires them to carry out questionnaires about their practises and how they vet their authors. The company also checks samples of books periodically to check for AI writing.
In Australia, competing company Proudly Human uses a similar but even more rigorous system to ensure authors are not using generative AI. Their auditors carry out checks at every stage of publication including checking any changes made from manuscript to ebook edition.
The company is set to announce partnerships with some large publishing houses and plans to move into music, photography, film and animation too.
Company boss Alan Finkel says systems like his are vital because industry efforts to analyse and label content as being made with AI have failed.
"A certification of 'human origin' is needed but self certification is not good enough so we have a full verification process to make sure that its truly human originated material," he said.

12/03/2026

Is TikTok the new frontier for fashion reinvention?

Are CVs out and TikTok pitches in?
Designer and content creator Alexei Hamblin has put it to the test.
The 23-year-old began a video series on the platform in 2025, where he suggested how he would revamp "dead" sports brands he had found in retail chain Sports Direct.
It generated hundreds of thousands of views and also got the attention of the retailer's owner, Frasers Group, which invited Hamblin to come and meet with their team.
He tells BBC Newsbeat that he expected to receive a cease and desist letter from the retail giant after describing some of the clothes as "boring" and "tacky PE kit".
Instead, he was brought on as a consultant after he pitched his vision of how they could reinvent legacy sports brand Slazenger.

He says he was drawn to reinventing Slazenger because of its "interesting history", but that his generation didn't know what it stood for.
Founded by brothers Ralph and Albert Slazenger in 1881, the brand became a go-to for golf and tennis equipment and was appointed the official ball supplier for Wimbledon in 1902.
Hamblin says his plan for the new sub-line he is helping to create, due out in the spring, is "premium sportswear-inspired fashion".
Asked whether this reinvention will make the affordable sportswear brand less accessible, Hamblin says this isn't the intention.
"I wouldn't want to take away the everyman, working-class accessibility of the brand," he says.
"But I do feel like a brand with such heritage needs to have a more modern reflection of what that is, as well as accessibility."
He says the "premium line" he is working on will sit alongside the brand's more affordable options and be for those who would "rather spend a bit more money and want something higher quality".

Hamblin, who hasn't been to fashion school, says he became interested in how fashion helps people find their "identity".
He taught himself to use digital tools, such as Photoshop, to design clothes he would want to wear and shared the ideas on TikTok.
He went on to freelance for clothing companies and start-ups before launching his own brand in 2021.
Jumping from that, to being given responsibility for a new line from a well-known company, would appear daunting to many, but Hamblin says he is "deluded enough to not really feel the pressure".
And he says his age helped get his foot in the door.
"I am Gen Z. I know how we consume. I know what we like, what we don't like," he says.
"And I think that's an advantage that a lot of these people in these boardrooms don't have."

Fashion journalist Renee Washington says fashion content creators are having a "big impact" on the industry and feels they are making it "more accessible".
"You don't need to be sitting front row at Fashion Week anymore to shape taste, you can influence right from your bedroom and that shift has been very powerful", she says.
"Trends that would have unfolded in a season are now taking up to 48 hours and I would say [creatives] have made fashion faster, more democratic and far more conversational."
However, she doesn't feel they can replace the "authority" that legacy platforms and institutions hold as she says they are grounded in "credibility, consistency and history", which builds trust with audiences.
Washington, a digital fashion writer for Grazia UK, says Hamblin's ambition to help reinvent Slazenger is "very commendable" as she notes it's "not easy trying to change a brand that has years of history behind it".
But with brand revamps, she feels it only really works if it feels "authentic".
"One campaign or one TikTok series won't ultimately change the whole brand," she adds.

But the fast fashion Washington refers to is also seen as a problem the industry hasn't figured out how to deal with.
Tens of millions of items of clothing are thrown away each year, and the synthetic materials often used by fast fashion retailers are among the hardest to recycle.
Added to that are environmental concerns about how the clothes are produced, and the treatment of factory workers who make them.
Washington says some content creators are probably fueling people's demand for "fast fashion".
Hamblin agrees social media has "probably accelerated trend cycles a bit too fast" which he says "doesn't help with overconsumption and people understanding their true taste".
However, he does believe it can be "hugely valuable" for creators who are trying to get noticed.
Throughout the process, he has been posting TikTok videos which show the development of the line - from initial designs to mock-ups - and has been engaging with praise, scepticism and critiques in the comments.
And so a series which started as poking at the brand and its owner, has ended up becoming a way for them to attract new customers - Hamblin's followers - who have been following his design process.
"I think these days, if you've got the right vision and the right passion behind what you believe in and what you're creating, these platforms can help you find the right people pretty rapidly," he says.

06/03/2026

The highs and lows of AI in the tattoo industry

A tattoo studio owner has said that artificial intelligence (AI) has both negative and positive uses in the industry.
Kerry Gilbert runs Tattoo Morningstar in Weymouth and believes that AI can save time but that it can also makes the job harder.
"AI tattoo designs created by customers are always vigorously looked over because it likes to add extra things like fingers or toes or miss them out and it takes time to redesign." she said.
Principal academic in computer science at Bournemouth University, Ben Gorman, explains that people need to understand that AI programmes like Chat GPT do not work like artists who have human reasoning.

Sacha is a regular customer at the studio and many of her tattoos have been designed using AI programmes.
"I don't know how many tattoos I have got, there are too many, they are everywhere.
"The ones on both of my legs and thighs are AI designed and they are little characters.
"Quite often I'll come and have a flash tattoo on my half hour lunch break."

Tattoo artists are finding that many clients often generate designs that are too big for the area of skin they want tattooed so they have to be redrawn.
"Customers want a tattoo done at six or seven inches, and you have to say, well actually that needs to be done at more like 15 to 20 inches." said Gilbert.
She continued: "It's because ink spreads over time, so the lines become thicker and it'll end up being a blob if a tattoo isn't done at a reasonable size."
Gilbert also said that AI does not do dates or script very well either. "You have to make sure that everything is spelt correctly before it's tattooed.
Gorman said that a lot of people think that AI works through how we would understand human reasoning but it doesn't.
"If you ask an artist to paint a picture of a dog they are going to take all of their knowledge and generate a wonderful picture of a dog.
"AI works differently as it is trained on thousands of text images so when you put in your prompt it's trying to statistically determine what you want the image to be.
"So the more accurate your prompt is going into the system, the better your outcome."

Positive points to a tattoo artist using AI, is that it can save time if the artist creates the design themselves.
They can then fit more appointments into the day and create bigger and more detailed pieces.
Gilbert said: "As a studio that is charity focused we have a board of small tattoo designs that cost £20 and £1 of that goes to Dorset Mind.
"Those designs are made using AI and it's just about sitting and playing with the prompts so sometimes you can simplify it or make it more detailed.
"It does take about six or seven prompts to get it right though."
Gorman believes the solution is to teach more people about to how use AI and its good for tattoo artists to be integrating it: "The human element is still in there as the artistry in the tattooist's case is doing it on the skin.
"Generally the art is just one aspect of the job and they will actually be able to spend more time doing that, which is more impactful."

03/03/2026

Waitrose to suspend mackerel sales due to overfishing concerns

Waitrose is to suspend sales of mackerel products due to concerns about overfishing.
The supermarket said it would stop sourcing fresh, chilled and frozen mackerel by 29 April, as well as tinned mackerel once their current stocks have been sold.
Marine groups have recommended a cut in the amount of North East Atlantic mackerel being caught to prevent a collapse in population numbers.
Waitrose said it was the first UK supermarket to suspend mackerel sales, adding it would only start selling the fish again once it met their "high sourcing standards".
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), which gives scientific advice on sustainable fishing, said that in recent years, mackerel has been overfished due to a lack of international quota agreements. As a result there is not a high enough rate of breeding to replace the volume being caught.
More mackerel is caught in British waters than any other fish – in 2024 UK vessels landed more than 230,000 tonnes of the species.
In December, the UK, Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland agreed to cut mackerel catches by 48%, but Waitrose said this did not go far enough.
The grocery chain, which sources all its mackerel from Scottish waters, said that from May 2026, North East Atlantic mackerel would no longer meet the supermarket's own responsible sourcing requirements.
Jake Pickering, head of agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries at Waitrose, said: "By suspending sourcing of mackerel at Waitrose, we are reinforcing our ethical and sustainable business commitments, acting to tackle overfishing and protect the long-term health of our oceans and this crucial fish."
Waitrose, which is owned by the John Lewis Partnership, said it would replace its mackerel products with "responsibly sourced" alternatives in order to "make a stand against overfishing and support long-term health and sustainability of fish stocks".
All of the new products are Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified.
Conservation and sustainability groups have welcomed the announcement and called for other supermarkets to follow suit.
The Marine Conservation Society said Waitrose's decision was "leading and decisive".
Kerry Lyne, its Good Fish Guide manager, said: "To keep favourites like mackerel on the menu, we need support right across the supply chain with fishing kept within sustainable limits."
Charles Clover, co-founder of conservation charity Blue Marine Foundation, said overfishing was a "crisis" that has been "ignored for too long".
"We hope that this action by Waitrose sends it to the top of the political agenda," he said.
Most of the UK's mackerel fishing is based in Scotland, and the industry there has responded to Waitrose's move with dismay.
Ian Gatt of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen's Association criticised the timing of the announcement, saying progress was being made in quota-sharing negotiations between countries.

Tonya Lopez

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