Do we need more warnings? Can we still, as a society, not see what is staring us in the face? Giant tech companies are colluding in the corruption of children.

The smartphone provides entrance to the adult world in just the same way as a pub door. Children should be permitted access to smartphones no more than they would be allowed to swig from a vodka bottle.

We talk of canaries in coal mines. Well, we’ve just seen an entire flock in a coal mine. Only the canaries are nine- and 10-year-old children, and the coal mine is Paradykes Primary School in Loanhead.

In reports which sound more like a low budget horror movie pitch, the Primary Six kids were added to a WhatsApp group and told by some anonymous predator or predators to secretly send explicit photographs of themselves.

What’s known is this: the children weren’t using council-issued devices; parents were warned to check their children’s phones; some kids were targeted on their personal devices; and Police Scotland is investigating.

WhatsApp is owned by Facebook’s parent company Meta. Last year, Meta lowered the age at which the service could be used from 16 to 13.

On the same day that it emerged WhatsApp had been the means by which a paedophile or paedophiles attempted to groom a bunch of Scottish pre-teens, we also learned that Meta allowed its AI chatbots to have what it termed “sensual” conversation with children.

This should disgust and enrage every adult on a primal level. Internal documents showed Meta’s guidelines allowed chatbots to engage children “in conversations that are romantic or sensual”.

You know what that’s called? Grooming. Meta confirmed the document’s authenticity and claimed it had........

© Herald Scotland