Change is part of a beta release in Australia that expands on existing detection defaulted for under-13 users Apple is introducing a new feature to iMessage in Australia that will allow children to report nude images and video being sent to them directly to the company, which could then report the messages to police. The change comes as part of Thursday’s beta releases of the new versions of Apple’s operating systems for Australian users. It is an extension of communications safety measures that have been turned on by default since iOS 17 for Apple users under 13 but are available to all users. Under the existing safety features, an iPhone automatically detects images and videos that contain nudity children might receive or attempt to send in iMessage, AirDrop, FaceTime and Photos. The detection happens on devices to protect privacy. Continue reading...

Internet Watch Foundation says illegal AI-made content is becoming more prevalent on open web with high level of sophistication Child sexual abuse imagery generated by artificial intelligence tools is becoming more prevalent on the open web and reaching a “tipping point”, according to a safety watchdog. The Internet Watch Foundation said the amount of AI-made illegal content it had seen online over the past six months had already exceeded the total for the previous year. Continue reading...

London-based Synthesia’s technology was employed to make deepfake videos for authoritarian regimes The well-groomed young man dressed in a crisp, blue shirt speaking with a soft American accent seems an unlikely supporter of the junta leader of the west African state of Burkina Faso. “We must support … President Ibrahim Traoré … Homeland or death we shall overcome!” he says in a video that began circulating in early 2023 on Telegram. It was just a few months after the dictator had come to power via a military coup. Continue reading...

Millions of children play on this platform accused of having reams of troubling content and users, but there are hundreds of better alternatives that serve kids’ curious minds • Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Right before last week’s newsletter went out, a short-selling firm called Hindenburg Research published an extremely critical report on Roblox. In it they accused the publicly traded company of inflating its metrics (and thereby its valuation) and, more worryingly for the parents of the millions of children who use Roblox, also called it a “pedophile hellscape”. The report alleges some hair-raising discoveries within the game. The researchers found chatrooms of people purporting to trade images and videos of children, and users claiming to be children and teens offering such material in exchange for Robux, the in-game currency. Roblox strongly rejects the claims that Hindenburg made in its report. Roblox, for those unfamiliar with the title, is not so much a game as a platform (or, as its corporate communications people would like you to think of it, a metaverse). It claims to have 80 million daily users (a number Hindenburg says is inflated). You log in, customise your avatar, and from there you can jump into thousands of different “experiences” created by other users – from role-play cities to pizza-delivery mini games to cops-and-robbers games to, unfortunately, much less savoury things like Public Bathroom Simulator (which the creator said they made when they were 12 “before I was aware bad people even existed”). Because games on Roblox are created by players, the site must be constantly moderated. The company’s moderation team deals with a tsunami of content ever day. Continue reading...

Campaigners say watchdog must ensure Online Safety Act is rigorous enough, after allegations about gaming platform Child safety campaigners have urged the UK communications watchdog to make a “step change” in its implementation of new online laws after a video game firm was accused of making its platform an “X-rated paedophile hellscape”. Roblox, a gaming platform with 80 million daily users, was accused of lax safety controls last week by a US investment firm. Continue reading...

The safer phones bill could ban companies from applying algorithms for young ‘doomscrolling’ teens Social media companies could be forced to exclude young teens from algorithms to make content less addictive for under-16s, under a new bill with heavyweight backing from Labour, Conservatives and child protection experts. The safer phones bill, a private member’s bill from a Labour MP that has high priority in parliament, will be discussed by ministers this week. Continue reading...

As the Goodbye Meta AI meme proved, many of us vastly overestimate our abilities to discern what’s true online – but spotting misinformation isn’t something we can do alone • Don’t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article here It’s a wild world out there online, with dis- and misinformation flying about at pace. I’m part-way through writing a book about the history of fake news, so I’m well aware that people making stuff up is not new. But what is new is the reach that troublemakers have, whether their actions are deliberate or accidental. Social media and the wider web changed the game for mischief-makers, and made it easier for the rest of us to be inadvertently hoodwinked online (see: the odd “Goodbye Meta AI” trend that I wrote about this week for the Guardian). The rise of generative AI since the release of ChatGPT in 2022 has also supercharged the risks. While early research suggests our biggest fears about the impact of AI-generated deepfakes on elections are unfounded, the overall information environment is a puzzling one. Continue reading...

Guidance comes after calls for a total ban for under-16s and a statuary ban on mobile phone use in schools Primary school children should not be given smartphones by their parents, one of the UK’s largest mobile phone operators has warned. EE is advising parents that children under 11 should be given old-fashioned brick or “dumb” phones that only allow them to call or text instead. Continue reading...

Counsellors are receiving an increasing number of calls from young people being blackmailed over faked indecent images * National Crime Agency threatens extraditions over rise in sextortion cases * How west Africa’s online fraudsters moved into sextortion It was a phone call that has become all too common for Childline counsellors in recent months. The 17-year-old boy said he was scared and did not know what to do. He had been contacted by a “girl” on social media claiming to be his own age and, after an exchange of messages, had sent her an intimate image. And then the blackmail demands started. Continue reading...