child safety
Latest
Proposed California bill would let parents block algorithmic social feeds for children
California will float a pair of bills designed to protect children from social media addiction and preserve their private data. SB 976 and AB 1949 were introduced Monday by the state’s Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Discord overhauls its mobile app with new tabs, messaging features and more
It also introduced a Midnight theme for a pure black background.
Indiana sues TikTok over alleged security and child safety issues
Indiana has sued TikTok for allegedly misleading users on China's data access and violating child safety.
Biden wants to ban advertising targeted toward kids
In his first State of the Union address, President Biden has asked Congress to implement new laws to increase child safety on social media platforms.
Google now lets users ask for images of minors to be removed from Search
Google has activated a safety feature that lets minors under 18 request that images of themselves be removed from search results.
Apple announces new iPhone features to detect child sex abuse
Apple has published a post that provides more details on its efforts related to child safety.
Facebook, Google and others adopt guidelines intended to fight child abuse
Today, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security -- along with government counterparts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom -- published guidelines to help the tech industry fight online child exploitation. The principles were developed "in consultation" with Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Roblox, Snap and Twitter, after all six companies agreed to tackling the online child sexual abuse epidemic.
New Mexico AG sues Google over alleged child privacy violations (updated)
Google is being sued by New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas. In a lawsuit filed Thursday, Balderas alleges that Google is violating COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) and New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act by collecting data on students who use Chromebooks through the G Suite for Education platform.
Microsoft releases a free tool to fight online child abuse
Microsoft has developed a new technique to detect and report predators who attempt to lure children online. Dubbed "Project Artemis," the technology will be made available for free to qualifying online service companies that offer a chat function.
Senators question whether Facebook is doing enough to protect kids’ privacy
Senators are questioning Facebook again. This time their concerns are related to a technical error that let thousands of kids join group chats with unauthorized users, The Verge reports. Senators Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote a letter to Mark Zuckerberg today, asking whether Facebook has done enough to protect children's online safety.
Facebook releases tools to flag harmful content on GitHub
Facebook wants to rid the internet of garbage. But it can't do that alone. So today, it's making two of its photo- and video-flagging technologies open-source and available on GitHub. It hopes the algorithms will help others find and remove harmful content -- like child exploitation, terrorist propaganda and graphic violence.
TikTok now faces a data privacy investigation in the UK, too
TikTok is under investigation in the UK for how it handles the safety and privacy of young users. UK Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that the popular short-form video app potentially violated GDPR rules that state that technology companies must have different rules and protections for children, reported The Guardian. The UK began its probe on TikTok back in February, shortly after the FTC fined the app for child privacy violations.
GDC: Making games to prevent violence against children
The highlight of yesterday's GDC Serious Game Summit panels focused on an appropriately consequential topic: How games can help protect children from the commonplace dangers they face from predators, both online and off. The panel was led by Child Safety Research and Innovation Center president Allan McCullough -- a man who's strived to develop games which teach young people how to identify and avoid dangerous situations. The two Flash-based games which represent the fruits of McCullough's two decades of labor look deceptively simple on the surface. They are, after all, hand-illustrated, poorly animated educational games geared towards children, with budgets too small to allow the hiring of professional voice actors and experienced gaming professionals. However, beneath the crude surface of these games lie clever methods of imparting crucial information to their young players which could ostensibly help them avoid encounters with people who mean them harm.
Video: Dorel Air Protect keeps your blow-up children safe
It might look like your run-of-the-mill car seat, but Dorel's Air Protect comes with an extra dose of parental paranoia, or as they call it, side impact protection. Sure, you could protect your child by not driving like a reckless maniac, but where's the techno-loving fun in that? You're far better off strapping junior into a pre-inflated airbag, while disregarding the fact your giant SUV is killing the world he is supposed to grow, live and love in. Now that we've guilt-tripped you into recycling your soda cans, how about a self-serving video of the crash test after the break?
Gamer Interrupted: Making MMOs safe for your children
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Gamer Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with MMOs.I have a lot of hopes for my two year old daughter. I hope that she will be more athletic than I am (which, frankly, won't be that hard). I hope that she will continue to be sociable and friendly and not the introvert that I was. And I hope that she will play video games with me because, well, it will be nice to have something in common with her if my other hopes come true.Of course, I also have a lot of fears for her. There are a whole lot of scary people out there who have internet access. But, even if this were a crime-free world, there are still topics and language that I would prefer that she not be exposed to until she's mature enough to be able to handle them. And there is a lot to be said for letting our children keep their innocence for as long as possible. Not that I want to coddle her too much or keep her in a bubble, but she doesn't need to be reading R rated guildchat, either.I really do believe that there are a lot of benefits for children playing MMOs with their parents and that there are also benefits from allowing them to play MMOs solo. The problem is that there are also a lot of dangers. I'm talking here about children who can read but are not yet teenagers. Teens are a whole separate issue. I can't wait for those years (sarcasm intended).
Wii Warm Up: and now, sensationalism
Today's Warm Up topic is one of those things you just know is going to snowball (like the wrist straps) and be the next silly mainstream spaz session we'll be unlucky enough to see on Fox News. It seems that the outcry against the Wii as a gateway into the seedy world of internet pornography has begun.Here's the deal: a few adult-oriented sites have decided to optimize areas for the Wii browser, in the same way we saw Finetune offer Wii-friendly content. But there are some people who freak out any time adult content is made more accessible, because they invariably add the phrase "for children." And this week, it's a news station in Texas that's making a fuss about the potential damage to the children ... because, after all, video games are only for kids, right?Adults -- that's right, people over the age of 18 -- are an enormous slice of the gamer pie, and yet we are consistently ignored any time someone brings up game or console content. No one talks about the adults, who have every right to play whatever they want ... just like no one talks about measures like parental controls, or hey, good ol' fashioned supervision. We're gonna guess that you probably don't think of the Wii as a devil machine, or you wouldn't be here, but we are curious about your take on this whole situation.
