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YouTube shuts down comments on videos with young kids
YouTube is taking far-reaching actions to prevent a repeat of the pedophilic comments that plagued videos on the service. It has disabled comments on "tens of millions" of clips with young children in them over the past week, and plans a "broadening" of this action in the months ahead for both videos with young kids as well as those with older kids that "could be at risk of attracting predatory behavior."
British cave diver sues Elon Musk over 'pedo guy' comments
Recently, Elon Musk doubled down on his claim that the British cave diver who helped rescue children trapped in a Thai cave was a pedophile, going so far as to tell BuzzFeed News, "I hope he fucking sues me." Well, it looks like Musk got his wish as Vernon Unsworth has filed a defamation suit against the Tesla CEO in a Los Angeles federal court. "Elon Musk falsely accused Vern Unsworth of being guilty of heinous crimes," Unsworth's lawyer said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. "Musk's influence and wealth cannot convert his lies into truth or protect him from accountability for his wrongdoing in a court of law."
Google offers AI toolkit to report child sex abuse images
Numerous organizations have taken on the noble task of reporting pedophilic images, but it's both technically difficult and emotionally challenging to review vast amounts of the horrific content. Google is promising to make this process easier. It's launching an AI toolkit that helps organizations review vast amounts of child sex abuse material both quickly and while minimizing the need for human inspections. Deep neural networks scan images for abusive content and prioritize the most likely candidates for review. This promises to both dramatically increase the number of responses (700 percent more than before) and reduce the number of people who have to look at the imagery.
YouTube pulled 150,000 videos of children over predatory comments
YouTube is taking extensive action after word broke that pedophiles were targeting videos of children with vile comments. The streaming service reported that it had taken down over 150,000 videos that had fallen prey to comment abuse, and had disabled comments for more than 625,000 clips. It also terminated the accounts of several hundred users behind those comments. You can read its full statement on the subject below.
Companies pull ads from YouTube over comments in child videos
YouTube is once again facing an advertiser fallout. HP, candy giant Mars and other big-name brands are pulling their ads from the streaming site after BuzzFeed and Times stories revealed that their ads were running alongside videos of children that were either clearly exploitative or innocent and loaded with pedophilic comments. In multiple cases (such Mars, Smirnoff's owner Diageo and German retailer Lidl), the companies have vowed not to come back until there are "appropriate safeguards."
FBI Dark Web hacks were a part of a global child porn bust
That FBI hacking initiative that caught 1,500 pedophiles on the Dark Web? It was just the tip of the iceberg. Motherboard has discovered that the operation was just one part of Operation Pacifier, a global campaign to fight child porn hidden through anonymity networks like Tor. The effort had the FBI hacking systems as far afield as Chile, Denmark and Greece -- there are also hints of possible operations in Colombia and Turkey. The US agency wasn't working alone, either, as it teamed up with Europol to collect information and pass it along to local law enforcement.
Negobot: a virtual chat agent engineered to trap pedophiles
Online chat agents are far from novel, but they're evidently getting a lot more sophisticated with age. In a bid to trap pedophiles, engineers at the University of Deusto have concocted Negobot. Essentially, the tool employs game theory in order to meticulously extract vital identification nuggets from a suspected abuser. In order to disguise itself from being a digital representation of a child, it actually employs seven different conversational agents, with each having its own way of behaving. In use, the program begins with a neutral stance that it can maintain indefinitely, and if the subject shows interest, it can elevate its approach in an attempt to get said subject to give himself / herself up. Developers are still working on language and linguistic abilities, but we wouldn't be shocked if it ends up being put to use by certain agencies in the very near future.
Habbo accused of harboring predators, CEO fights back
Habbo, a popular children's virtual world, is under fire today by UK's Channel 4 News. The station aired a special report suggesting that the social network as a haven for pedophiles and child predators and promising to expose "the extent of sexually explicit material on the social network." Habbo (formerly Habbo Hotel) is shedding investors with the news; Habbo's parent company Sulake lost its second largest shareholder, Balderton Capital. The former shareholder released a statement saying, "We were given some information a week ago that profoundly shocked us. We had to ask ourselves whether we were comfortable being investors in a business where children were not being adequately protected." Habbo CEO Paul LaFontaine fought back against the accusations by saying that Habbo is "one of the safest online communities" and has a large team of moderators that tracks the millions of messages sent between the network's users "To keep users safe, we filter content and block inappropriate users," LaFontaine said. "We work with child safety organisations and local police forces to address inappropriate behaviour. Habbo's leading safety systems were recognised as making the service one of the safest social networks in a 2011 European Commission report."
Hawaii's online tracking law is all but dead, lead sponsor confirms
The Hawaii state legislature has apparently pulled an about face on a proposed internet tracking bill, amid swelling concerns from civil libertarians and internet service providers alike. First introduced last week, the controversial measure calls for all ISPs to track and record a user's online activity and identity within individual digital dossiers. The law's supporters trumpeted it as a vital step in protecting "victims of crime," but its momentum has all but come to a halt, now that its lead champion has proclaimed its death. In a recent interview with CNET, Democratic Representative John Mizuno (pictured left) confirmed that his bill has been shelved, attributing the decision to the avalanche of critical feedback he's received (see the coverage links, below). "It's generated a lot of national attention," Mizuno explained. "I've taken into consideration the thousands of e-mails (which were often) colorful and passionate, which is absolutely fine... This bill just isn't ready. It needs a lot of work." Unfortunately, this doesn't mean spell an outright death for the law, as Mizuno still believes that keeping a record of browsing history could help authorities hunt down pedophiles and other evil doers. "I think both would be very strong pieces of evidence if there's going to be a criminal proceeding," he argued. Despite our own fundamental misgivings with Mizuno's approach, it's still encouraging to see politicians respond to public outcry so swiftly and, as with the SOPA debacle, appropriately.
Suspected pedophile targets Texas girl using PS3 and camera
Texas ABC affiliate ABC-13 is reporting that a 24-year-old Kentucky man, named Anthony Scott O'Shea, was using his PlayStation 3 to request nude self-pictures from an 11-year-old Texas girl. According to police, Mr. O'Shea did not own a computer and was solely employing his PS3 and the PlayStation Network to speak with the girl. When she refused to take them, he supposedly threatened to remove her from his friends list, saying, "Friends do things for each other. You're on my friends list. If you don't, I'm gonna remove you." Using a camera attached to her PS3, the Texas girl then sent Mr. O'Shea the pictures which, according to police, Mr. O'Shea distributed through email "across the country." Parents of the 11-year-old girl notified authorities immediately when they found out about the actions, but apparently their daughter remained steadfast in her opinion of Mr. O'Shea, asking police, "Why is my friend going to jail?" Mr. O'Shea is being charged with: Sexual performance of a child Online solicitation of a minor Promotion of child pornography Those sound like three pretty good reasons right there. According to GamePolitics, Sony provided technical assistance to the Texas police in helping to track down O'Shea.[Thanks, Gian S.!]
