LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok is facing a backlash from governments around the world after a recent surge in sexualized images of women and children generated without consent by the artificial intelligence-powered tool. On Tuesday, Britain’s top technology official demanded that Musk’s social media platform X take urgent action while a Polish […]

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcomed a world-first social media ban for children younger than 16 that took effect Wednesday as families taking back power from tech giants but warned the implementation would be difficult. Many children posted farewell messages, while parents reported distraught children discovering they’d been shut out of […]

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts’ highest court heard oral arguments Friday in the state’s lawsuit arguing that Meta designed features on Facebook and Instagram to make them addictive to young users. The lawsuit, filed in 2024 by Attorney General Andrea Campbell, alleges that Meta did this to make a profit and that its actions affected hundreds […]

The dangers children face online constitute a national emergency, a coalition of child advocates and medical organizations said Thursday as they called for the federal government to take action. “Unlike every other industry that affects children, from cars to pharmaceuticals to toys to food safety, the tech industry has been allowed to self-regulate with tragic […]

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Australian government has begun a public education campaign with tips on how to wean children off social media ahead of a world-first national 16-year age limit taking effect in December. Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said Friday that information on her agency’s website, esafety.gov.au, explained the new laws and […]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday vetoed landmark legislation that would have restricted children’s access to AI chatbots. The bill would have banned companies from making AI chatbots available to anyone under 18 years old unless the businesses could ensure the technology couldn’t engage in sexual conversations or encourage self-harm. “While […]

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky’s attorney general claimed Tuesday that the online gaming platform Roblox has become a “playground for predators” as he announced a lawsuit accusing the company of lax child safety measures. The Kentucky suit, filed by his office Monday in a state court, is the latest action alleging that the wildly popular […]

LONDON (AP) — OpenAI said Monday it’s adding parental controls to ChatGPT that are designed to provide teen users of the popular platform with a safer and more “age-appropriate” experience. The company is taking action after AI chatbot safety for young users has hit the headlines. The technology’s dangers have been recently highlighted by a […]

Despite years of congressional hearings, lawsuits, academic research, whistleblowers and testimony from parents and teenagers about the dangers of Instagram, Meta’s wildly popular app has failed to protect children from harm, with “woefully ineffective” safety measures, according to a new report from former employee and whistleblower Arturo Bejar and four nonprofit groups. Meta’s efforts at […]

Federal and provincial privacy authorities say TikTok’s efforts to keep children off the platform and prevent the collection and use of their sensitive personal information were “inadequate.” The privacy watchdogs released the results of their joint investigation into TikTok today. They say that while the platform isn’t meant for kids under 13, they found hundreds […]

Roblox, the online gaming platform wildly popular with children and teenagers, is rolling out an open-source version of an artificial intelligence system it says can help preemptively detect predatory language in game chats. The move comes as the company faces lawsuits and criticism accusing it of not doing enough to protect children from predators. For […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a Texas law aimed at blocking children from seeing online pornography. Nearly half of the states have passed similar laws requiring adult website users to verify their ages to access pornographic material. The laws come as smartphones and other devices make it easier to access online […]