Child safety

Child safety


One Tech Tip: OpenAI adds parental controls to ChatGPT for teen safety

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 […]

Read More


Instagram’s ‘deliberate design choices’ make it unsafe for teens despite Meta promises, report says

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 […]

Read More


Privacy watchdogs say TikTok’s efforts to protect kids were ‘inadequate’

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 […]

Read More


Roblox rolls out open-source AI system to protect kids from predators in chats

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 […]

Read More


Supreme Court upholds Texas law aimed at blocking kids from seeing pornography online

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 […]

Read More


What to know about online age verification laws

The Supreme Court has upheld a Texas law aimed at blocking children under 18 from seeing online pornography by requiring websites to verify the ages of all visitors. Many states have passed similar age verification laws in an attempt to restrict access to adult material from minors, but digital rights groups have raised questions about […]

Read More


Spotty attendance for measles at Norfolk elementary school

Measles continues to be an unwelcome visitor to schools in Norfolk County, causing kids to miss class as the school year enters the home stretch. Staff  and students at Houghton Public School — a rural elementary school in  southwestern Norfolk — were potentially exposed to measles on two  separate occasions in May, with each exposure […]

Read More


Police arrest man accused of approaching children, committing ‘indecent act’ at park

A 35-year-old Toronto man is facing charges after allegedly approaching children at a park, making physical contact and asking them for their names and other personal information before committing an indecent act.  City police say they were called shortly after noon on Friday to Earlscourt Park in the St. Clair Avenue and Caledonia Road area, […]

Read More


European Union investigates four major porn sites under bloc’s digital rules on child protection

LONDON (AP) — European Union regulators said Tuesday they’re investigating four major porn websites over suspicions that they’ve breached the bloc’s online content rules that include provisions for protecting children from pornographic material. The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, said it has opened formal proceedings against Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos under the 27-nation […]

Read More


Illinois governor is first in US to block federal access to personal data on autism

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has signed a first-in-the-nation executive order to block the federal government from collecting personal health data related to autism, a direct rebuke to the Trump administration. Democrat Pritzker, who has been one of the more vocal critics of Trump’s second administration, signed the order last week, saying […]

Read More


A 5-year-old was murdered by her father. Her fateful custody hearing will be made public

The public has a right to hear audio recordings from the custody hearing of Harmony Montgomery, a 5-year-old New Hampshire girl who was murdered by her father and vanished in 2019 after being placed in his care, the highest court in Massachusetts ruled Wednesday. The father, Adam Montgomery, was found guilty in her death last […]

Read More


Pope’s child protection board urges transparency from Vatican sex abuse office and compensation

Pope Francis’ child protection board called Tuesday for victims of clergy sexual abuse to have greater access to information about their cases and the right to compensation, in the first-ever global assessment of the Catholic Church’s efforts to address the crisis. The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors issued a series of findings and […]

Read More