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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]