Tag

#child safety

16 stories taggedchild safety.

Illustration: A glowing gaming controller resting on a wooden desk beside a small pair of child-sized headphones
Policy & Regulation

Australia Calls Out Steam, Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft Over Child Safety Failures

A new government report finds the four biggest gaming platforms leave children exposed to predators and harmful content, with Steam singled out for the weakest protections of all.

4 min read
A Windows settings panel showing privacy controls with age-band categories displayed as adjustable slider options, no personal identification data visible
Policy & Regulation

Windows 11 to Tell Apps If You're a Child or Adult, Without Sharing Your Birthday

Microsoft's new age-awareness APIs return age bands rather than exact dates, and pair with a verify-once system tied to your Microsoft account.

4 min read
A computer monitor showing gaming platform and chat application icons, parents' concerned faces in soft focus, subtle warning signs and predatory messaging patt
Threat Intelligence

The group called 764 is grooming children online. A mother explains what that really means.

A US sentencing this month put a spotlight on 764, a network of online predators who target minors through gaming and chat platforms. One mother's account makes clear this isn't a distant problem.

3 min read
A federal courthouse hallway with security barriers, extradition notice documents on a table, the severity of the setting conveyed through harsh institutional l
Threat Intelligence

Two Nigerian men extradited to US over sextortion scams linked to teen suicides

Adebola Festus Adekunle and Mudasiru Afeez Olawale face life sentences after a joint operation tied them to blackmail schemes that ended in the deaths of two American minors.

3 min read
Stacks of legal documents and settlement agreements on a desk with a gavel, courthouse interior blurred in background, symbolizing multi-state litigation and re
Policy & Regulation

Meta Faces Up to $18 Billion Settlement With 52 US States Over Teen Harm Claims

A bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general says Facebook and Instagram were built to hook children. Meta has agreed to pay to make the lawsuits go away.

4 min read
A teenager's bedroom with a phone on the desk next to a laptop, with notification badges visible on the screen, a backpack and school supplies in the frame
AI Security

AI 'Nudify' Apps Are a Back-to-School Threat. Here Is What Parents Need to Know.

Apps that strip clothing from photos using artificial intelligence are cheap, easy to find, and already reaching school-age children. Michelle DeLaune of NCMEC told CBS News that parents need a plan before the new term starts.

3 min read
A federal courthouse building exterior with steps leading to the entrance, American flag visible, on an overcast day
Threat Intelligence

Tennessee Man Gets 77 Years for Running Online Abuse Network Targeting Girls

A federal court sentenced Kyle Spitze, 27, to 77 years in prison for crimes tied to the 764 network, an online extremist group the FBI describes as a form of modern-day terrorism.

3 min read
A gaming platform interface on a computer screen showing profile settings and contact request notifications, with a concerned parent looking at the screen over
Policy & Regulation

Roblox Signs Legal Agreement with Australian Regulators After Adults Found Able to Contact Children Without Parental Consent

Australia's online safety watchdog found that adult accounts on Roblox could see children's profiles and send them connection requests, all without a parent ever knowing. Now Roblox has put its promises in writing.

3 min read
A federal courthouse with protest imagery of child protection advocates, representing litigation against Meta over addictive social media features and child saf
Policy & Regulation

Thirty US States Take Meta to Trial Over Child Safety, Seeking Up to $1 Trillion

A federal jury trial launched this week could force Facebook and Instagram to strip out some of their most addictive features, and cost Meta more money than most countries earn in a year.

4 min read
A smartphone screen displaying a distressing image notification with a 'report' button prominent, additional context showing age-appropriate warning indicators,
Policy & Regulation

UK Children Report Surge in Explicit Deepfake Images of Themselves

A service that helps young people remove intimate photos from the internet says digitally faked images are rising fast. Regulators warn AI tools are making the problem worse.

3 min read
A school's official website photo gallery on a computer screen, showing student and staff photos being extracted, with AI deepfake generation tools working in t
AI Security

Schools Are Handing Deepfake Criminals a Photo Album

Australia's eSafety regulator is warning schools to stop posting student and teacher photos online after a surge in AI-generated deepfakes built from official school feeds.

4 min read
A shadowy online forum interface showing 764 community spaces, recruitment messages targeting vulnerable youth, parents' faces showing concern in the background
Threat Intelligence

764: The Online Network Grooming Children Into Violence

The FBI has hundreds of open investigations into 764, a shadowy online community that manipulates children into harming themselves and others. Here is what parents need to know.

3 min read
Europol command center aesthetic with a world map showing nine countries highlighted, digital nodes representing 'The Com' network linked across the globe, raid
Policy & Regulation

Europol Pulls 4,340 Links Tied to 'The Com' Extortion Network

A nine-country push targets an online ecosystem that grooms minors, spreads violence manuals, and has been linked to ransomware attacks on Marks & Spencer and Las Vegas casinos.

4 min read
A smartphone screen showing social media and gaming platform interfaces with warning overlays about coercion risks, alongside concerned parent figures in soft f
Policy & Regulation

Child safety experts warn of global surge in 'sadistic online exploitation' of teenagers

Predators are using social media platforms and online games to coerce vulnerable children into producing sexual images and videos of themselves. The phenomenon is growing fast, and parents need to know what it looks like.

3 min read
A social media feed displayed on a smartphone screen with repeated identical sextortion message templates visible in direct messages, while security detection i
Policy & Regulation

Australia Logged 2,000 Sextortion Complaints in Six Months. Big Tech Still Isn't Scanning for the Scripts.

Australia's online safety watchdog says the same blackmail messages keep appearing across platforms, and most major tech companies still aren't using the detection tools that already exist.

3 min read
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