#online safety
10 stories taggedonline safety.
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.
Crime Gangs Are Running Bot-Powered Sextortion Factories. Young Men Are the Target.
Organised criminal networks are using AI-generated fake personas, automated accounts, and psychological pressure to extort young men out of thousands of dollars. South Australia alone lost $217,000 in a single year.
New Zealand to introduce social media ban for under-16s, putting enforcement burden on platforms
Legislation due this week would require major apps to verify users are old enough to hold an account, with a new regulator empowered to fine or block services that refuse to comply.
FBI warns criminals are hunting nude photos in hacked accounts
The bureau says attackers are breaking into social media and cloud accounts to steal intimate images, then using them for blackmail, resale on criminal sites, and follow-on sextortion attacks against victims and their families.
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.
US House passes kids' online safety bill, but critics say the cure may be worse than the disease
The KIDS Act cleared the House 267-117 on Monday. It demands new parental controls and bans targeted ads at children, but digital rights groups warn that age-verification rules could quietly strip privacy from every adult online too.
Victoria's Plan to Unmask Online Trolls Has a Cyber Safety Expert Unimpressed
The Allan government wants courts to strip anonymity from abusive social media users and make it easier for parents to sue tech firms. One expert says the tools to do this already exist.
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.
Fake Guardian Articles Are Tricking People Into Scam Investment Sites
Criminals are building convincing copies of trusted news websites, complete with fake celebrity stories, to push victims toward fraudulent trading platforms.
Nine in Ten Top Adult Sites Now Check Ages in Australia, But VPN Workarounds Are Next on the Regulator's List
Australia's online safety watchdog says most major adult platforms have put age gates in place since March. Now it wants to know whether a simple privacy tool is letting users walk straight around them.