Illegal trade in AI child sex abuse images exposed
- The BBC has found that paedophiles are using AI technology to create and sell life-like child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
- The images being created include the rape of babies and toddlers.
- Some are accessing the images through paying for subscriptions to accounts on mainstream content-sharing sites like Patreon.
- Patreon has said it had a “zero tolerance” policy about such imagery on its platform.
- The makers of the abusive images are using AI software Stable Diffusion, initially created for use in art or graphic design.
- The software allows the user to use words to describe the image they want created and the AI generates it based on their description.
- UK police online child abuse investigation teams say that they are already encountering content such as this and this sort of imagery is treated the same way as a real image, so it is illegal to possess, publish or transfer in the UK.
- For more, please visit the BBC News website.
Apple joins opposition to Online Safety Bill’s encrypted message app scanning
- Apple has criticised powers in the Online Safety Bill that could be used to force encrypted messaging services to scan messages for child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
- 80 organisations and tech experts have written to Technology Minister Chloe Smith to rethink on the powers.
- Apple told the BBC that the bill should be amended to protect encryption.
- End-to-end encryption (E2EE) stops anyone but the sender and recipient from reading any messages.
- The Government states E2EE should only be used if they can “simultaneously prevent abhorrent child sexual abuse on their platforms”.
- For more, please visit the BBC News website.
Telegram to launch its own version of stories
- Telegram’s CEO announced on his channel that the platform is launching its own version of Stories, much like Instagram and Facebook.
- Telegram’s version of the feature includes granular privacy controls, and the ability to set when the Story will expire or leave it permanently available.
- The feature will also allow users the ability to repost channel messages to stories.
- Stories will make Telegram profiles more informative, colourful and channels will get more exposure.
- Telegram Stories are in the last stage of testing and will become available in early July.
- Check out our Telegram Shareable for more information.
- For more, please visit the Mashable website.
Police ‘appeared to ignore rules’ in strip searches on young people
- A review carried out by the Policing Board’s human rights advisor said that it was difficult to assess if any strip searches carried out on young people were lawful due to an absence of records.
- Of 27 searches carried out in 2022, 23 were boys and most were aged 16 or 17.
- The age of the youngest person searched was 14.
- The report stated that prohibited items, mainly drugs and a weapon were only found on two occasions.
- Appropriate adults were only present in six of the 27 searches.
- The PSNI said its procedure had improved but “there is still work to do”.
- For more, please visit the BBC News website.
