Outcry as Meta lets users make AI images from public Instagram profile pics Source: BBC News

 

 

BBC News report describes complaints aimed at Meta over its new AI tool Muse Image. There are a number of tools that can create images from simple sentences but Muse can generate pictures using other people's profile pictures without telling them.

While Meta says users can opt out of their image being used even with a public account, Donald Campbell, advocacy director at tech justice non-profit Foxglove told the BBC it was an "obvious recipe for disaster".

"We've already seen a catalogue of harms from non-consensual AI-altered images on social platforms just in the past year," he added.

Read the full story here. 

Social media on trial: Four important cases to watch Source: BBC news

 

 
This BBC report provides a useful insight into the four major court cases currently taking place within a landscape which include, companies like Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, Google, owner of Youtube, and Snapchat, along with relatively newer platforms like TikTok, Discord and social gaming platform Roblox, are facing thousands of lawsuits in the US over claims that they have instead harmed users, children in particular.

The cases include one in California which includes allegations from more than 1,000 school districts across the US. The schools accuse Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok of being intentionally designed to be addictive, which has allegedly harmed children mentally and emotionally through their excessive use of platforms. 

A second case also in California, is focussed on Meta and Instagram. The complainants demand that Meta better prevent users under 13 years old from using its platforms and remove data it has previously collected from underage users, along with a host of other changes.

The third, against Roblox and Discord, was brought by a 13 year old boy who claims that he had been groomed and solicited by an individual who was arrested for his crimes which affected more that 24 children.  

Finally not about children, is a case brought by an Australian billionaire who sued Meta over the company's alleged failure to combat scam advertisements tricking Australians into fake investments that allegedly proliferated on Facebook using his name and likeness.

 For as long time these companies , and others have considered children to their future subscribers and have tried every trick to draw them in and keep them as apart of their user-base. The reason is that these new users become adults whose data has value.

There will be more of these cases in the coming years as governments try to find ways to keep children, and others, safe online.

To read the full article here. 

 

 

 

WhatsApp launches totally private 'incognito' conversations with its AI chatbot Source: BBC News

 One way of dealing with individuals and law enforcement asking for access to online communications as part of an investigation is to make access to that information impossible. This is what Meta have done regarding communications within Whatsapp. 

Incognito mode is set to off by default but when switched on all interactions with their AI chat bot vanish once the session is concluded and they cannot be reviewed or recovered. In incognito mode noone will be able to view or review the interactions.

Meta do offer a Parental Control option for Whatsapp so parents will need to switch that on in order help. monitor Whatsapp activity.

Configuring individual apps is time consuming but the monitoring tools we have reviewed do provide an efficient way to manage their child's screen time, app activity and location, some provide monitoring of communications. 

Read the fully story here. 

 

 

Meta and YouTube designed addictive products that harmed young people, jury finds Source: The Guardian

 

 

A significant outcome of the US trial of Meta brought by an unnamed plaintiff using the nom de plume of KGM. KGM's claim was that she had became addicted to YouTube at age six and Instagram at nine, which she said had deleterious effects on her wellbeing. By age 10, she said, she had become depressed and was engaging in self-harm as a result. Her social media use allegedly caused her to have strained relationships with her family and in school. When she was 13, KGM’s therapist diagnosed her with body dysmorphic disorder and social phobia, which KGM attributes to her use of Instagram and YouTube.

Meta and YouTube have been found liable for deliberately designing addictive products that hooked the young user and led to her being harmed, a jury ruled on Wednesday. Jurors found the tech companies to be both negligent and having failed to provide adequate warnings about the potential dangers of their products.

The jury awarded the plaintiff in the case compensatory damages of $3m, with Meta to pay 70% and YouTube the remainder. Deliberations over punitive damages, also awarded, will begin later on Wednesday.

 Read the full story here. 

Children being 'failed by tech companies' amid rise in online sex abuse images Source: ITVX

 

Efforts to protect children from some of the worst aspects of online abuse and dangerous online content has made some progress through legislation passed by the UK government last year.  

Even so, reports continue to appear about the continued rise on child sex abuse image crimes logged by police forces in the UK. Such reports have risen by nearly 10% in the past year, the children's charity NSPCC has said.

The NSPCC said that of the 10,811 crimes where police forces recorded which social media platforms perpetrators used in relation to child sex abuse image crimes, 43%, or a total of 4,615, took place on Snapchat.

Meanwhile, Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp accounted for almost a quarter of all offences (24%), the charity said. 

In other reports is is clear that the restrictions on access to video pornography, through such approaches as age verification  are still not totally effective. Many of the lesser known porography sites have not implimented age verification and these are not being blocked by  service providers.

Read the full story here.