Sacha has an in depth analysis of the UK's recent announcements around social media websites and children's access to them.
I wanted to pull a few quotes:
The Internet Watch Foundation reported that child sexual extortion cases in the UK rose 72% in a single year — criminals tricking young people into sending nude images, then blackmailing them. In 97% of those cases, the victims are boys.
Sacha also spots this:
Buried in the coverage is the acknowledgement that all adults will need to verify their age if they want to take or view nude images on their own devices. [...] You’ll have to prove you’re an adult to own and use a phone.
On one hand, to own a phone requires (since the availability of mobile phones) proof of being an adult, because to get a contract of any sort you had to have a bank account. This obviously changes with "burner" phones (a £10 job from ASDA) and a PAYG sim.
On the other hand, who am I proving I'm an adult to - which walks a weird line of privacy invasion.
Quoted within Sacha's article is Signal's response, and exactly what I was thinking when I saw the announcement too: isn't this at odds with the UK wanting to take some kind of lead in international AI?
Child safety looks like well-funded education, robust social services, and meaningful guardrails on the very AI technologies and platforms the current government is eagerly courting.
An excellent post well worth the review, regardless of parent status, it's going to affect us all.
Source: newsletter.sachajudd.com