Apple to scan children's iPhones for nudity with controversial new safety feature

dailystar.co.uk:

Apple has begun to roll out a new safety feature in the UK which scans children's messages for harmful content.Using AI, iPhones will check for images containing nudity and issue kids with warnings about sending or receiving the messages.The 'expanded protections for children' feature, which must be enabled manually, processes all the data on device and doesn't upload any pictures or warnings to Apple.

If the feature is activated and a potentially harmful image is sent or received, users will get a popup warning them that the "photo could be sensitive" and ask them to confirm whether they want to see it.The warnings also remind users that "naked photos and videos can be used to hurt you" while blurring the image.

They can then choose to keep the image blurred or "message a grown-up" about what they have been sent. The warnings also remind children "it's your choice, but make sure you feel safe".Apple insists that parents or responsible adults will not be notified without a child's consent.The feature will be arriving in the UK as an update for iPhone and iPad in the next few weeks.The new safety tool was originally announced alongside an even more controversial feature which would use AI to scan almost all adults' iPhones for child pornography.Apple said its AI would check image uploads to iCloud against the US' National Center for Missing and Exploited Children database.However, whistleblower Edward Snowden, who in 2013 leaked documents about the US government spying on its own citizens, warned that the features would ultimately be used to spy on users around the world.Snowden said: "If Apple demonstrates the capability and willingness to continuously, remotely search every phone for evidence of one particular type of.