The tools would be part of a wider set of proposals Ofcom is putting together focused on online child safety.
Consultations for the comprehensive proposals will start in the coming weeks with the AI consultation coming later this year, Ofcom said.
AI researchers are finding ever-more sophisticated ways of using AI to detect, for example, deep fakes, as well as to verify users online.
It found that 32% of the kids reported that they’d seen worrying content online, but only 20% of their parents said they reported anything.
Among children aged 16-17, Ofcom said, 25% said they were not confident about distinguishing fake from real online.
By default, children will be able to read, but not write, comments under both of these content settings modes.
(This option is generally the first step into the main YouTube experience, after using the dedicated YouTube Kids app as a younger child.)
Parents can view and change their child’s settings from the parent settings on YouTube or via Google’s Family Link parental controls app, YouTube notes.
More recently, however, the Kids Online Safety Act has gained steam, demanding more robust parental controls from platform makers.
After launching parental controls in 2021, YouTube rolled out a handful of product updates to make YouTube safer for teens in November 2023.
Kids’ clothing and gear is more expensive than ever.
Kidsy has a sustainable solution for discountsAll parents know that raising kids is expensive.
Enter Kidsy, a new Chicago-based e-commerce startup which aims to give consumers greater access to discounted baby and kids products by partnering with large brands, retailers and liquidation companies for their overstock and returns inventory.
At the same time, it says, it can help prevent overstock and liquidation items – such as kids’ clothing – from ending up in landfills, which is obviously not good for the environment.
Kids’ clothing: A massive marketTandon’s road to founding Kidsy started when she founded her own media production company after working as a journalist for Bloomberg TV and ABC News.
Wonderschool, a startup that provides software and support to help individuals and local governments spin up childcare businesses, has acquired EarlyDay, which operates an early childhood educator marketplace.
TechCrunch has covered Wonderschool since its infancy, including both of its seed rounds and its Series A (led by Andreessen Horowitz).
Back in early 2022, Wonderschool raised a $25 million Series B at a $165 million post-money valuation, according to Crunchbase data.
Indeed, a quick search for “childcare crisis” will show you just how worried parents of young kids are and how strapped they are for affordable options.
If the Wonderschool-EarlyDay deal works out, we could see an increase in the supply of childcare services.
“Thoras essentially integrates alongside a cloud-based service and it consistently monitors the usage of that service,” company CEO Nilo Rahmani told TechCrunch.
They launched the company right after the first of the year and closed their pre-seed funding just a few weeks ago.
In terms of AI, the company currently uses more task-based machine learning than generative AI and large language models (LLMs).
“A lot of the problems that we’re facing are systemic issues, and there are a lot of numbers involved.
They see LLMs being more useful in troubleshooting after the fact at some point as they fill out the product.
In a world where healthcare access is disproportionately skewed by geography and income, Forta Health raised a substantial round of funding to level the playing field a bit.
Forta defends its approach, saying it differs in some substantial ways from the ABA approaches from the bad old days.
Those are now very passé,” explains Christian Smith, co-founder and CMO at Forta Health, in an interview with TechCrunch.
Forta Health wants to ensure that those parents have professional support and training to be able to give higher-quality care.
Forta Health is exploring how to enhance family caregiving with technology, especially for chronic conditions and areas where the health system falls short.
The state of Iowa is suing TikTok, alleging that the social media company misleads parents about the kinds of content available to young users.
The lawsuit from Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird accuses TikTok of hosting “sexual content, drugs, alcohol, intense profanity, self-harm messages, and other X-rated content,” making videos that aren’t age appropriate easily accessible for children and teens in the state.
“TikTok represents to Iowa parents and Iowa children that inappropriate content on its platform, including drugs, nudity, alcohol, and profanity, is ‘infrequent,'” the lawsuit states, slamming those claims as “lies.”The state specifically takes issue with TikTok’s age rating in app marketplaces.
Providing age ratings for social apps that surface endless waves of niche algorithmic user-generated content has always been more of an art than a science, but Iowa argues that TikTok intentionally misrepresents itself to parents.
Iowa is the latest state to sue the app over concerns around the content it serves to underage users, joining Indiana, Arkansas and Utah.
Snapchat is introducing new parental controls that will allow parents to restrict their teens from interacting with the app’s AI chatbot.
The changes will also allow parents to view their teens’ privacy settings, and get easier access to Family Center, which is the app’s dedicated place for parental controls.
Parents can now restrict My AI, Snapchat’s AI-powered chatbot, from responding to chats from their teen.
As for parents who may be unaware about the app’s parental controls, Snapchat is making Family Center easier to find.
Parents can now find Family Center right from their profile, or by heading to their settings.
Finding the right products for babies can be tricky. Many of the products out there are designed for older kids or adults, and aren’t necessarily suited for new arrivals. Plus,…
