Zuckerberg ‘ignored Clegg’ over child safety concerns, robot crushes man to death
Mark Zuckerberg ignored private pleas from Sir Nick Clegg to boost spending on child safety, a lawsuit has alleged, even as the former deputy prime minister publicly defended Facebook and Instagram over accusations that social media was harming teenage girls. The former Liberal Democrat leader, who is now the president of global affairs at Facebook owner Meta, called for “additional investment to strengthen our position on wellbeing” in emails, disclosed in legal filings, over the summer of 2021. The lawsuit, seen by The Telegraph and filed by the state of Massachusetts, claims the request was “ignored for months”. Telegraph
Social media platforms should fight online grooming by not suggesting children as “friends” by default, the communications watchdog says. The warning is contained in Ofcom’s first guidance for tech platforms on complying with the Online Safety Act. This covers how they should tackle illegal content, including child abuse online. Ofcom revealed figures suggesting that over one in ten 11-18 year olds have been sent naked or semi-naked images. This first draft code of practice published by Ofcom in its role enforcing the Online Safety Act covers activity such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM), grooming and fraud. BBC
Omegle, a popular website used to video chat with strangers, is shutting down after almost 15 years. The closure comes amid increasing criticism that the site endangered its users, with reports of child sexual abuse and other crime on the platform. Omegle allowed users to sign up and then be launched into a video chat with another stranger using the site. The two could chat for as long as they wished – until they ended that conversation and embarked on a new one.
A robot crushed a man to death in South Korea after the machine apparently failed to differentiate him from the boxes of produce it was handling, the Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday. The man, a robotics company worker in his 40s, was inspecting the robot’s sensor operations at a distribution centre for agricultural produce in South Gyeongsang province. The industrial robot, which was lifting boxes filled with bell peppers and placing them on a pallet, appears to have malfunctioned and identified the man as a box, Yonhap reported, citing the police. The Guardian
As much as I love my HomePods and HomePods mini, one thing I don’t love is the often long delay between me talking to Siri and Siri responding, if Siri responds at all. So I’m doing a happy dance around my smart home today because it looks like Apple has finally fixed the problem. According to Apple, the new update “addresses an issue where some HomePod speakers could respond slowly or fail to complete requests.” The fix has been released alongside iOS 17.1.1, with HomePod software of the same version number. This is the second HomePods software update in the last month or so, and from my point of view it’s the most welcome. T3.com
A spike in demand for used EVs has been reported by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, which says the number of pre-owned battery electric vehicles (BEVs) changing hands doubled in the third quarter of this year. A rise of 99.9 per cent in used EV sales mean battery-electric cars have now reached a record 1.8-per cent share of the second-hand market, in part thanks to prices that have fallen due to the increasing availability of company-owned electric cars being ‘de-fleeted’. AutoExpress
