Kalakshar US

Pornhub will stop offering full access to new users in the UK on February 2, its parent company Aylo said Tuesday, citing the nation’s Online Safety Act and its age-verification requirements. The company said users who already verified their ages before the cutoff will still be able to access the adult site through existing accounts.

The move follows the Online Safety Act’s Protection of Children Codes, which took effect last summer and require adult sites to use “highly effective” methods of age verification. Aylo claims the system is backfiring and shifting both adults and minors to noncompliant porn sites that don’t verify age or moderate content according to Politico. Aylo’s lawyers argued that only device-based age verification methods sufficiently protect user data.

Alexzandra Kekesi, VP of Brand and Community at Aylo, said “anyone who has not gone through that process prior to February 2 will no longer be able to access [the sites] and they’re going to be met with a wall,” according to 404 Media. The adult site was similarly made unavailable in various US states after the passage of age-verification laws that Pornhub claimed put users’ privacy at risk. “These people did not stop looking for porn,” Aylo said at the time. “They just migrated to darker corners of the internet that don’t ask users to verify age, that don’t follow the law, that don’t take user safety seriously, and that often don’t even moderate content.”

Users who wish to get around these sorts of bans typically use VPNs to mask the origin of their internet traffic, though the UK is reportedly considering a ban on VPNs for children. The nation has also been considering a social media ban for users under 16 years of age, similar to the one enacted in Australia.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/pornhub-will-become-unavailable-for-many-uk-users-as-of-february-2-194622124.html?src=rss 

TikTok has reached a settlement in a closely-watched lawsuit over social media addiction, narrowly avoiding a trial that’s scheduled to begin jury selection Tuesday. Terms of the deal, which was reported by The New York Times, weren’t disclosed. 

TikTok’s settlement comes about one week after Snap reached a settlement in the same case. The trial is expected to move forward in Los Angeles with Meta and YouTube as the only defendants. Mark Lanier, a lawyer for the plaintiff, said in a statement to NYT that they were “pleased” with the settlement and that it was “a good resolution.” TikTok didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The trial stems from a 2023 lawsuit brought by a California woman known in court documents as “K.G.M.” She sued Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube and alleged that their platforms were addictive and had harmed her as a child. The judge in the case previously ordered the companies’ executives, including Mark Zuckerberg and Adam Mosseri, to testify. YouTube’s top exec, Neal Mohan, is also likely to testify, according to The New York Times. 

The lawsuit is the first among several high-profile cases against social media companies to go to trial this year. Meta is expected to head to court in New Mexico in early February in a case brought by the state’s attorney general, who has alleged that Facebook and Instagram have facilitated harm to children. TikTok and Snap are collectively facing more than a dozen other trials in California courts this year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/tiktok-settles-to-avoid-major-social-media-addiction-lawsuit-183943927.html?src=rss 

The French government is saying au revoir to Microsoft Teams and Zoom as it embraces a home-grown alternative. By next year, civil servants across all departments will have switched to French videoconference platform Visio, as EuroNews reports.

As with Teams and Zoom, Visio has an AI-powered transcription tool. Visio runs on a French company’s cloud infrastructure as well. The platform has around 40,000 users and it’s been in testing for the last year. The government expects the switch to help reduce costs by as much as €1 million ($1.2 million) each year for every 100,000 users.

The decision to ditch Microsoft Teams and Zoom is part of a broader effort to rely less on foreign software services — particularly US ones. Under the Suite Numérique project, France also plans to jettison the likes of Gmail and Slack for government use. 

“The aim is to end the use of non-European solutions and guarantee the security and confidentiality of public electronic communications by relying on a powerful and sovereign tool,” David Amiel, minister for the civil service and state reform, said. “This strategy highlights France’s commitment to digital sovereignty amid rising geopolitical tensions and fears of foreign surveillance or service disruptions.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/the-french-government-is-ditching-zoom-and-microsoft-teams-for-a-home-grown-alternative-184747010.html?src=rss 

A recent investigation by an online advocacy organization called the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) found that the Apple App Store and Google Play Store are rife with so-called “nudify” apps. These are AI applications that create nonconsensual and sexualized images, which is a clear violation of both companies’ store policies.

All told, the investigation found 55 of this type of app in the Google Play Store and 47 in the Apple App Store. Both platforms also still offer access to xAI’s Grok, which is likely the most famous nonconsensual deepfake maker in the world.

“Apple and Google are supposed to be vetting the apps in their stores. But they’ve been offering dozens of apps that can be used to show people with minimal or no clothing—making them ripe for abuse,” said Michelle Kuppersmith, an executive director at the nonprofit that runs TTP.

The apps identified by the report have been collectively downloaded over 700 million times and generated more than $117 million in revenue. Google and Apple get a cut of this money.

Many of the apps named in the investigation are rated as suitable for teens and children. DreamFace, for instance, is rated suitable for ages 13 and up in the Google Play Store and ages nine and up in the Apple App Store.

Both companies have responded to the investigation. Apple says it has removed 24 apps from its store, according to a report by CNBC. However, that falls shy of the 47 apps discovered by TTP researchers. A Google spokesperson has said the company suspended several apps referenced in the report for violating store policies, but declined to say how many apps it has removed.

This report comes after Elon Musk’s Grok was found to be generating sexualized images of both women and children. All told, the AI chatbot generated around three million sexualized images and 22,000 that involved children over a period of 11 days.

Representatives from the company haven’t really responded to these allegations, except to send an automated email to journalists that read “Legacy Media Lies.” Musk has also stated that he is “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero.”

X’s safety account did post that “anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.” Grok has proven to be more forthcoming than actual humans at the company, as the chatbot apologized for creating sexualized images of minors.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/apple-and-google-reportedly-still-offer-dozens-of-ai-nudify-apps-192712446.html?src=rss 

Meta’s WhatsApp just introduced something called Strict Account Settings, a tool “that further protects your account from highly sophisticated cyber attacks.” This is a one-click button in the settings that automatically initiates a series of defenses.

So what does it do? It blocks media and attachments from unknown senders, disables link previews and silences calls from unknown senders. This results in a more restrictive experience, but hopefully a safer one.

The company says this isn’t necessarily for regular users, as conversations are already protected by end-to-end encryption. Instead, this is being pitched as a tool for “journalists or public-facing figures” that “may need extreme safeguards against rare and highly sophisticated cyberattacks.”

Strict Account Settings will be rolling out globally in the coming weeks. Users will find the tool in the Privacy settings.

WhatsApp is just the latest tech platform to offer enhanced security tools for high-risk users. Apple introduced Lockdown Mode back in 2022 and Android introduced its Advanced Protection Mode last year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/whatsapp-introduces-an-advanced-security-mode-to-protect-against-hackers-174144598.html?src=rss 

Google AI Plus, the company’s most affordable AI subscription plan, is now rolling out in the US. It will cost you $8 a month for its features, though you can get it for $4 a month for the first two months for a limited time only. AI Plus gives you access to 200GB of storage, as well as access to the Gemini 3 Pro model, Deep Research and Nano Banana Pro inside the Gemini app. Nano Banana Pro generates images that look so realistic, they’re nearly indistinguishable from ordinary photos snapped on phones. Google even had to limit its usage due to high demand.

A subscription to AI Plus also expands your access to Google’s AI filmmaking tool Flow, its image-to-video creator tool Whisk and its research assistant tool NotebookLM. In addition to the US, the plan is now making its way to 34 more countries, making it available in all regions where Google is selling its AI services. In the US, the new option costs less than half of a $20 AI Pro subscription, which comes with 2TB of storage and access to more tools like code assist. Google’s most expensive AI plan, the AI Ultra, costs a whopping $250 a month and comes with 30TB of storage, along with all the AI tools the company can offer. Take note that if you’re paying for a Google One Premium 2TB subscription, you’ll also get all of AI Plus’ features over the next few days.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-ai-plus-is-now-available-in-the-us-for-8-a-month-180000175.html?src=rss