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Roblox is again updating its parental control features in an effort to give parents more visibility into (and control over) their children’s activities on the platform. The company is updating its in-app “Safety Center” to counter concerns that Roblox, which unlike social media apps allows children under 13, puts its youngest users at risk.

The company added the centralized hub for parental controls last year, in an update that also added new restrictions on younger kids’ ability to exchange private messages with other users. But while that update gave parents the ability to control some of their children’s settings from their own devices, it was missing some key features like blocking.

With the latest update, parents can now view their child’s friend list and block users on their behalf. Once another user has been blocked, they’ll no longer be able to exchange direct messages with the child and kids will need to get parental approval to unblock the person.

Similarly, parents will now be able to block specific experiences within Roblox. Parents have already had the ability to limit in-app content based on its age rating, but parents have still at times complained about inappropriate content surfacing in certain games. Now, parents can block their young kids from participating in certain experiences. (Importantly, Roblox notes that kids will be able to remove apps from the blocked experiences list once they turn 13.)

Finally, Roblox is adding more “granular insights” to the in-app screen time metrics that allow parents to see how their kids are spending their time on the platform. The Safety Center will now list “the 20 experiences in which their child has spent the‬ most time over the last week, sorted by total time.” Parents can then opt to block specific games or experiences directly from the screen time menu if something seems off.

Roblox’s recent push to beef up safety features for younger users come amid a broader reckoning about the effect that online platforms can have on teens. Platforms have tried to address these concerns by enhancing parental controls and dedicated safety features for teens. But lawmakers are also pushing for change, with multiple states passing measures requiring some form of age verification (some of which have since been struck down). There’s also a bipartisan bill in the Senate to ban all preteens from social media entirely.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/roblox-parental-controls-now-include-a-block-button-120005897.html?src=rss 

Samsung is releasing two Fan Edition models of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10, and they’re both more affordable than their standard counterparts. The Galaxy Tab S10 FE and the Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ are powered by the Samsung Exynos 1580 chipset instead of MediaTek processors like the standard versions. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ model has a 13.1-inch display, which is bigger than the Tab S10+’s 12.4-inch screen but smaller than the 14.6-inch one on the Tab S10 Ultra. Take note that both models have a refresh rate of up to 90Hz, which is lower than the standard versions’ 120 Hz refresh rate. 

That means the standard Tab S10 models are still the better options if gaming is your primary use for a tablet. But again, the new Fan Editions cost substantially less than they do. The Galaxy Tab S10 FE’s prices start at $500, and it comes with 128GB and 256GB storage options. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ will cost you at least $650 and come with the same storage options. The standard Galaxy Tab S10’s prices start $999, while the Tab S10 Ultra will cost you at least $1,200. 

Like the the standard models, the Fan Edition versions come with AI capabilities, including Circle to Search with Google that makes it easy to look for information simply by encircling elements on your device. Their Samsung Note app also features Math Solver, which can do calculations based on handwriting and text, as well as Handwriting Assist, which can help you tidy up handwritten notes. Both Fan Edition devices will be available in the US starting on April 10. You’ll get a $50 credit if you reserve a unit now, and you can buy a Book Cover Keyboard Slim for 50 percent off if you purchase one by May 11. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/samsungs-galaxy-tab-s10-fe-and-galaxy-tab-s10-fe-will-be-available-on-april-10-120019555.html?src=rss 

Wikimedia has seen a 50 percent increase in bandwidth used for downloading multimedia content since January 2024, the foundation said in an update. But it’s not because human readers have suddenly developed a voracious appetite for consuming Wikipedia articles and for watching videos or downloading files from Wikimedia Commons. No, the spike in usage came from AI crawlers, or automated programs scraping Wikimedia’s openly licensed images, videos, articles and other files to train generative artificial intelligence models. 

This sudden increase in traffic from bots could slow down access to Wikimedia’s pages and assets, especially during high-interest events. When Jimmy Carter died in December, for instance, people’s heightened interest in the video of his presidential debate with Ronald Reagan caused slow page load times for some users. Wikimedia is equipped to sustain traffic spikes from human readers during such events, and users watching Carter’s video shouldn’t have caused any issues. But “the amount of traffic generated by scraper bots is unprecedented and presents growing risks and costs,” Wikimedia said.

The foundation explained that human readers tend to look up specific and often similar topics. For instance, a number of people look up the same thing when it’s trending. Wikimedia creates a cache of a piece of content requested multiple times in the data center closest to the user, enabling it to serve up content faster. But articles and content that haven’t been accessed in a while have to be served from the core data center, which consumes more resources and, hence, costs more money for Wikimedia. Since AI crawlers tend to bulk read pages, they access obscure pages that have to be served from the core data center. 

Wikimedia said that upon a closer look, 65 percent of the resource-consuming traffic it gets is from bots. It’s already causing constant disruption for its Site Reliability team, which has to block the crawlers all the time before they they significantly slow down page access to actual readers. Now, the real problem, as Wikimedia states, is that the “expansion happened largely without sufficient attribution, which is key to drive new users to participate in the movement.” A foundation that relies on people’s donations to continue running needs to attract new users and get them to care for its cause. “Our content is free, our infrastructure is not,” the foundation said. Wikimedia is now looking to establish sustainable ways for developers and reusers to access its content in the upcoming fiscal year. It has to, because it sees no sign of AI-related traffic slowing down anytime soon. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/wikipedia-is-struggling-with-voracious-ai-bot-crawlers-121546854.html?src=rss 

The Washington Post reports that members of the White House’s National Security Council have used personal Gmail accounts to conduct government business. National security advisor Michael Waltz and a senior aide of his both used their own accounts to discuss sensitive information with colleagues, according to the Post‘s review and interviews with government officials who spoke to the newspaper anonymously.

Email is not the best approach for sharing information meant to be kept private. That covers sensitive data for individuals such as social security numbers or passwords, much less confidential or classified government documents. It simply has too many potential paths for a bad actor to access information they shouldn’t. Government departments typically use business-grade email services, rather than relying on consumer email services. The federal government also has its own internal communications systems with additional layers of security, making it all the more baffling that current officials are being so cavalier with how they handle important information.

“Unless you are using GPG, email is not end-to-end encrypted, and the contents of a message can be intercepted and read at many points, including on Google’s email servers,” Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation told the Post.

Additionally, there are regulations requiring that certain official government communications be preserved and archived. Using a personal account could allow some messages to slip through the cracks, accidentally or intentionally.

This latest instance of dubious software use from the executive branch follows the discovery that several high-ranking national security leaders used Signal to discuss planned military actions in Yemen, then added a journalist from The Atlantic to the group chat. And while Signal is a more secure option than a public email client, even the encrypted messaging platform can be exploited, as the Pentagon warned its own team last week.

As with last week’s Signal debacle, there have been no repercussions thus far for any federal employees taking risky data privacy actions. NSC spokesman Brian Hughes told the Post he hasn’t seen evidence of Waltz using a personal account for government correspondence.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/national-security-council-adds-gmail-to-its-list-of-bad-decisions-222648613.html?src=rss 

An Arkansas law requiring social media companies to verify the ages of their users has been struck down by a federal judge who ruled that it was unconstitutional. The decision is a significant victory for the social media companies and digital rights groups that have opposed the law and others like it.

Arkansas became the second state (after Utah) to pass an age verification law for social media in 2023. The Social Media Safety Act required companies to verify the games of users under 18 and get permission from their parents. The law was challenged by NetChoice, a lobbying group representing the tech industry whose membership includes Meta, Snap, X, Reddit and YouTube. NetChoice has also challenged laws restricting social media access in Utah, Texas and California.

In a ruling, Judge Timothy Brooks said that the law, known as Act 689, was overly broad. “Act 689 is a content-based restriction on speech, and it is not targeted to address the harms the State has identified,” Brooks wrote in his decision. “Arkansas takes a hatchet to adults’ and minors’ protected speech alike though the Constitution demands it use a scalpel.” Brooks also highlighted the “unconstitutionally vague” applicability of the law, which seemingly created obligations for some online services, but may have exempted services which had the “predominant or exclusive function [of]… direct messaging” like Snapchat.

“The court confirms what we have been arguing from the start: laws restricting access to protected speech violate the First Amendment,” NetChoice’s Chris Marchese said in a statement. “This ruling protects Americans from having to hand over their IDs or biometric data just to access constitutionally protected speech online.”

It’s not clear if state officials in Arkansas will appeal the ruling. “I respect the court’s decision, and we are evaluating our options,” Arkansas Attorney general Tim Griffin said in a statement.

Even with NetChoice’s latest victory, it seems that age verification laws are unlikely to go away anytime soon. Utah recently passed an age verification requirement for app stores. And a Texas law requiring porn sites to conduct age verification is currently before the Supreme Court.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/arkansas-social-media-age-verification-law-blocked-by-federal-judge-194614568.html?src=rss 

TikTok’s deadline to sell off or cede its US operations is once again approaching. The 75-day extension delaying the enforcement of a nationwide TikTok ban is set to run out Saturday, April 5, unless the company finally reaches an agreement to find a new owner. Who might buy it, and what happens if no deal is reached? Here’s the shape of things right now:

Potential buyers

President Donald Trump has suggested that “a deal” is imminent and could be reached before that deadline. What such an agreement will look like is still extremely unclear. A number of interested buyers have come forward, including YouTuber MrBeast, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian and Perplexity AI. Oracle, which almost bought TikTok in 2020 and was a key part of TikTok’s earlier negotiations to address national security concerns, is also in the running.

Depending on which bid wins out, TikTok could end up looking very different. ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, won’t allow another company to take control of the app’s coveted recommendation algorithm. That means a new owner would have to rebuild TikTok’s central feature. Perplexity AI, for example, has said it would take on this task of reverse-engineering the app’s “For You” feed, making it open source and implementing some kind of Community Notes-style fact checking feature. Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, who joined a group of investors known as “Project Liberty,” has hinted at a vision for TikTok that somehow ties in with blockchain technology.

Option 2

There’s also another, potentially less disruptive option on the table. The White House is also considering a deal that would allow TikTok’s existing US investors to “roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company,” according to The New York Times. Under this arrangement, Oracle could also end up overseeing TikTok’s US data while ByteDance hangs onto its algorithm, as the Financial Times reported in March.

This would likely be a smoother transition than a full-on sale that would require a new owner to rebuild a significant part of the app. Aspects of it are also very similar to terms TikTok already agreed to under a previous agreement with Oracle known as Project Texas. However, this sort of deal may also not be entirely legal, as Politico recently pointed out. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, the law passed by Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden last year, calls for a divestment of TikTok and its algorithm.

It’s also not clear whether Chinese officials would be willing to sign off on such an arrangement, though Trump has suggested he could use the threat of tariffs as negotiating leverage. “We’re dealing with China also on it because they may have something to do with it. And we’ll see how that goes,” Trump told reporters over the weekend.

No deal

So what happens if Trump’s “deal” isn’t finalized by Saturday? The answer, it seems, is… probably nothing. Trump has said he would likely extend the deadline again if the clock runs out on the current extension. (Once again, it’s not entirely clear if another extension is legal, but CNN reports that a second extension might be an uphill battle if challenged in court.) In the meantime, TikTok is unlikely to go dark like it (briefly) did in January when the ban law first went into effect.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/tiktoks-ban-deadline-is-coming-what-happens-next-162420478.html?src=rss