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""Most of us anganwadi workers don't have enough education to understand these apps," she added. "We don't get enough network in the village to use them, and we don't earn enough to recharge the phone on time. So what is the point?""

"'Much easier to say no': Irish town unites in smartphone ban for young children Parents and schools across Greystones adopt voluntary 'no-smartphone code' in bid to curb peer pressure Rory Carroll Ireland correspondent @rorycarroll72 Sat 3 Jun 2023 09.00 BST Last modified on Sat 3 Jun 2023 09.02 BST On the principle of strength in numbers, parents in the Irish town of Greystones have banded together to collectively tell their children they cannot have a smartphone until secondary school. Parents' associations across the district's eight primary schools have adopted a no-smartphone code to present a united front against children's lobbying. "If everyone does it across the board you don't feel like you're the odd one out. It makes it so much easier to say no," said Laura Bourne, who has a child in junior infants. "The longer we can preserve their innocence the better.""

"The government is introducing some amendments in time for the report stage on 12 July, with another batch to be announced shortly after. Under one confirmed change, tech firms will be required to shield internet users from state-sponsored disinformation that poses a threat to UK society and democracy. This is a tightening of existing proposals on disinformation in the bill, which already require tech firms to take action on state-sponsored disinformation that harms individuals - such as threats to kill. Another confirmed amendment is equally incremental. A clause in the bill aimed at end-to-end encrypted services already gives Ofcom the power to require those platforms to adopt "accredited technology" to detect child sexual abuse and exploitation [CSEA] content. If that doesn't work, then they must use their "best endeavours" to develop or deploy new technology to spot and remove CSEA. This move appears to be aimed at Mark Zuckerberg's plans to introduce end-to-end encryption on Facebook Messenger and Instagram."

"They said that a number of schools were reporting for the first time that pupils were using AI-generating technology to create images of children that legally constituted child sexual abuse material. Emma Hardy, UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC) director, said the pictures were "terrifyingly" realistic. "The quality of the images that we're seeing is comparable to professional photos taken annually of children in schools up and down the country," said Hardy, who is also the Internet Watch Foundation communications director."

"TikTok faces questions over safeguards for child users after a Guardian investigation found that moderators were being told to allow under-13s to stay on the platform if they claimed their parents were overseeing their accounts."

"The Details: The law requires people under 14 who have accounts to delete them. It also demands enhanced age verification for sites containing 'obscene' or 'harmful' content. The Debate: Supporters view this as a welcome step towards child safety. Critics question the law's enforceability, querying account detection methods, use of VPNs by children, and age verification standards."

"Customize the phone as your child grows The Bark Phone enables you to allow or remove features to tailor the experience to your kid."

"These advergames (adverts presented in the format of a video game), typically splash corporate branding over a set of game mechanics simple enough for Roblox's young player base. And despite broader allegations of a lack of child safeguarding levelled against Roblox (which they deny), corporates are rushing to build them. Brands from Walmart to Wimbledon, McDonald's to Gucci, Nike to the BBC have all launched advergames on the platform. Some have been visited hundreds of thousands of times, others tens of millions, all while Roblox courts further brand involvement by touting its huge, young user base as a big draw in a crowded advertising market."

"They've moved "authoritative sources" to the top search results. The question we need to ask is: "How does this play out in the Real World?" In the real world it means that the worldview, the political bias, the social preferences, the positions taken in various ideological and scientific controversies - as decided by top Google Executives - have been virtually hard-coded into Google's search algorithms. No longer is Google returning "unbiased and objective results"."

"Each 30-pound robot is equipped with sensors to help it navigate the store's layout and avoid bumping into customers' carts. When it detects product areas that aren't fully stocked, the data is shared with store management staff so the retailer can make changes, said Dave Steck, Schnuck Markets' vice president of IT and infrastructure."

"More controversially, however, Genomic Prediction is also offering IVF patients the option of screening embryos for projected cognitive ability."

""It literally is at a point now we've created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works. That is literally where we are. I would encourage all of you how to internalize this is - if you feed the beast, the beast will destroy you.""

"Take Yoti, for instance: the company provides a range of age verification services, partnering with CitizenCard to offer a digital version of its ID, and working with self-service supermarkets to experiment with automatic age recognition of individuals. John Abbott, Yoti's chief business officer, says the system is already as good as a person at telling someone's age from a video of them, and has been tested against a wide range of demographics - including age, race and gender - to ensure that it's not wildly miscategorising any particular group. The company's most recent report claims that a "Challenge 21" policy (blocking under-18s by asking for strong proof of age from people who look under 21) would catch 98% of 17-year-olds, and 99.15% of 16 year olds, for instance."

"Users post violent and hateful content to Facebook and Twitter all the time, they argued - and no one was demanding those platforms get the boot from the app stores."

"The difference between skimming and reading with all our intelligence is the difference between fully activated reading brains and their short-circuited, screen-dulled versions."