Apple Expands Nudity-Blurring Child Safety Feature To Outside US

Apple Inc. AAPL is expanding the reach of its iOS Communication Safety feature into six more countries along with the United States.

What Happened: Along with the U.S., the Communications Safety feature is now available in the U.K., Canada, New Zealand and Australia, reported AppleInsider, citing iCulture. 

See Also: Apple’s M1 Macs Can Now Run Another OS Natively: What It Means For You

Communications Safety is a part of iMessage that examines devices owned by children for nudity-based inbound and outbound messages. The feature was initially rolled out in the U.S. along with iOS 15.2 and later received an expansion in 2022.

Simply put, the feature detects if an Apple device owned by a child is receiving or sending images that could contain nudity. 

If the child receives such images, they will be blurred with the underage user receiving links to safety resources from child safety groups.

Similarly, if such images are being sent from a child’s device, the same system will warn the sender advising them not to share such images at all, the report noted.  

Why It’s Important: In November last year, DQ Institute reported that 73% of children experienced at least one cyber risk in 2022. 

The 2022 Child Online Safety Index revealed that cyber risks for children declined during the pandemic in 2020-2021 but grew again in 2022.

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