The interactive gaming platform Roblox, popular among children and teens, has reached an over $12 million agreement with the state of Nevada over its protections for young users. Attorney General Aaron Ford said Wednesday the company will enhance safety features for young users and provide funds for nondigital youth programs. He calls it a first-of-its-kind settlement with a state. Roblox faces litigation in other states as prosecutors file lawsuits against social media companies over the role they play in children's lives. Roblox will contribute $10 million over three years to support youth programs and alternatives to screen time. The settlement includes enhanced age verification and restricted notifications for minors.
Social media companies have revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children in Australia. This follows the country's ban on platform use by those under 16. Communications Minister Anika Wells announced the figures on Friday, highlighting the success of the law enacted in December. The ban has sparked debates about technology use, privacy, and child safety. Platforms like Facebook, YouTube and X face hefty fines if they fail to comply. Officials say the measure is encouraging, though some young users have found ways to bypass restrictions. Other countries, such as Denmark, are considering similar bans.
More artificial intelligence is being implanted into Gmail as Google tries to turn the world's most used email service into a personal assistant that can improve writing, summarize far-flung information buried in inboxes and deliver daily to-do lists. The new AI features announced Thursday could herald a pivotal moment for Gmail, a service that transformed email when it was introduced nearly 22 years ago. Gmail's new AI options will only be available in English within the U.S. for starters, but Google is promising to introduce them in other countries and other languages as the year unfolds.
Roblox is stepping up its age verification system for users who want to message other players and implementing age-based chats so kids, teens and adults will only be able to communicate with people around their own age. The moves come as the popular gaming platform continues to face criticism and lawsuits over child safety and a growing number of states and countries are implementing age verification laws. Roblox said it will start enforcing age checks in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands in the first week of December and the rest of the world in early January.
By MATT O'BRIEN and MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writers
OpenAI has introduced its own web browser, ChatGPT Atlas, putting it in direct competition with Google. The new browser, launched Tuesday on Apple laptops, aims to make ChatGPT a gateway to online searches. This move could increase OpenAI's internet traffic and advertising revenue. CEO Sam Altman describes it as a chance to rethink browser use. Atlas will eventually be available on Windows, iOS, and Android. The browser faces a tough challenge against Google's Chrome, which has about 3 billion users.
A problem at Amazon's cloud computing service disrupted internet use around the world. The outage on Monday took down a broad range of online services, including social media, gaming, food delivery, streaming and financial platforms. About three hours after the outage began, Amazon Web Services said it was starting to recover from the problem, although problems lingered for some users. AWS provides behind-the-scenes cloud computing infrastructure to some of the world's biggest organizations. Its customers include government departments, universities and businesses. Amazon pinned the outage on issues related to its domain name system.
OpenAI has announced new parental controls for ChatGPT to make it safer for teens. This move comes after concerns about AI chatbot safety for young users, including tragic cases where teenagers took their lives after using ChatGPT. To get started, parents can send an email or text invite to their teen to link accounts. Teens can also invite parents. The new controls include automatic safeguards for teen accounts, such as reduced graphic content and restrictions on sensitive topics. Parents will have a dashboard to adjust settings and receive notifications if their child might be in distress.
