Apple Trialling Message Feature To Help Protect Kids

Apple will start trialling “beta testing”: a text messaging feature that’s been designed to prevent nudity being sent and received between children. 

It’s one of a series of capabilities, the tech giant has designed to help stamp out child exploitation. 

So how will they do it?

Apple’s new iMessage feature will assess attachments in messages sent to users marked as children to determine if the attachments contain nudity. The company says they will maintain message encryption in the process and that the feature is designed so that no photo or indication of detection leaves the device. 

They have also made changes to how the system works. Originally, Apple alerted parents of children aged under 13 if they had viewed or sent flagged images. Now, Apple will let the children choose whether to alert someone they trust. This choice is separate from whether they view the image. 

Earlier this year, the company announced plans to build its iMessage system to detect child exploitation images being stored on Apple devices.

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