Latest news with #NCII
GMA Network
14 hours ago
- Business
- GMA Network
170K SHS learners get TESDA certification as gov't shoulders NCII fees
Education Secretary Sonny Angara leads the formal launching of the Quality Basic Education Development Plan 2025–2035 on Tuesday, July 29, 2025, at Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria. The roadmap aims to overhaul the Philippine education system through decentralization, stronger public-private partnerships, and digitalization. MARK MAKALALAD/Super Radyo dzBB Over 170,000 Senior High School (SHS) students under the Technical-Vocational-Livelihood (TVL) track have received free TESDA National Certificate II (NCII) certifications, the Department of Education (DepEd) said Tuesday. At the launch of the Quality Basic Education Development Plan (QBEDP) 2025–2035, Education Secretary Sonny Angara said the government's move to cover the certification cost—previously pegged at ?1,500 per student—is a 'major breakthrough' for ensuring work-readiness among K–12 graduates. 'Libre po ito. Dati na kailangan bayaran ng ?1,500 kada estudyante kaya maraming hindi nakakuha ng kanilang certification. Ngayon, sagot na po ng gobyerno,' Angara said. (It's free. This used to cost ?1,500 per student, which stopped many from getting certified. Now, the government shoulders it.) TESDA's NCII certification is recognized by local and international employers and qualifies holders for various skilled jobs in fields such as electronics, hospitality, and construction. 'At sa ilalim ng bagong patakaran ng (under the new regulations of the) Civil Service Commission, SHS or Senior High School graduates are now eligible to apply for 1st level government jobs,' he said. This development aligns with one of the recommendations of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2), which emphasized improving the employability of K–12 graduates. DepEd is also embedding Dual TVET (DVET) qualifications into the SHS curriculum, allowing students to gain work experience while studying. This is part of a broader effort to 'blur the line' between schooling and employment, Angara said, and to address concerns over whether the K–12 program has succeeded in preparing students for the job market. The QBEDP 2025–2035 also lays out plans for improving learning outcomes, modernizing classrooms, and enhancing teacher support—recognizing that education is not just a right but an engine for inclusive growth. On Monday, President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. during his State of the Nation Address (SONA 2025) touted major strides in the country's higher education sector, highlighting the expansion of TESDA scholarships, and financial aid for poor families. 'Dumami din ang nabigyan ng scholarship sa TESDA. Nito lamang 2024, higit pa sa dalawandaang libo ang nadagdag na mga scholarships para sa Tech-Voc,' Marcos said. The President emphasized that students from Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) households will be given higher priority in entering college over the next three years. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News
The Star
4 days ago
- Business
- The Star
Malaysia faces rising cyber threats as incidents increase
Malaysia is experiencing a more sophisticated and aggressive wave of cyber threats, with 2,366 incidents reported in the first half of 2025, says the National Cyber Security Agency (Nacsa). Nacsa's chief executive Ir Dr Megat Zuhairy Megat Tajuddin, said cyberattacks are no longer solely targeting critical infrastructure or institutions. 'These attacks increasingly target our most vulnerable population, including children, the elderly, and digitally inexperienced users,' he said during his keynote address at the Cybersecurity Summit 2025 on Friday (July 25). Organised by Star Media Group and supported by IDMeta as the bronze sponsor, the summit carried the theme 'Securing Malaysia's Digital Future.' Megat said in 2024, Nacsa's National Cyber Coordination and Command Centre (NC4) recorded 4,626 cybersecurity incidents, a 43% increase from the previous year. 'In the first half of 2025 alone, 2,366 incidents involving National Critical Information Infrastructure (NCII) were reported. 'These figures underscore the urgent need to strengthen national cyber hygiene and awareness,' Megat added. He said cybersecurity is a critical national priority and should no longer be seen as merely a technical issue. 'Today's cyber threats don't simply target systems and software. They exploit something far more human, our trust, our habits, and the gaps between institutions,' Megat said. CyberSecurity Malaysia's chief executive officer, Datuk Ts Dr Amirudin Abdul Wahab, joined the call for stronger safeguards, warning that digitalisation and emerging technologies, while transformative, also introduce new vulnerabilities. 'The more connected we are, the more exposed we become to the threat of cyber attacks,' he said. Amirudin emphasised the need for organisations to go beyond prevention and focus on cyber resilience, which is the ability to respond, recover, and resume operations swiftly after an attack. He also highlighted the importance of building a secure, resilient, and trusted cyber ecosystem through greater collaboration among regulators, industry players, academia, and international stakeholders. Sarbnedhan Singh Sandhu of the Securities Commission Malaysia warned that compliance alone doesn't ensure security. He stressed the need for well-enforced frameworks aligned to business risks, noting that weak controls often lead to breaches. Meanwhile, Securemetric Technology Sdn Bhd managing director Wo Swee Teck said generative artificial intelligence (AI) introduces serious risks. He noted that effective risk mitigation depends on implementing strong cybersecurity measures, enforcing strict privacy safeguards, and ensuring continuous validation of AI models. The one-day event gathered industry experts to address the country's most pressing cybersecurity concerns, including the emerging risks of generative AI, vulnerabilities in operational technology (OT) systems, talent shortages, and the growing importance of digital trust in a hyperconnected world. The summit also showcased actionable strategies, regulatory frameworks, and real-world case studies aimed at enhancing cyber resilience across all sectors. This year's edition featured more than 19 distinguished speakers and attracted over 80 participants, including C-level executives, IT security professionals, regulators, cybercrime investigators, and representatives from sectors such as telecommunications, finance, logistics, and technology startups. Looking ahead, the CloudTech & DataCentre Conference 2.0, scheduled for Aug 6–7, will further explore strategies to position Malaysia as a regional hub for sustainable, high-tech data centres while advancing digital resilience.
GMA Network
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- GMA Network
Susan Enriquez completes cooking course at 63: 'Yehey finally'
Susan Enriquez has completed her cooking course! On Facebook Wednesday, the 63-year-old "Unang Hirit" host shared her class photo with the Batch 33 of National Certificate II (NCII) in Cookery at the International School for Culinary Arts and Hotel Management. "Yehey finally," Susan wrote in the caption, followed by thumbs-up emojis. The NCII program, which comes with a TESDA National Certificate II, prepares students for entry-level employment as an assistant prep cook or line cook in several establishments, including restaurants, hotels, catering companies, cargo ships, and others. She also owns Balustre Cerca in Cavite where she often shares different dishes from the resort on her social media account. Susan is one of the mainstay hosts of "Unang Hirit," where she usually mans the kitchen segment and cooks several dishes. Aside from the Kapuso morning show, Susan also hosts "Dapat Alam Mo!" and is iconic for her shows "Kay Susan Tayo" and "iJuander." —Hermes Joy Tunac/CDC, GMA Integrated News
Time of India
15-07-2025
- Time of India
Sexual assault probe: HC flays police insensitivity
Chennai: In yet another incident of police insensitivity while handling cases of sexual harassment, a woman victim was made to view her leaked non-consensual intimate images (NCII) in the presence of seven male police officers. The videos, shared online by her boyfriend, were shown to her during the investigation process to "identify" the accused. "It was not only the accused who violated her dignity guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution, but also each of the seven police officers present during the inquiry," Justice Anand Venkatesh said. "It was like adding insult to injury. Don't the officers have a little bit of sense? Society will not question the boy who committed the crime; it will question only the girl who the victim is," the judge said. You Can Also Check: Chennai AQI | Weather in Chennai | Bank Holidays in Chennai | Public Holidays in Chennai In the name of investigation, more harassment was meted out to the victim. The police are dealing with the case as if they were dealing with thugs, he added. This is not an ordinary case, in which the police are dealing with morons. The accused in such cases are the most intelligent, deadliest persons sitting in a room that we don't know where, Justice Anand Venkatesh said. The court then censured the police for revealing the name of the victim in the FIR and directed that it must be redacted from the FIR and from all those documents where it was incorporated during the investigation. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Đây có thể là thời điểm tốt nhất để giao dịch vàng trong 5 năm qua IC Markets Tìm hiểu thêm Undo In no place must the name of the victim girl be shown, the judge said. As to the removal of the NCII of the woman lawyer from the internet, the Union govt informed the court that immediate steps were taken to block all the websites from where the contents could not be removed. However, Senior advocate Abudu Kumar Rajaratnam for the petitioner submitted that the videos/intimate images once again resurfaced on 39 sites. He produced the particulars of those 39 sites to the court. Recording the submission, the court directed the Union govt to file an affidavit explaining the various steps that were initiated and give a prototype as to what a victim girl must do when she is faced with a situation like this. In the meantime, the Union govt shall ensure that the NCII does not resurface and the technology discussed in the order passed by the Delhi and Karnataka high courts shall be adopted, he said. If ultimately, the Union can completely block the NCII and prevent it from resurfacing, it will be a test case that can be applied in the future to handle the situation more effectively, he added.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Yahoo
Kids are making deepfakes of each other, and laws aren't keeping up
Last October, a 13-year-old boy in Wisconsin used a picture of his classmate celebrating her bat mitzvah to create a deepfake nude he then shared on Snapchat. This is not an isolated incident. Over the past few years, there has been case after case of school-age children using deepfakes to prank or bully their classmates. And it keeps getting easier to do. When they emerged online eight years ago, deepfakes were initially difficult to make. Nowadays, advances in technology, through generative artificial intelligence, have provided tools to the masses. One troubling consequence is the prevalence of deepfake apps among young users. 'If we would have talked five or six years ago about revenge porn in general, I don't think that you would have found so many offenders were minors,' said Rebecca Delfino, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University who studies deepfakes. Federal and state legislators have sought to tackle the scourge of nonconsensual intimate image (NCII) abuse, sometimes referred to as 'revenge porn,' though advocates prefer the former term. Laws criminalizing the nonconsensual distribution of intimate images — for authentic images, at least — are in effect in every U.S. state and Washington, D.C., and last month President Donald Trump signed a similar measure into law, known as Take It Down. But unlike the federal measure, many of the state laws don't apply to explicit AI-generated deepfakes. Fewer still appear to directly grapple with the fact that perpetrators of deepfake abuse are often minors. Fifteen percent of students reported knowing about AI-generated explicit images of a classmate, according to a survey released in September by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a center-left think tank. Students also reported that girls were much more likely to be depicted in explicit deepfakes. According to CDT, the findings show that 'NCII, both authentic and deepfake, is a significant issue in K-12 public schools.' 'The conduct we see minors engaged in is not all that different from the pattern of cruelty, humiliation and exploitation and bullying that young people have always done to each other,' said Delfino. 'The difference lies in not only the use of technology to carry out some of that behavior, but the ease with which it is disseminated.' Policymakers at the state and federal level have come at perpetrators of image-based sexual abuse 'hard and fast,' no matter their age, Delfino said. The reason is clear, she said: The distribution of nonconsensual images can have long-lasting, serious mental health harms on the target of abuse. Victims can be forced to withdraw from life online because of the prevalence of nonconsensual imagery. Image-based sexual abuse has similar negative mental health impacts on survivors as those who experienced offiline sexual violence. Delfino said that under most existing laws, youth offenders are likely to be treated similarly to minors who commit other crimes: They can be charged, but prosecutors and courts would likely take into account their age in doling out punishment. Yet while some states have developed penal codes that factor a perpetrator's age into their punishment, including by imposing tiered penalties that attempt to spare first-time or youth offenders from incarceration, most do not. While most agree there should be consequences for youth offenders, there's less consensus about what those consequences should be — and a push for reeducation over extreme charges.. A 2017 survey by the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), a nonprofit that combats online abuse, found that people who committed image-based sexual abuse reported the threat of jail time as one of the strongest deterrents against the crime. That's why the organization's policy recommendations have always pushed for criminalization, said Mary Anne Franks, a law professor at George Washington University who leads the initiative. Many states have sought to address the issue of AI-generated child sexual abuse material, which covers deepfakes of people under 18, by modifying existing laws banning what is legally know as child pornography. These laws tend to have more severe punishments: felonies instead of misdemeanors, high minimum jail time or significant fines. For example, Louisiana mandates a minimum five-year jail sentence no matter the age of the perpetrator. While incidents of peer-on-peer deepfake abuse are increasingly cropping up in the news, information on what criminal consequences youth offenders have faced remains scarce. There is often a significant amount of discretion involved in how minors are charged. Generally, juvenile justice falls under state rather than federal law, giving local officials leeway to impose punishments as they see fit. If local prosecutors are forced to decide between charging minors with severe penalties that are aimed at adults or declining to prosecute, most will likely choose the latter, said Lindsay Hawthorne, the communications coordinator at Enough Abuse, a Massachussetts-based nonprofit fighting against child sexual abuse. But then this throws away an opportunity to teach youth about the consequences of their actions and prevent reoffending. Charges that come at a prosecutor's discretion are more likely to disproportionately criminalize youth of color and LGBTQ+ youth, she said. Delfino said that in an ideal case, a judge in juvenile court would weigh many factors in sentencing: the severity of the harm caused by deepfake abuse, the intent of the perpetrator, and adolescent psychology. Experts say that building these factors directly into policy can help better deal with offenders who may not understand the consequences of their actions and allow for different enforcement mechanisms for people who say they weren't seeking to cause harm. For example, recent laws passed this session in South Carolina and Florida have 'proportional penalties' that take into account circumstances including age, intent and prior criminal history. Both laws mirrored model legislation written by MyOwn Image, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing technology-facilitated sexual violence. Founded by image-based sexual abuse survivor Susanna Gibson, the organization has been involved in advocating for strengthened laws banning nonconsensual distribution of intimate images at the state level, bringing a criminal justice reform lens into the debate. Under the Florida law, which took effect May 22, offenders who profit from nonconsensual intimate images distribution are charged with felonies, even if for a first offense. But first-time offenders who use intimate images to harass victims are charged with a misdemeanor; if they do it again, they then are charged with a felony. This avoids 'sweeping criminalization of people who may not fully understand the harm caused by their actions,' Will Rivera, managing director at MyOwn Image, said in a statement. South Carolina's newly passed law addressing AI-generated child sexual abuse material, meanwhile, explicitly states that minors with no prior related criminal record should be referred to family court, and recommends behavioral health counseling as part of the adjudication. A separate South Carolina law banning nonconsensual distribution of intimate imagery also has tiered charges depending on intent and previous convictions. Experts are mostly united in believing that incarcerating youth offenders would not solve the problem of image-based sexual abuse. Franks said that while her group has long recommended criminal penalties as part of the answer, there need to be more policy solutions for youth offenders than just threatening jail time. Amina Fazlullah, head of tech policy advocacy at Common Sense Media, said that laws criminalizing NCII and abusive deepfakes need to be accompanied by digital literacy and AI education measures. That could fill a massive gap. According to Stanford, there currently isn't any comprehensive research on how many schools specifically teach students about online exploitation. Since most teens aren't keeping abreast of criminal codes, AI literacy education initiatives could teach young users what crosses the line into illegal behavior and provide resources for victims of nonconsensual intimate imagery to seek redress. Digital literacy could also emphasize ethical use of technology and create space for conversations about app use. Hawthorne noted that Massachusetts's law banning deepfakes, which went into effect last year, directs adolescents who violate it to take part in an education program that explains laws and the impacts of sexting. Ultimately, Franks said, the behavior that underlies deepfake abuse isn't new, and so we do not need to rewrite our responses from scratch 'We should just stick to the things that we know, which don't change with technology, which is consent, autonomy, agency, safety. Those are all things that should be at the heart of what we talk to kids about,' she said. Like abstinence-only education, schools shaming and scaring kids about more common practices like sexting is not an effective way to prevent abuse, Franks said, and can discourage kids from seeking help from adults when they are being exploited. Franks noted that parents, too, have the power to instill in their children agency over their own images every time they take a photo. She also said there are myriad other ways to regulate the ecosystem around sexually explicit deepfakes. After all, most policy around deepfakes addresses harm already done, and laws like the federal Take It Down Act put a burden on the victim to request the removal of their images from online platforms. Part of addressing the problem is making it more difficult to create and rapidly distribute nonconsensual imagery — and keeping tools for deepfakes out of kids' hands, experts said. One avenue for change that advocates see is applying pressure on companies whose tools are used to create nonconsensual deepfakes. Third parties that help distribute them are also becoming a target. After a CBS News investigation, Meta took action to remove advertisements of so-called 'nudify apps' on its platforms. Frank also suggested app stores could delist them. Payment processors, too, have a lot of power over the ecosystem. When Visa, Mastercard and Discover cut off payments to PornHub after a damning New York Times report revealed how many nonconsensual videos it hosted, the largest pornography site in the world deleted everything it couldn't confirm was above board — nearly 80 percent of its total content. Last month, Civitai finally cracked down on generative AI models tailored around real people after payment processors refused to work with the company. This followed extensive reporting by tech news site 404 Media on the image-platform's role in the spread of nonconsensual deepfakes. And of course, Franks said, revamping the liability protections digital services enjoy under Section 230 could force tech companies' hands when it comes to liability, compelling them be more proactive about preventing digital sexual violence. A version of this article first appeared in Tech Policy Press. The post Kids are making deepfakes of each other, and laws aren't keeping up appeared first on The 19th. News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday. Subscribe to our free, daily newsletter.
