Latest news with #OnlineSafetyAct
Business Wire
an hour ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Entrust and PlaySafe ID Partner to Bring Verified, Privacy-First Digital Identity to Gaming
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Entrust, a global leader in identity-centric security solutions, today announced a partnership with PlaySafe ID, the platform that keeps cheaters, bots, and predators out of games. The partnership will power PlaySafe ID's secure onboarding and verification process using Entrust Identity Verification to enable seamless and secure onboarding experience for gamers worldwide. The partnership will power PlaySafe ID's secure onboarding and verification process using Entrust Identity Verification to enable seamless and secure onboarding experience for gamers worldwide. Share Built with a privacy-first mindset, PlaySafe ID issues a verified, game-agnostic digital ID that confirms the human identity behind the account promoting accountability and improved protection for users, while still allowing them to remain anonymized. The platform aims to address wider issues that erode trust and enjoyment in online gaming communities, such as cheating, hacking, bot activity, and inappropriate behavior, while ensuring compliance with evolving regulations such as the UK's Online Safety Act. How It Works Users create a PlaySafe ID account and complete a quick and secure identity verification process powered by Entrust. Users simply take a photo of their government-issued ID and a short video selfie. Entrust identity verification first checks that the ID is genuine and not fraudulent and then matches it to the user's face in the selfie video. This ensures the person presenting the identity is its legitimate owner and is physically present, mitigating identity fraud attempts such as stolen ID or deepfakes. Once verified, users receive a unique, random, and anonymized PlaySafe ID, granting access to PlaySafe-protected gaming and matchmaking with other verified gamers. The verification data is kept separate from the PlaySafe ID, ensuring gamers remain anonymized during gameplay while knowing they are engaging with other legitimate, verified players. 'Gaming should be fun, fair, and safe for everyone,' said Andrew Wailes, CEO of PlaySafe ID. 'Our partnership with Entrust ensures that our user verification process is both secure and scalable, and also aligns with the values of frictionless user experience and privacy. Their technology will be instrumental in helping us build a future where fair play is the standard, and cheating, fraud and harmful behavior are no longer tolerated.' Regulation in Gaming This partnership will enable game providers and developers to prepare for the inbound Protection of Children Codes, coming into force in July 2025 as part of the Online Safety Act, which mandates that services accessed by children must manage risks and protect children from encountering harmful content. 'We're proud to join PlaySafe ID in their mission to make online gaming a safer place,' said Samuel Steg, Head of Compliance for Identity Verification at Entrust. 'Fraudulent activity online continues to grow both in scope and sophistication, and gaming environments are no exception. Our identity verification technology provides robust, high-assurance Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, offering gamers a seamless and secure onboarding experience. This partnership reflects our shared commitment to building a safer digital future and promoting trust, fairness, and safety within digital spaces.' PlaySafe ID is currently in integration discussions with several major gaming platforms, with the first partnerships expected to launch later this year. For more information, visit or About Entrust: Entrust is an innovative leader in identity-centric security solutions, providing an integrated platform of scalable, AI-enabled security offerings. We enable organisations to safeguard their operations, evolve without compromise, and protect their interactions in an interconnected world – so they can transform their businesses with confidence. Entrust supports customers in 150+ countries and works with a global partner network. We are trusted by the world's most trusted organisations. Learn more at About PlaySafe ID PlaySafe ID stops cheating, botting, and child abuse in games. The company enables players to enjoy gaming at its fairest by issuing anonymised 'PlaySafe IDs' to users who verify themselves. With a single ID issued to each user, penalties can now be issued to users who are caught cheating or being inappropriate to children across all PlaySafe Protected games. The company was founded in response to the cheating and bots prolific in online games, and the growing need to keep children safe from predators and bad-actors.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Wikipedia threatens to limit UK access to website
Wikipedia could be forced to limit access in the UK unless crucial elements of Britain's online safety rules are changed, the High Court has been told. Lawyers for the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organisation which helps run the online encyclopaedia, warned it could be required to introduce a 'quota-based' system for UK visitors if it is classified as a 'category one' service under the Online Safety Act. Services falling under this designation are subject to the strictest duties under the digital laws, which are intended to stop children accessing harmful online material and prevent the spread of illegal posts. To stay outside the scope of the regulation, Wikipedia could cap visitor numbers from the UK so it does not qualify as a 'category one' site, which are defined as those with seven million users. This would make it harder for British users to access the site when they wanted. The foundation has launched a legal challenge against Peter Kyle, the Technology Secretary, over the rules, warning they threaten to hit Wikipedia with strict regulations intended for social media giants such as Facebook and TikTok. In a filing with the High Court, Wikimedia's lawyers said such a designation would 'cripple the vital exchange of encyclopaedic information on Wikipedia', either by limiting the 'availability and functionality of Wikipedia in the UK' or by 'fundamentally changing the way in which the encyclopaedia works'. Rupert Paines, a lawyer acting for the group, told the court the rules risked 'very severe impacts' for Wikipedia and could reduce articles to 'gibberish'. The measures could also 'render it unavailable to many who wish to use it', he added, even though Wikipedia is a 'world away' from being a social network that the laws were intended to regulate. Under the category, Wikipedia has claimed it could be required to verify the identities of its anonymous volunteer moderators who edit entries. Non-verified users would no longer be able to alter posts, creating a risk that articles with fake news remain online unchecked. It also claimed the rules could also force Wikipedia to restrict access to UK users, in order to prevent the website from falling foul of the toughest measures. Alongside having more than seven million users, the 'category one' threshold says sites must also have algorithms which recommend content and allow posts to be shared or forwarded to others. The foundation argued Wikipedia would fall under these restrictions even though Ofcom, the digital regulator, had initially failed to identify it as within the scope of the rules. While Wikipedia is not a social network, its lawyers said it still used recommendation algorithms, such as a system that identifies new articles for editing. They added it also had systems that allowed its users to share or forward pages. In order to avoid the rules, Wikimedia's lawyers told the court the site could be forced to withhold access in the UK to some visitors. They wrote: '[Wikimedia] must weigh imposing a quota-based system for Wikipedia in the UK, depressing average monthly UK users below the Cat1 user number conditions.' Such a decision would 'deprive many of Wikipedia's UK users of access to the encyclopaedia as and when they want it', its lawyers wrote. The Online Safety Act threatens technology companies that fail in their duties with fines of £18m or up to 10pc of their global turnover. The Government has argued Wikipedia's concerns are 'hypothetical' and its potential inclusion under the regulations would be 'appropriate' if it meets the thresholds. Its inclusion under the rules is a matter for Ofcom, according to the Government's lawyers, and has not been confirmed.
The Star
4 hours ago
- Politics
- The Star
New subsidiary legislation to be introduced to curb online scams, says Teo
KUALA LUMPUR: A new subsidiary legislation aimed at curbing online scammers is underway, including a requirement for social media advertisers' verification, says Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is developing an online safety code to reduce online harm by considering practices from several countries. "This includes referring to Singapore, which mandates identity verification for advertisers, and Taiwan, which requires social media platforms to disclose advertisement sponsors and payers," she said during the question time at the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday (July 23). Teo was responding to a supplementary question by Chong Chieng Jen (PH-Stampin) about plans to introduce new legislation against scammers impersonating individuals on social media. Teo also shared that she has been a victim of fake advertisements impersonating her. "I reported this to MCMC, but when one advertisement was taken down by Meta, another would appear," she said. She revealed that MCMC received about 121 requests to remove content impersonating high-profile individuals in Malaysia, including royals, ministers, and political leaders. "I hope the ministry will get support from all MPs to take action against these impersonations. "As the Online Safety Act was passed and gazetted in May, MCMC is developing a subsidiary legislation," she added. Teo earlier stated that as of July 15, a total of 46,817 scam content items have been removed. She said actions were taken following complaints and in accordance with community guidelines set by each platform. She added that no social media platforms have been charged and convicted in court related to online scam advertisements. "This is because the content uploaded on these platforms is typically published by third parties (users), and the assessment of legal action depends on the platform's role and liability in allowing or facilitating the dissemination of such content," she said. The government, through MCMC, will continue efforts to curb this issue by collaborating technically with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
BBC News
11 hours ago
- General
- BBC News
Children in Wales using screens for more than seven hours a day
One in five children spend at least seven hours a day using phones and tablets, initial findings of a survey have found. Two children aged 10 and 11 said they spent at least nine hours a day using screens during the weekend, according to the survey by the children's commissioner for Wales. Thirteen-year-old Kiishi is part of a digital guardians project to help protect children online and said some technologies were "almost controlling".New rules under the Online Safety Act, including age verification on certain sites and apps, will be enforced from Friday. The survey asked children and young people aged between seven and 18 in Wales about their use of devices such as phones, tablets and computers. More than half of the 340 respondents to date said they had rules at home to limit screen time and what apps they use, amid concerns time spent online will increase during the school holidays. A third of respondents said they had to leave their device downstairs at bedtime, and 47% said they were only allowed on certain three quarters who said they used TikTok admitted to switching off its one-hour limit function for under children's commisioner for Wales, Rocio Cifuentes, said: "The [Online Safety] Act must deliver on its promise of protecting children and improving their online experiences. And in such a quickly developing space, this means keeping pace with new challenges and responding to them effectively."Mechanisms protecting children from too much time on screens must be stronger." The UK government is reportedly looking at how it might be able to limit how much time children spend on social 15, from Llantwit Major, Vale of Glamorgan, is part of a digital guardians project run by Platfform, a mental health charity and the NSPCC, to give young people a voice in the debate around online safety."I think there needs to be more restrictions," he said. "Not in the way of restricting time because most young people believe adults that restrict time are restricting their fun and enjoyment."Kiishi, 13, from Swansea, said she wanted to share her experiences of being online as a young person to help improve protections for other said: "Technologies are advancing and becoming more complex and almost controlling. Some people could be brainwashed into thinking some things that are not real."Ada, 12, from Cardiff said: "I wanted to become a digital guardian so I can help keep children like me, older or younger, safe given the rise of things like AI to steel data, to spread misinformation because it's so common these days to take information from things like AI that may be inaccurate which may be dangerous to our physical and mental health."While the internet can be bad, there are also lot of positives that help you grow and understand things. "It can be educational but there needs to be more restrictions on the negatives like on social media and disinformation." The UK's communications regulator, Ofcom, will enforce new rules which will require social media platforms to check a user's age and change their algorithms affecting what is shown in order to filter certain types of the Online Safety Act, firms are also required to remove illegal content and new laws have been introduced around sending unsolicited sexual imagery Sowemimo, NSPCC associate head of public affairs for child safety online, said: "Young people bring unique perspectives that help us understand the true impact of online harm, enabling us to identify the support needed to keep them safe."That's why it is crucial that children's voices are included in conversations about child safety online."But the onus for protecting children from the harm they face online, including on social media platforms, should not be put on young people themselves, but rather tech companies need to design and put in place safety features on their sites to tackle the risks."
Euronews
a day ago
- Politics
- Euronews
UK online legislation threat to operations,Wikipedia to argue in court
The foundation behind the crowdsourced information site Wikipedia will argue in British court this week that new legislation threatens its operations. The Wikimedia Foundation will tell London's Royal Courts of Justice on July 22nd that the regulations under the UK's Online Safety Act (OSA) put it at 'unacceptable risk' of being subject to Category 1 duties as a 'high-risk site'. Websites with this designation have many more responsibilities under the OSA than their peers, including the need to verify their contributors. That would mean Wikipedia would have to identify the 'thousands' of Wikipedia volunteers in the UK that edit and contribute to its pages, something which would 'undermine the[ir] privacy and safety'. It could also expose the website's contributors to 'data breaches, stalking, lawsuits or even imprisonment by authoritarian regimes,' the Wikimedia Foundation wrote in a statement. Stephen LaPorte, general counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation, said in a press release that the court could set 'a global precedent for protecting public interest projects online,' if it rules favourably in this case. Wikimedia says the lawsuit is the last step after several years of engagement with British lawmakers in an attempt to fix the scope of the regulations. What is the case arguing? The case is not being launched against the OSA in general, just a small set of additional regulations called the Categorisation Regulations. 'We do not dispute the need for sensible online regulation … but for services like Wikipedia to thrive, it is essential that new laws do not endanger charities and public interest projects,' Phil Bradley-Schmieg, Wikimedia's lead counsel, wrote in a blog post. As a 'Category 1' site under the regulations, Wikipedia is then subjected to many 'burdensome' requirements that it argues will affect the quality of its site, Bradley-Schmieg added. He argued that the regulations, along with a sister piece of legislation, could force 'potentially malicious' users to block any unverified users from fixing or removing content they post. This could result in 'significant amounts of vandalism, disinformation or abuse going unchecked on Wikipedia,' the blog post added. Wikipedia also relies on a 'content recommender system' or algorithm to suggest what sites a user could be interested in, which Bradley-Schmieg believes is enough to land them 'Category 1' status. What that means is some of their tools that use algorithms to fight 'harmful content,' like the New Pages Feed that keeps track of pages that are ready to be reviewed or Translation Recommendations, which help their volunteers translate text, could be at risk. The regulations also designate Category 1 sites as those that receive more than 34 million monthly views. Wikipedia gets 11 billion global views a month (Wikipedia puts this number at 15 billion) with 844 million of them coming from the UK, according to web analytics website Analyzify. The OSA regulations 'seemingly do not differentiate between users who visit the site just once a month … versus those who spend hours each day 'doomscrolling' potentially harmful content on social media,' Bradley-Schmieg argued.
