Latest news with #SafeToNet
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Yahoo
Safety-first smartphone for children unveiled
A new smartphone has been unveiled that is designed to keep children safe through extensive built-in parental controls, location tracking and parental approval for messaging and call contacts. Announced by phone maker HMD – the firm behind modern Nokia devices – the Fusion X1 has been created in response to new research from the firm which found that more than half of children had been contacted online by strangers. The study, which included a survey of 25,000 children and adults in the UK, US, Germany, India, Australia and the UAE also found that one in three children had been encouraged to take conversations to private platforms, 40% of children had been sent sexual or violent content and 52% of children felt they were addicted to their screens. In response to this, and ongoing concerns about the impact of the digital world on the physical and mental well-being of young people, HMD's child-safe phone contains controls that allows parents to decide when and if social media apps are accessible. The built-in controls all include parental approval for contacts for messaging and calls, a location-tracking feature which enables parents to receive alerts when children leave designated safe areas, and a 'stay focused' mode which can block app access during school hours or bedtime to reduce distractions. The features have been developed in partnership with Norwegian tech firm Xplora, who make child-safe smartwatches, and are powered by an Xplora subscription, which is integrated into the operating system of the phone. HMD said the aim of the device was to provide parents with an alternative to the dilemma many parents currently face, which is to either give their child a fully-fledged smartphone and the more unrestricted internet access that comes with it, or to keep their child unconnected. The phone maker has committed to launching two devices in 2025 as part of The Better Phone Project – a year-long scheme which has seen the firm work with parents and experts on what to include in a child-friendly device. 'Smartphones aren't just tech – they shape childhoods, family dynamics, and society itself,' Lars Silberbauer, HMD's chief marketing officer said. 'Few companies are building solutions with children and parents in mind. We are working with parents to do exactly that. 'The Better Phone Project is proof that change is possible when families, not corporations, lead the conversation.' In addition, HMD has confirmed that it will begin rolling out a real-time harm protection feature to its phones built with British cybersecurity firm SafeToNet. It will use AI-powered tools to automatically spot and block harmful content before it reaches the user, HMD said. 'This is about giving parents real choices. The HMD Fusion X1 with Xplora and technology planned with SafeToNet are just the start,' Mr Silberbauer said. 'Together, we're pushing for a future where kids are empowered to use technology in a safer way, and parents have the tools for added protection and peace of mind.' New, dedicated phones for young users are becoming increasingly common. Last year, US firm Pinwheel launched its child-safe smartphone in the UK for the first time, which places a special parent-controlled operating system on top of the existing software of a Samsung or Google smartphone.
Telegraph
01-03-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Child-safe phone will block nudes and abuse sent to minors
The world's first phone that can prevent children from seeing harmful content online including abuse is set to be launched this summer after an AI breakthrough backed by the Government. HMD, Europe's largest manufacturer of smartphones, has embedded the AI technology in a phone that is capable of automatically detecting and blocking harmful content before it reaches a child. Unlike conventional parental controls which block access to entire sites and can be bypassed, the technology developed by UK AI specialists SafeToNet cannot be disabled as it is embedded in the phone's operating system. It allows a child to remain on social media or other platforms but stops them seeing harmful content within them. The AI technology also extends to the phone's camera and video which prevents them taking any sexual 'selfies' or images that could be shared with a sexual predator or friends. The phone's AI technology, known as HarmBlock, has been initially trained to block children from seeing any sexual content but will be extended to prevent them accessing 'gore', extreme violence, self-harm and suicide content, say Richard and Sharon Pursey, the founders of SafeToNet. The online safety measures – to be announced on Sunday alongside a new starter phone designed with parents for children – have been welcomed by the Government whom SafeToNet has consulted in developing its technology. A government spokesman said: 'Technological innovations offer opportunities to improve safety online, especially for children, which is why we wholeheartedly welcome this important work by partners like SafeToNet. 'It is encouraging to see a handset manufacturer use their technology to respond to real public concerns, particularly amongst parents, around safeguards for children. 'The Government will not accept child sexual abuse in any form. It is vital that legislation is robust enough to keep children safe, and last month we introduced new laws to crack down on this.' The Purseys, husband and wife founders of SafeToNet and parents to four children, have spent 13 years developing the online safety technology which compresses huge gigabytes of tech so it can run on a phone at super-fast speeds without burning its battery. 'It must not destroy the user's experience of the application or the device. And of course, it has to be accurate, and accuracy is linked quite obviously to safety, because if we spot the harm and block the harm and prevent it from being seen, then we've safeguarded the child,' said Mr Pursey. The AI technology has been trained to detect and block sexual imagery through the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a Cambridge-based charity that works with police, the Government and industry to seek out and remove child abuse imagery worldwide from the internet. The tech has to be able to distinguish a benign holiday snap taken on a beach from a sexualised image that could be a precursor to a child being harmed or put at risk. 'We won't deploy unless we are accurate' 'We won't get this deployed unless we are highly accurate,' said Mrs Pursey. 'So we train our models on millions and millions of images to make sure that accuracy levels are as high as possible.' The tech is targeted at protecting children when they livestream or use video as these modes of communication pose the biggest risk of online harm. It is also why the AI models have to operate at superfast speeds and be capable of detecting potential threats even when there is background noise and little light. The AI has also been trained to detect and block text messages that could be the precursor to a child being groomed by a paedophile although this element of the technology will not be immediately deployed. The Purseys want to extend it to all devices used by children. 'Our vision in a perfect world is that we'd be able to produce our technology so that it doesn't matter who the manufacturer is or what the device is, you should be able to just press a button and download it,' said Mr Pursey.
