An innovation is to help identify child pornographic material in the possession of the user. However, it will initially only be introduced for US users in the fall.
Apple wants to improve the protection of children and young people on its devices with new functions. Among other things, it will be possible in the future for parents to receive a warning message if their child receives or sends nude photos in Apple’s iMessage chat service.
The nudity in the pictures is detected by software on the device, as Apple explained. The group does not hear about it.
Another innovation, which will initially only be introduced for US users in the fall, is intended to help identify child pornographic material in the possession of the users. Photos on users’ devices are compared with a database of known child pornography images before they are uploaded to Apple’s online storage service iCloud. For the comparison, a file with so-called “hashes” of such photos should be loaded onto the devices – a kind of digital fingerprint of the image. A similar photo can be seen above, but it cannot be restored from the hash.
If there is a match, a suspicious picture is provided with a certificate, thanks to which Apple can exceptionally open it after uploading it to iCloud and subject it to an examination. If child pornographic material is actually discovered, Apple reports this to the American non-governmental organization NCMEC (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children), which in turn can involve the authorities.
While the function is only activated for Apple customers with US accounts, the file with the hashes is a fixed part of the operating system and is downloaded to all iPhones on which this version of the software is installed. Before the function can be introduced internationally, the legal requirements must first be clarified.
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