European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen (pictured) outlined plans to restrict children’s access to social media under the watchdog’s proposed EU Kids Act, as concerns mount over the impact of addictive online services and increasingly capable AI systems.
In her annual State of the Union address, von der Leyen told the European Parliament: “What we are witnessing is a great capture of our children. A capture of their attention, their focus, their minds.” She explained the proposed EU Kids Act would ban children under 13 from social media and bar under 15 users from having personal accounts.
Meanwhile, 13 to 15-year-olds would only be able to use “mini accounts” set up and supervised by parents, with limited features and time restrictions. Platforms would also be required to implement additional safety features for users aged 15 to 18.
“We are reversing the burden of proof,” she said, adding, “platforms will have to prove that they are safe”.
Von der Leyen noted young Europeans now spend four to six hours a day on screens, pointing to concerns around addictive features, harmful content, online bullying and growing rates of sleep issues, anxiety and suicide.
“We do not have to accept addictive features. We do not have to accept children being drawn into ever more extreme content. We do not have to accept that girls have their photos used for AI-generated sexualised images,” she argued.
The measures form part of the EU Kids Act, which the EC is due to propose tomorrow (17 September). The proposal would introduce age checks across social media, video sharing platforms, app stores, online games and AI services.
The EC is also preparing a broader Digital Fairness Act aimed at addressing addictive design features beyond services used by children.
AI tipping point
AI was also a focus of the address, with von der Leyen describing it as “the second tipping point of our times”.
She warned that increasingly capable models could create new security risks, including more powerful hacking capabilities and the potential for self-improving systems to cause mass harm.
She revealed the EC plans to work with partners including the UK and Canada on “model evaluation, verification, early warning, AI security and much more”, while also seeking greater European computing capacity and investment in local AI companies.
Von der Leyen called on the region to use AI to support sectors including healthcare, manufacturing, transport and agriculture, while retaining human oversight. “Our approach is clear. We want AI… But above all, we want AI with human agency.”
Global concerns have been mounting over the pace of AI development this week, as Anthropic and OpenAI chiefs called for a slowdown in frontier AI development after researchers warned of existential risks from increasingly capable systems.
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Accenture agreed to pay the US government $25 million to settle allegations it used race and sex as factors in hiring and promotion decisions at its federal services business.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) alleged Accenture Federal Services (AFS) falsely certified it was complying with anti-discrimination requirements attached to federal contracts while using race and sex in employment decisions from 2017 onwards.
The government claim AFS “took race or sex into account when making hiring decisions to achieve progress toward non-public workforce composition goals”. According to the DoJ, AFS provided business leaders with monthly reports summarising the percentage of each race and sex within the unit to show how closely the workforce matched representation targets.
“These demographic goals were designed to, and did, drive changes in hiring practices based on race and sex,” the DoJ argued, adding the targets prompted a round of entry-level recruitment at the company in late 2020 and early 2021.
It also stated candidates who advanced AFS’ demographic goals received additional visibility during managing director promotion discussions and that the company reserved access to some training, mentoring, leadership development and education programmes based on race or sex.
The agreement added the settlement was not an admission of liability.
An Accenture spokesperson told Reuters: “We have cooperated with the government’s review, and we are pleased to put this matter behind us to avoid the costs and resource demands of prolonged litigation.”
The Donald Trump administration has taken aim at DEI practices across the federal government and its contractors. Deloitte agreed to pay $21.5 million in August, while IBM agreed to a $17 million settlement in April over allegations concerning illegal DEI practices.
Last year, US operators T-Mobile US, Verizon and AT&T ended or scaled back diversity initiatives.
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An ambitious bill to keep toxic “forever chemicals” off California produce lost its teeth after the chemical and agricultural industries spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying against it.
Fridges are piling up in laybys across the country as recycling centres refuse to take anymore. It's the backfiring result, in part, of pettifogging green waste disposal regulation, says Ben Pile.
The post Green Rules Mean Britain Can’t Even Recycle a Fridge appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
On Tuesday, Google announced AlphaGenome Atlas, a resource that attempts to predict the consequences of every possible single-base variant in the human genome. The human genome is about 3 billion bases long, so trying the other three DNA bases that don't appear in our reference genome means sending a total of 9 billion bases through AlphaGenome software.
AlphaGenome is designed to identify potential functions of non-coding DNA, which does not encode proteins but makes up the vast majority of the human genome. Some of this non-coding DNA is essential for controlling the activity of the protein-coding portion—it tells the cell where and when to make messenger RNAs, how to process them into mature protein-coding forms, and so on. But much of it appears to be little more than the remains of viruses and other molecular parasites.
Being able to identify the functional portion is very useful, as is having all the analysis done by a single software package. But until biologists start to use it heavily (assuming they do), it won't be clear what AlphaGenome offers beyond what we could have gotten out of its training data.
© Vertigo3D
On Tuesday, Google announced AlphaGenome Atlas, a resource that attempts to predict the consequences of every possible single-base variant in the human genome. The human genome is about 3 billion bases long, so trying the other three DNA bases that don't appear in our reference genome means sending a total of 9 billion bases through AlphaGenome software.
AlphaGenome is designed to identify potential functions of non-coding DNA, which does not encode proteins but makes up the vast majority of the human genome. Some of this non-coding DNA is essential for controlling the activity of the protein-coding portion—it tells the cell where and when to make messenger RNAs, how to process them into mature protein-coding forms, and so on. But much of it appears to be little more than the remains of viruses and other molecular parasites.
Being able to identify the functional portion is very useful, as is having all the analysis done by a single software package. But until biologists start to use it heavily (assuming they do), it won't be clear what AlphaGenome offers beyond what we could have gotten out of its training data.
© Vertigo3D
Across several states, a quiet chemical industry campaign is making it harder to hold air polluters accountable.
Xiaomi could reportedly face more heat in India after the country’s Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) called for a probe into the Chinese manufacturer over its business model and compliance with investment law.
Reuters reported the SFIO released a document recommending authorities look into the movement of funds and whether Xiaomi secured mandatory investment approvals, after India turned the screw on Chinese companies following political tensions in 2020.
Xiaomi is already facing a tax bill in the country and had some banking assets frozen in 2022 for illegal remittances, an allegation it denies.
Reuters reported the government is reviewing the SFIO recommendations and action could be taken.
The SFIO reportedly stated in the document: “The most important part of the proposed investigation should be examination of the beneficial ownership of foreign investors and group entities.”
It added any investigation “should verify whether any direct or indirect beneficial ownership, control or change in control was disclosed and approved as required”.
The SFIO did not specify what it wants investigated. Reuters explained the agency is tasked with looking into corporate fraud, and has the power to arrest and prosecute offenders.
Xiaomi’s smartphone share in India has reduced significantly in recent years.
Counterpoint Research figures indicate the vendor holds fourth-place, with a 13% share.
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Since China banned the import of plastic waste in 2018, plastic pollution has had a growing impact on the people and ecosystems of Latin America.
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will vote later this month on two items intended to free up spectrum for next-generation connectivity, according to chair Brendan Carr (pictured).
The first is a satellite spectrum abundance order, which would allow the FCC to unlock more than 1,000 MHz of spectrum across the 12GHz and 42GHz bands. The FCC stated the freed-up airwaves could support a range of connectivity services, including faster satellite broadband.
The second item is a proposal to seek comment on modernising the FCC’s rules governing ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, an unlicensed spectrum category used across IoT, automotive and consumer devices. Carr noted the rules have not been comprehensively updated since their adoption in 2002.
“The FCC’s work to free up more spectrum continues apace this month,” Carr said. “Today, I shared two items with my colleagues that will push more commercial spectrum into the marketplace than ever before. By unlocking these bands, the FCC will give a big boost to American innovation and promote economic growth across a wide range of industries.”
On the satellite order, Carr said the move is designed to ensure consumers continue benefiting from competitive, high-speed internet delivered from next-generation satellite systems.
On the UWB proposal, he said the rule changes would unlock further opportunities for unlicensed devices across a wide swath of spectrum, pointing to UWB’s role in applications from vehicle safety systems to package tracking.
He stated the technology is so deeply embedded in everyday life that most people are unaware of its role, and that the proposal represents the FCC’s first comprehensive modernisation of the rules in over two decades.
Both items are scheduled for a vote at the FCC’s 30 September open meeting. The satellite spectrum move comes as regulators globally weigh how to balance growing demand for satellite broadband capacity, driven by operators including Amazon Leo, SpaceX’s Starlink and others, against existing terrestrial and federal spectrum users. The 12GHz band in particular has been the subject of a long-running dispute between satellite operators and terrestrial 5G proponents over interference risks and competing use cases.
The meeting items build on Carr’s broader push to release more spectrum since taking the chair, which has included restarting the agency’s first spectrum auction in four years. Auction 113, covering AWS-3 licences in the 1695-1710MHz, 1755-1780MHz and 2155-2180MHz bands, forms part of the FCC’s Build America Agenda, targeting 800MHz of new spectrum by 2034.
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