[HN Gopher] About communication safety in Messages
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       About communication safety in Messages
        
       Author : komape
       Score  : 115 points
       Date   : 2022-07-28 08:41 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (support.apple.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (support.apple.com)
        
       | raxxorraxor wrote:
        
         | tobr wrote:
         | Opt-in, on-device. Sounds very reasonable.
        
           | notRobot wrote:
           | Opt-in, _for now_. On-device, _for now_. Slippery slopes.
           | 
           | Privacy erosion is gradual, that's why they keep getting away
           | with it (well, that and "think of the children!").
        
             | olliej wrote:
             | Ok, so you couldn't be bothered reading the article and
             | rather just slippery slope argument the feature blindly.
             | 
             | It's an opt in feature, that's part of the parental
             | controls settings, and it does all processing on device.
             | Apple is not Google or Facebook, and has demonstrated that
             | it has no desire to access your images or data.
             | 
             | Your slippery slope argument is so pointlessly stupid it's
             | equivalent to arguing that the addition of speed limits is
             | a slippery slope towards not being allowed to drive. Eg
             | meaningless to the point where it erodes the meaning of the
             | term in contexts where it actually matters.
        
         | vletal wrote:
         | > Messages uses on-device machine learning to analyze image
         | attachments and determine if a photo appears to contain nudity.
         | The feature is designed so that Apple doesn't get access to the
         | photos.
         | 
         | LGTM
        
         | seper8 wrote:
         | This isn't written on the page linked. Where are you finding
         | this?
         | 
         | For other people who only read the comments and don't read
         | source material:
         | 
         | "Turn on communication safety to help protect your child from
         | viewing or sharing photos that contain nudity in the Messages
         | app. If Messages detects that a child receives or is attempting
         | to send this type of photo, Messages blurs the photo before
         | it's viewed on your child's device and provides guidance and
         | age-appropriate resources to help them make a safe choice,
         | including contacting someone they trust if they choose.
         | 
         | Messages uses on-device machine learning to analyze image
         | attachments and determine if a photo appears to contain nudity.
         | The feature is designed so that Apple doesn't get access to the
         | photos."
        
       | unnouinceput wrote:
       | So, a kid receives a message containing nudity. How does Apple
       | knows that the viewer is a child and not an adult? Because the
       | only logical answer I come up to this question is that Apple is
       | using phone's camera to see who's using it at that very moment.
       | Which raises the question of "isn't this an invasion of privacy
       | from Apple?".
       | 
       | Also, yeah, all the people working at Apple are all saints and
       | they would never abuse this. /s
        
         | wonderbore wrote:
         | Have you ever bought a smartphone? You have to register to use
         | it, you must enter your date of birth.
         | 
         | Unless your parents are technologically illiterate, they will
         | set it up as a device part of a family. That's how they know.
         | 
         | This has its flaws, but that's what we got now.
         | 
         | > using phone's camera to see who's using it
         | 
         | Most definitely not going to happen. Even if it did, it's no
         | worse than Face ID.
        
         | angulardragon03 wrote:
         | Please read the linked article before making baseless claims:
         | 
         | > The communication safety feature [...] is available to child
         | accounts signed in with their Apple ID and part of a Family
         | Sharing group. This feature is off by default.
         | 
         | In Family Sharing you can designate AppleIDs in your family as
         | being child accounts. An AppleID is mandatory to use iMessage,
         | so thats how Apple "knows".
        
       | hericium wrote:
       | That's so American. Ban every nipple and every inch of other
       | "prohibited" body parts.
       | 
       | At the same time in Europe you go to a nude beach and there are
       | whole families with kids and literally nobody has problems with
       | it. Clothing is optional. No one bothers nude people, no one
       | bothers clothed ones.
       | 
       | In Germany or Sweden you can get your [banned by Apple] out in a
       | public place not designated for nudity per se and this just
       | normal.
       | 
       | But yeah, lets ban more normal/natural stuff.
        
         | akomtu wrote:
         | Puritanism is a distraction here. What Apple implements is a
         | in-depth analysis of all messages between its users and not its
         | users who happen to communicate with iphone users. The message
         | scanner analyses not only text, but also images. This will be
         | used to build more detailed user profiles for advertisers and
         | spying agencies, domestic and foreign (Apple is on good terms
         | with China).
        
         | 4eleven7 wrote:
         | People who go to a nude beach, opt in to a nude beach.
         | 
         | People who turn on Nudity check, opt in to a nude check.
        
           | buro9 wrote:
           | Was in Valencia, went to the beach... it's just a beach.
           | People were naked, it's just normal.
           | 
           | It's not a "nude beach"... it's "beach".
        
             | Erikun wrote:
             | Europe is a big place, maybe that beach was that way but
             | its definitely not the norm. Naturist beaches are usually
             | separate or there is a section that that is for naturists.
             | In Sweden (where I live), even topless sunbathing is
             | unusual nowadays.
        
               | raxxorraxor wrote:
               | It wasn't just 10 years ago but now you see almost all
               | people with phones on the beach and many opt out to show
               | anything.
        
               | tpxl wrote:
               | Been to Gran Canaria recently (technically Spain), and
               | every beach had topless women sunbathing (even the big
               | city beach). Don't recall seeing fully nude adults
               | though, as those beaches will be segregated IME.
        
               | darkwater wrote:
               | That's weird because in Spain - where nowadays topless
               | sunbathing for women is absolutely normal in every beach
               | - was "imported" by the first northern-European (legend
               | usually say Swedish) tourists during late-Franco
               | dictatorship.
        
             | refurb wrote:
             | That doesn't seem that special considering there are nude
             | beaches in the US.
             | 
             | I'm pretty sure "America is scared of naked bodies" is some
             | internet folk tail that Europeans love to tell.
        
         | carlmr wrote:
         | >At the same time in Europe you go to a nude beach and there
         | are whole families with kids and literally nobody has problems
         | with it. Clothing is optional. No one bothers nude people, no
         | one bothers clothed ones.
         | 
         | At least the ones I've seen in Germany have a nude section and
         | a non-nude section. It's usually not mixed.
        
           | watwut wrote:
           | By custom yes. By law, whole Germany is nude section. You
           | have groups of nude people in public parks, right in the
           | middle next to bike road.
        
             | carlmr wrote:
             | Topless, yes, but nude?
        
               | watwut wrote:
               | Yep, nude.
        
           | Galaxeblaffer wrote:
           | But you can still show your nipples at the non nude section
        
             | Erikun wrote:
             | Sure, but even that has become more uncommon than it used
             | to be, in my experience.
        
             | raxxorraxor wrote:
             | You can also show your dick in non-nude sections. You have
             | to be sensible of time and place but the likelyhood of
             | someone complaining is very low if you do it near a lake or
             | the sea. Pretty high when you do it in the city center or
             | in church.
             | 
             | At least it was common in the region I lived, there are
             | more prissy places though. I wouldn't do it anymore when
             | everyone has a smartphone though even if taking pictures
             | will get you in huge trouble too.
        
         | tomduncalf wrote:
         | I think it's more about the potential for child abuse than
         | prudishness
        
           | shaky-carrousel wrote:
           | A nude photo is as dangerous for a kid as a gore one. But
           | they decided to go against the nude one.
        
             | tomduncalf wrote:
             | I would say a nude photo is probably worse because it could
             | be indicative of some kind of grooming or other sexual
             | abuse.
             | 
             | This is an opt in feature so it's up to parents whether
             | they think it's appropriate or not, but I think it's weird
             | that people are getting mad at Apple for providing a
             | secure, private way to do this when child abuse online is a
             | real thing that happens and some parents may believe that
             | it's appropriate to trade off some of their young
             | children's privacy in exchange for some small degree of
             | protection against that.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | sph wrote:
           | "Oh, think of the children!"
           | 
           | Child abuse is a terrible problem, but big tech and
           | politicians are using it as leverage to erode all of our
           | right to privacy. What's next, let's monitor all text
           | communication to stop perverts texting with your child? It
           | will be hailed as another great step towards fighting
           | paedophilia.
           | 
           | The problem with the "child abuse" angle is that protesting
           | against these changes turns everybody against you, because
           | normal people don't have anything to hide. "Why do you hate
           | the children?"
           | 
           | We are losing all of our right to privacy with a massive
           | applause.
        
             | techdragon wrote:
             | This is the major problem when trying to educate people
             | about anything privacy related... Living in Australia I've
             | watched the government basically grant itself the legal
             | right to do whatever the fuck it likes with computers and
             | communications over the last few years, and its been a
             | horrible outright depressing journey.
             | 
             | Once people internalise the "nothing to hide" argument they
             | begin to reach for the question "what do you have to hide
             | that makes you think this isn't ok" before they are even
             | prompted with the usual arguments about it only being for
             | finding drugs, guns, terrorists, pedophiles, etc
             | 
             | The fact this is on device and off by default is _good_
             | because that 's how this sort of customer feature should be
             | built, like being able to install a DNS filter or other
             | website filtering software. If you're worried, these
             | options should be available to protect your children... but
             | sadly its a small step from "these are available" to "why
             | didn't the government make them turn it on before I bought
             | it for my child and didn't turn it on before giving it to
             | my child"
        
             | matthewmacleod wrote:
             | Explain which aspect of this feature involves an erosion of
             | the right to privacy.
        
               | ziddoap wrote:
               | I'm not getting into the middle of the debate on whether
               | or not this feature is good/bad, but I think this is a
               | pretty easy question to answer.
               | 
               | There is now a feature that scans every photo you
               | receive. There previously was not something scanning
               | every photo you receive. What used to be a conversation
               | between 2 people is now a conversation between 2 people
               | and an Apple blackbox (assuming you turn the feature on).
               | 
               | As with most of these types of tech, the proponents of
               | the "this involves erosion of privacy" aren't necessarily
               | concerned with the exact implementation as described on
               | release, but with how the blackbox works and how the
               | blackbox (and the laws/regulations/obligations around it)
               | will change in the future, and the inability to change
               | the settings of the blackbox, effectively letting Apple
               | become the touchstone for what is 'appropriate', even if
               | it doesn't align with your view of 'appropriate'.
        
         | aviramha wrote:
         | While I understand the criticism - this is not the point of
         | Apple. Unsolicited nudity is usually used for harassment. I
         | assume that also in Europe sending unsolicited nude photos to
         | adult and kids isn't okay.
        
           | hericium wrote:
           | Apple's new favorite reasoning for invigilation is kids'
           | protection. Ban all knifes because someone can use a knife to
           | harm a child.
           | 
           | They wouldn't do it if it wasn't profitable in some way or
           | another. But would they choose to give other reasons for
           | their actions, there would definitely be more backslash about
           | their snooping.
           | 
           | People in general know that protecting the innocent is a good
           | thing and Apple exploits this to push their agendas under the
           | guise of children protection. Again.
        
             | olliej wrote:
             | ... you mean Apple provides a feature in its parental
             | controls to allow parents to limit nudity being sent to
             | their kids devices?
             | 
             | Like yes: the explicit purpose of parental controls is to
             | allow parents to place limits on what their kids can do on
             | a device, and in America specifically protect them from the
             | concept of people existing under their clothes.
             | 
             | But I fail to see what Apple is doing here that you find
             | offensive? Did you read the article and description of how
             | the feature is enabled and works or did you just decide
             | "Apple is evil and is choosing what I get to see"?
        
             | dereg wrote:
             | Do you realize the irony of saying that Americans are
             | overprotectionists, using Europe as a comparison, when the
             | EU may be the most sprawling, onerous, and protectionist
             | regulatory state to exist on this planet?
        
               | geysersam wrote:
               | From the other perspective: democratically elected
               | representatives banning harmful chemicals used in
               | children's toys vs. private companies reading and
               | censoring your conversations.
               | 
               | Not all "protections" are the same.
        
               | dereg wrote:
               | I'm less trying to compare the two areas line by line and
               | more pointing to the absurdity of ascribing Apple's
               | actions to a national prudishness.
        
             | knighthack wrote:
             | Relevant trope: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main
             | /ThinkOfTheChildr...
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | bambax wrote:
             | Of course. "Think of the children" is the apex of
             | hypocrisy.
             | 
             | If the US (and American tech companies) cared at all about
             | children, or human life in general, they would do something
             | about guns.
             | 
             | As a European, seeing videos on YT glorifying guns and gun
             | culture is extremely shocking. I would let my kids run
             | around naked all day, anytime, rather than letting them
             | watch one video showing people firing an AR-15 like it's
             | the most normal thing in the world.
        
           | miki123211 wrote:
           | If this feature were designed to prevent unsolicited nudity,
           | it would be far easier to turn off. It probably shouldn't
           | trigger for people in your contacts at all, and it should
           | have an override button for everybody else. This is not the
           | case, and the feature is even triggered when _sending_
           | messages with such photos, so this is clearly not its
           | intended purpose.
        
             | watwut wrote:
             | > It probably shouldn't trigger for people in your contacts
             | at all
             | 
             | Why? If you harass someone, you will put it into contacts
             | so that it is easier.
        
               | john_the_writer wrote:
               | They mean on the receiving end. :)
        
               | watwut wrote:
               | So like, if someone harassed me, I have to remove that
               | person from contacts and thus not have ability to
               | identify that person?
               | 
               | That is absurd too.
        
               | dkersten wrote:
               | Even on the receiving end, I could imagine someone
               | sending dick pics or whatever after having already
               | befriended the child, and already being in their contact
               | list. Better would be a _"ignore for future messages from
               | this person"_ button, but keep the warning for the first
               | time.
        
             | llbeansandrice wrote:
             | RTFA
        
             | drawfloat wrote:
             | Isn't the feature opt-in?
        
               | DrudgeCorporate wrote:
               | According to what I read in the article, yes.
        
             | GlumWoodpecker wrote:
             | Start off by reading the linked article. The feature is
             | opt-in, and has to be manually turned on. It only triggers
             | on child accounts where this is enabled. It is designed to
             | protect children from being taken advantage of by stopping
             | both incoming and outgoing nudity.
        
               | miki123211 wrote:
               | No idea how one-child sending nude pics to _another
               | child_ can be described as taking advantage of anyone.
               | Who 's the perpetrator here? And while the feature is
               | opt-in, it's opt-in by parents, and has no granular, per-
               | message overrides when the child knows what they're
               | doing. While a general dickpic content warning is a good
               | idea, there should be a "see anyway" button.
        
               | cassianoleal wrote:
               | I'm sorry, I'm no happier about this feature than you
               | seem to be, but...
               | 
               | > there should be a "see anyway" button
               | 
               | If you read the article and look at the pictures, "View
               | photo..." is right underneath the blurred photo. It may
               | not be called "see anyway", and it may not be a button
               | per se, but it has the exact same effect.
        
           | antman wrote:
           | In Europe sending unsolicited pictures of guns would be a far
           | far greater problem
        
             | heavenlyblue wrote:
             | Don't give them ideas
        
         | lozenge wrote:
         | So you're OK with your child receiving unexpected messages of
         | erect penises? Because that's what this feature is actually
         | about if you read past the headline. Not "banning" anything but
         | putting users and parents in control.
        
           | bambax wrote:
           | Yes, I'm totally ok with that (I have three kids). What's
           | going to happen? Will they faint? Die? They will probably
           | laugh.
           | 
           | In Rome there were statues of Dionysus sporting a huge
           | erection everywhere. It wasn't a problem.
           | 
           | In Italy today still, you can find postcards of him in the
           | same position. (Granted, they are statues, not images in the
           | flesh, but they're pretty realistic.)
           | 
           | I would have a problem with an adult sending nude pictures of
           | themselves to my kids. But I would confront them myself, I
           | don't need Apple's help in preventing it from ever happening
           | like it's a horrible risk.
           | 
           | It's nothing. Really one of the least important problems
           | ever.
        
             | shultays wrote:
             | You are OK with strangers sending penis pictures to your
             | kids? At what point of you are not OK with sexual
             | predators?
        
               | bambax wrote:
               | I don't welcome it. I'm just not terrified, as seems to
               | be obligatory these days. It's quite literally the least
               | of my concerns.
               | 
               | I'm much more worried about my kids being glued to stupid
               | games or "harmless" (but constantly updating) TikTok
               | videos.
        
               | ziddoap wrote:
               | They literally wrote out " _I would have a problem with
               | an adult sending nude pictures of themselves to my kids_
               | ".
               | 
               | How do you get "OK with sexual predators" from that?
        
           | claudiawerner wrote:
           | Firstly, why specify 'erect penis' as though that's where the
           | line is crossed? Does the question only apply to parents of
           | girls, since they're less likely to have seen a penis before?
           | 
           | But yeah, I wouldn't mind all that much; it would raise a red
           | flag for sure, given that many grooming operations work by
           | starting out as raising children's curiosity, but I do not
           | see any _inherent_ issue with my child seeing a penis (erect
           | or not!).
        
           | vincnetas wrote:
           | you can extend this to everything. are you ok your children
           | reciving gore pics, are you ok your kids receiving anarchyst
           | cookbooks, are you ok your kids receiving comunist
           | propoganda? are you ok your kids receiving any random messges
           | from anonymous users? if not i guess just whitelist contacts
           | your kid is allowed to interact. but i myself prefere to talk
           | about world and explain how things work and what you can
           | expect to encounter when growing up rather than growing your
           | kid in petri dish. eventualy they will see errect penis :)
        
             | jon-wood wrote:
             | This strongly depends on the age of the child, and their
             | maturity. I have an eight year old, who currently doesn't
             | even have a phone. Once he does I will absolutely be
             | whitelisting contacts, approving app installs, and turning
             | on functionality to limit access to content unsuitable for
             | a child.
             | 
             | That's not to say I won't _also_ be talking about the
             | world, and things they're likely to encounter. Those
             | conversations are happening even now, he's not being raised
             | in a petri dish, but equally I'd quite like to avoid
             | throwing him directly into a vat of toxic waste unprepared
             | if I can avoid that. Ultimate children are just that,
             | children, they're not renowned for solid decision making
             | skills.
        
             | FBISurveillance wrote:
             | I have a 5 y.o. daughter and two nephews: 6 and 11 y.o. I
             | like seeing them grow in real world.
             | 
             | There will always be perverts sending nudes to kids one way
             | or another. Where I grew (before the internet) we've had
             | them arrested near schools.
             | 
             | Pretending the world is all unicorns and rainbows is not
             | the way to raise your children IMO - the hard truth is
             | going to hit them sooner or later. Talk to them, treat them
             | as young adults, and explain what is good and what is not,
             | and why.
             | 
             | Fun story: I'm into crossfit semi-professionally and I've
             | recently been very pleased to hear my 5 y.o. telling her
             | friends that they should not eat that much fries and coke
             | if they want to stay healthy and suggested they try fish
             | and chicken instead.
        
               | Glawen wrote:
               | >Fun story: I'm into crossfit semi-professionally and
               | I've recently been very pleased to hear my 5 y.o. telling
               | her friends that they should not eat that much fries and
               | coke if they want to stay healthy and suggested they try
               | fish and chicken instead.
               | 
               | I actually find it scary. I believe that children need to
               | experience the maximum of stuff, and as a French they
               | need to taste all the food, whatever unhealthy they are.
               | Schools are a already pushing a lot of propaganda on
               | children about saving the planet. I can see that the next
               | step will be to tell them that meat pollute and they
               | should be vegan to save the planet.
               | 
               | My child is sometimes telling me things like this and I
               | tell him that he is totally healthy and does not need to
               | worry.
        
             | deltarholamda wrote:
             | >you can extend this to everything
             | 
             | Doing nothing until you can do 100% of everything is not
             | how anything works.
        
             | djaychela wrote:
             | How old are your kids?
        
               | vincnetas wrote:
               | to clearify apple feature looks reasonable to me. 4 and
               | 7. ... and now im questioning my previous comment in my
               | head about how certain i am about what i wrote :)
        
               | heavenlyblue wrote:
               | I think the more important question is how old are your
               | kids?
        
               | djaychela wrote:
               | Between 15 and 23. It's easy to live in a utopian ideal
               | where you say "We'll talk to them about all of this, and
               | they'll be rational and see sense", but having spent the
               | last 3+ years firefighting the impact of their
               | spectacularly stupid behaviour (all 4 kids are above
               | average IQ, but all of them have ASD diagnoses, all of
               | them fall into the 'loud, confident and wrong' category)
               | - a lot of which has involved impact with people whose
               | opinions are along the lines of free speech absolutists
               | mixed with 8chan lunacy - whenever I see people crowing
               | about how terrible all these ideas are, I think they
               | probably haven't spent sleepless nights comforting their
               | child's mother because one of the kids has spent another
               | night in a hospital, institution or police custody
               | because of undue influence placed on them whether it's
               | because of social pressure, or because they've been
               | convinced by a nutter to send nudes and use that against
               | them.
               | 
               | I'm well aware you can't protect them from all these
               | things, but a lot of people who have young kids seem to
               | think that as soon as they get to school it'll all be OK.
               | My experience has been that the games get harder and
               | stakes rise drastically, to the point where I often
               | consider that killing myself would be a logical way out.
        
           | MomoXenosaga wrote:
           | Teenagers have sex and experiment. Just teach them about
           | birth control and "no means no" and everything will work out.
        
           | codedokode wrote:
           | It is not OK that children have access to adult phones and
           | adult Internet.
           | 
           | Apple should fix this by creating a kid mode, where the user
           | can only contact people approved by parents and visit sites
           | approved by parents or conforming to kid safety requirements.
           | In this case the children will be perfectly safe.
           | 
           | Why Apple doesn't do it? I guess because it is unprofitable,
           | it requires major investments and doesn't promise any
           | returns.
           | 
           | Kids must be banned from the Internet completely instead of
           | trying to patch different issues here and there.
        
             | jon-wood wrote:
             | They do. iDevices can be setup with a managed Apple account
             | which allows whitelisting contacts, accessed websites, and
             | permission to be granted before installing apps.
        
               | lostlogin wrote:
               | Have you used it? It's really horrible. It said I could
               | share Apple Music with my family, so I gave my father
               | access. Now I pay for all his purchases.
               | 
               | I required approval for a child's app purchases. The
               | notification is dismissed when I try to get password from
               | password manager.
               | 
               | Shared photo albums? In a family? This is looks to be
               | getting some attention now, rather belatedly.
        
             | watwut wrote:
             | Nah, opt in feature like this is better. Because it is
             | actually useable for parents. The all in everything locked
             | kids modes are too much of annoyance for everyone involved
             | to be used.
        
               | codedokode wrote:
               | Maybe the locked mode for children should be required by
               | the law because many parents are too lazy or not
               | competent enough to setup a phone properly for their
               | kids.
        
               | watwut wrote:
               | Nice try, but no. If you create ridiculous hurdles,
               | people won't use it.
               | 
               | Meanwhile, the opt in button for this is simple, clear
               | and easy.
        
             | freeman478 wrote:
             | This exists already as part of Family Sharing.
             | 
             | You can do everything you said when you manage your kids
             | accounts (manage contacts, whitelist internet websites,
             | define appropriate content ratings and so on.
        
               | codedokode wrote:
               | This is not enough because in reality (I guess) most
               | parents do not bother with setting this up (or don't know
               | how to do it) and as a result kids stay unprotected.
               | Maybe there should be a law requiring to setup such
               | settings and a one-click option to switch to restricted
               | mode without having to toggle every checkbox.
        
               | john_the_writer wrote:
               | Way easier.. full parental control, no phone for the
               | kids. 100% effective.
               | 
               | I got my first phone at 35. I figure my kids can wait a
               | bit.
        
               | lostlogin wrote:
               | > You can do everything you said when you manage your
               | kids accounts (manage contacts, whitelist internet
               | websites, define appropriate content ratings and so on.
               | 
               | Have you tried? It's a dumpster fire.
               | 
               | Child requests app purchase > I get notification > It
               | wants my AppleID password > I go to password manager to
               | get password, but this dismisses the notification.
               | 
               | I believe it's getting a bit of love this OS cycle, but
               | it's hopeless currently.
        
             | jrmann100 wrote:
             | These features exist! Apple includes parental controls
             | under "Screen Time" and they works very well. You can
             | whitelist contacts and websites, and even extend them
             | remotely, as an administrator of a child's device.
             | 
             | For restricting access to the internet:
             | https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304 For restricting
             | access to contacts:
             | https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/set-up-screen-time-
             | fo...
        
           | tommica wrote:
           | If a parent is worried about something like this, then
           | wouldn't it be smarter to go for a phone that has no image
           | sending/receiving possibility?
           | 
           | Or if they are no longer available, shouldn't there be a
           | parental control of a white-list of contact numbers that can
           | show more than just the text in the message? This automatic
           | filtering seems like a slippery slope.
        
         | ziml77 wrote:
         | Who's banning anything? This detection is on option for parents
         | on devices that they already have control over. And all it does
         | is blur the image so you have to tap to reveal it as well as
         | include a link to support resources if the child didn't want to
         | see the nude photo.
        
         | Cthulhu_ wrote:
         | Children sharing nude photos of themselves, or being sent
         | unsolicited nudes, is not normal / natural.
         | 
         | As an adult you can just turn this feature off, if you use
         | messages for this kind of thing.
        
           | ilikehurdles wrote:
           | Photos are not natural. From that basic fact you can extend
           | any activity surrounding them to be unnatural.
           | 
           | Kids seeing themselves or each other nude is pretty normal.
           | Kids are curious. That being said, luckily none of the
           | awkward curiosities we entertained when I was a kid had any
           | chance of ending up on some kind of iCloud permanent record,
           | so maybe this is for the better.
        
           | adrianN wrote:
           | Children taking photos is not natural.
        
             | Hackbraten wrote:
             | Taking photos is not natural.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | dereg wrote:
         | Kindly provide your analysis showing a correlation between
         | revenge porn and nude beaches.
        
         | vletal wrote:
         | It does not _ban_ anything, it provides opt-in warnings to
         | protect kids from obtaining or sending nudes.
        
           | petre wrote:
        
         | sschueller wrote:
         | Sadly the same doesn't appear to apply to violence. America has
         | no issue with it at all. On German television most movies will
         | be cut for violence if they are aired during the day.
         | 
         | I remember being double ID checked to go see "American Pie" the
         | movie in Boston. There is only a few topless scenes, that is
         | it...
        
           | cato_the_elder wrote:
           | Different countries have different cultures. That seems
           | alright to me.
        
             | Comevius wrote:
             | A culture that sees mass shootings as normal, but nipples
             | as problematic does not seem all right to me. A culture in
             | which people are fighting in courts for their right to
             | nudity, a culture in which every bit of a woman's body is
             | though to be for sex is not normal. Murder on the other
             | hand should never be normalized, it should be a taboo.
             | 
             | And no, differences shouldn't be always tolerated, there
             | are universal human values. Killing and torture is bad.
             | Period.
        
               | cato_the_elder wrote:
               | > A culture that sees mass shootings as normal
               | 
               | That's just muddying the water by bringing up an
               | irrelevant issue. We are talking about displays of
               | violence in movies.
        
               | Comevius wrote:
               | The average American watches 5 hours of TV each day, 2/3
               | of the shows are about physical violence. The
               | entertainment industry is a propaganda for the gun
               | industry because people feel that violence is everywhere,
               | and that guns are needed for protection.
               | 
               | Research on the effects of viewing violence found a
               | desensitizing effect, especially for children. People
               | become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others
               | and more fearful of the world. This effect is much less
               | pronounced for video games, which tend to not dramatize
               | violence.
               | 
               | There is a reason we try to curtail violence in the media
               | in Europe. When you engage with a fantasy many hours a
               | day, it becomes your reality.
        
               | cato_the_elder wrote:
               | > The average American watches 5 hours of TV each day
               | 
               | That's an overestimate, it's probably closer to 3 hours
               | per day [1]. Also, if you exclude the elderly (like +55),
               | it probably becomes significantly less.
               | 
               | > people feel that violence is everywhere
               | 
               | It really is though. Right now, there's a war going on in
               | Europe. Curtailing it wouldn't make it go away.
               | 
               | > Research on the effects of viewing violence found a
               | desensitizing effect, especially for children.
               | 
               | Like the vast majority of social sciences, that area is
               | full of low-quality studies.
               | 
               | [1]:"In the 2013-17 period, the U.S. civilian
               | noninstitutional population ages 15 and older spent an
               | average of 2 hours 46 minutes per day watching TV."
               | (https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-7/television-
               | capturing-a...)
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | bambax wrote:
               | No. Images of school shootings can't be shared on social
               | media. Why not? Wouldn't it help to show what guns are
               | for?
        
               | cato_the_elder wrote:
               | This verges on trolling. I'm sure as you know, guns are
               | mostly used in wars, not school shootings.
               | 
               | > Why not?
               | 
               | Privacy of the victims?
        
               | bambax wrote:
               | Guns owned by individuals in the US are not used in wars.
               | 
               | We could blur faces if that's really the one problem
               | preventing sharing gore images of school shootings.
               | Somehow I doubt that's the reason though.
        
             | mgdlbp wrote:
             | Regardless of the specifics of the culture, this diversity
             | is lacking in the corporations of the Western internet.
        
             | tommit wrote:
             | Yes, obviously that's alright. It's nonetheless also
             | alright to wonder about or even question the reason behind
             | those different cultures.
             | 
             | As a European, it's just really, _really_ strange to see
             | how everything war, gore, death and guns seems to be
             | alright for the kids overseas, but don 't you dare show a
             | nipple or say a bad word. I respect your culture, even like
             | lots about it. But sorry, that's weird.
        
               | cato_the_elder wrote:
               | Right, but there seems to be a strange belief that the US
               | in particular shouldn't have its own culture. My
               | objection is to that. That's kinda American
               | exceptionalism at its worst.
               | 
               | Europeans have their own share if strange cultural
               | phenomenon, BTW. E.g. apparently they don't feed their
               | guests in Sweden. [1]
               | 
               | [1]: https://nypost.com/2022/05/31/countries-where-
               | feeding-house-...
        
               | tommit wrote:
               | I don't think anyone feels like the US shouldn't have its
               | own culture -- definitely not more so than other places.
               | If anything, the US injects its culture _everywhere_ ,
               | due to entertainment being a primary export. And most of
               | it is completely fine. People may shake their heads at
               | certain things, much like you guys shake your head at the
               | thought of not feeding your guests. But that's fine.
               | 
               | It's just that (sorry for using such a provocative word)
               | the entire war/gun-fetishism is weird af for most
               | outsiders. The way I see it, it's at least equal parts
               | culture and excessive lobbying/brainwashing. And it shows
               | in things like being fine with exposure to violence from
               | a young age. Contrast that to people freaking out at
               | nudity, and it makes for a silly juxtaposition.
        
               | cato_the_elder wrote:
               | > I don't think anyone feels like the US shouldn't have
               | its own culture
               | 
               | I disagree with that. The "America as merely an idea"
               | sentiment is quite popular. [1]
               | 
               | > It's just that (sorry for using such a provocative
               | word) the entire war/gun-fetishism is weird af for most
               | outsiders.
               | 
               | Children in Europe don't play with toy soldiers or guns?
               | 
               | [1]: E.g. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K19IFoKNYSI
        
               | tommit wrote:
               | I don't understand how the video relates to anyone
               | thinking you shouldn't have your own culture. If anything
               | that video claims that "leaving no one behind" and
               | "decency and compassion" are what makes America America.
               | 
               | > Children in Europe don't play with toy soldiers or
               | guns?
               | 
               | Occasionally for sure. But it's just on another level in
               | the US. I can't pinpoint it, but I've spent years in
               | America and visited a lot of toy stores :) we simply
               | don't have aisles full of nerf guns and shit over here.
               | You'll find them, but overall the topic is much, _much_
               | less romanticized.
               | 
               | And in the context of movie ratings, every war/gory
               | movie/videogame will be rated 16/18+ in most parts of
               | Europe. I know, because I used to get some Star Wars
               | shooters for Xbox rated Teen while on holiday in the US a
               | couple years before I would've been able to get them in
               | my home country :)
        
               | cato_the_elder wrote:
               | > If anything that video claims that "leaving no one
               | behind" and "decency and compassion" are what makes
               | America America.
               | 
               | Well, I kinda think those claims are mostly lies. We all
               | know that Americans are not well-known for their
               | compassion.
               | 
               | American culture used to emphasize frankness, family
               | values, freedom, and individual responsibility. Now, it's
               | rulings class has decided these cultural values interfere
               | with their interests. So, they have decided to pretend
               | these don't exist.
               | 
               | > And in the context of movie ratings, every war/gory
               | movie/videogame will be rated 16/18+ in most parts of
               | Europe.
               | 
               | Interesting, are those ratings taken seriously?
        
               | tommit wrote:
               | That's funny. Frankness is not a trait I would have
               | thought is very American. If anything, you guys are a bit
               | too polite at times it seems.
               | 
               | I don't know if it's just the ruling class that has
               | decided this change. I applaud everyone who keeps up
               | "family values", but I will absolutely vote for shutting
               | that shit down as soon as it's a front for "white man,
               | breadwinner, white woman, housewife, two children --
               | everything else is worth less".
               | 
               | Unfortunately, a whole lot of those who were meant to
               | keep up those values used them to suppress others.
               | 
               | I claim that it's possible to be progressive and still
               | keep your culture intact. Family values can still be
               | emphasized, but why not simply include all families, no
               | matter how quirky they may come?
               | 
               | In any case, I applaud many things in your culture. I've
               | always had a great affinity for the US. No country is
               | perfect, and all will find some aspect about another
               | culture they find strange. What's important is to keep an
               | open mind, and not cling to traditions for tradition's
               | sake.
               | 
               | > Interesting, are those ratings taken seriously?
               | 
               | It depends on the guardians, of course. I know I was not
               | allowed to play games rated 16+ before I actually turned
               | 16. I know friends of mine who played CS when they were
               | 12. We all turned out okay.
        
             | bambax wrote:
             | It would be alright if one country didn't try to force its
             | culture, prejudice and superstion on all others, because
             | it's economically dominant.
             | 
             | I don't care if the US are obsessed with nipples. I find it
             | ridiculous, but also kind of funny.
             | 
             | But when this obsession prevents people from sharing art on
             | US controlled systems and services, then it's incredibly
             | annoying. (It's not the most pressing problem in the world,
             | sure, but it's grating.)
        
           | deepdriver wrote:
           | In America you need photo ID to buy beer, purchase tobacco,
           | or see a nipple in a movie theater, but not to vote. We're an
           | odd country.
        
             | gambiting wrote:
             | Wait, you don't need an ID to vote? How do people vote
             | then? Like.....I'm really struggling to imagine how that
             | works.
        
               | woodruffw wrote:
               | In the US, your voting district maintains a voter roll,
               | which in turn is updated based on voter registration.
               | Registering to vote means proving that you're eligible to
               | vote, and your name and information is checked against
               | the voter roll when you _do_ vote.
               | 
               | In other words: in many places, you don't need to present
               | an ID because you've already been identified. But it's a
               | big country, and that's not the case everywhere: lots of
               | states and municipalities do require you to present an
               | additional ID, or at least to present your voter
               | registration (and just your name and address).
        
               | deepdriver wrote:
               | It's actually a bit more complicated. My state doesn't
               | require ID to vote, but some do. Some require a full
               | photo ID and others don't. Photo ID is optional at the
               | polls in about half of US states:
               | 
               | https://www.usa.gov/voter-id
               | 
               | Where I live you just show up at the polling place, sign
               | on the line next to your name and address, and that's it.
               | Separately, here's how to vote without ID in California:
               | 
               | https://ballotpedia.org/Voter_ID_in_California
        
               | AdamH12113 wrote:
               | You have to register to vote in the US. Your name and
               | signature are already on a list at the polling place. You
               | can bring your voter registration card.
        
               | refurb wrote:
               | You pinky promise that you're eligible.
        
               | bigDinosaur wrote:
               | You don't need an ID to vote in Australia either. It
               | works fine. What's hard to imagine? You get checked off
               | on a list which includes all enrolled voters for that
               | electorate.
        
               | gambiting wrote:
               | Yeah and how do they verify that you are who you are? You
               | come to a polling place, say you are X, and they
               | just.....trust you? That's the part that's hard to
               | imagine for me.
        
               | sveiss wrote:
               | Yes. You're ticked off a list, so that you can't vote
               | twice, and that helps spot anyone who does attempt to
               | impersonate another voter.
               | 
               | It's not 100% foolproof, but it turns out voter fraud by
               | impersonation is very rare, so it's good enough.
               | 
               | When you think in terms of "make sure every vote we count
               | was legitimate", then "not completely foolproof" becomes
               | a solid argument for voter ID.
               | 
               | Instead, if you take a wider view and think in terms of
               | "getting the best quality estimate of the will of the
               | voting population", the argument against requiring ID (in
               | the US at least) is that it would distort the results of
               | the election far more than a tiny amount of undetected
               | impersonation fraud does.
               | 
               | This will vary by country. In the US, there are barriers
               | to getting ID for some groups (you need to go in person
               | during business hours, pay and wait an unknown amount of
               | time, and this needs to happen weeks ahead of election
               | days; this is a barrier to someone without transport
               | juggling multiple jobs and childcare, for instance.)
               | 
               | Other countries see the trade off differently, or use
               | different fraud prevention approaches. For example, I
               | know India uses indelible ink stains on fingers to
               | prevent multiple voting, and in the UK, there is no ID
               | requirement (yet) but the ballots are serialised and the
               | secrecy of the ballot can be broken to investigate fraud
               | allegations. Neither of these approaches would be
               | culturally acceptable in the US.
        
               | anko wrote:
               | it's compulsory to vote. If people start rocking up and
               | it says they have already voted, it will be caught pretty
               | quickly.
               | 
               | Australians are also fairly trustworthy
        
               | deepdriver wrote:
               | I don't know about Australia, but in America our lack of
               | voter ID has led to contention in the past:
               | 
               | https://www.jstor.org/stable/27550168
               | 
               | Personally I think voter ID makes sense even if only to
               | quash allegation of voter fraud. Voter ID enjoys
               | overwhelming (>80%) bipartisan support from regular
               | Americans. The main obstacle to new voter ID laws is the
               | Democratic Party establishment. They calculate a marginal
               | decrease in electoral margins if new voter ID laws were
               | to be enacted. Of course then they wind up faced with
               | fiascos like January 6, but politicians are nothing if
               | not short-term planners.
               | 
               | https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/25/politics/voter-id-
               | election-la...
        
               | tzs wrote:
               | > The main obstacle to new voter ID laws is the
               | Democratic Party establishment.
               | 
               | Propose voter ID laws that include provisions to make
               | sure that it is easy and free for eligible voters to
               | obtain the necessary ID and Democrats won't object.
        
               | frenchy wrote:
               | > They calculate a marginal decrease in electoral margins
               | if new voter ID laws were to be enacted.
               | 
               | So what you're saying is that voter ID will result in
               | some citizens not voting. Personally, that seems like a
               | fair reason to oppose the measure.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | bdorn wrote:
             | This is only true for 15 states. And half of those require
             | you to return with an an ID for your vote to count.
        
               | deepdriver wrote:
               | I didn't realize it was so few. My own state doesn't
               | require voter ID. However it looks like the states that
               | require ID tend to be smaller, and many larger states
               | don't require it. 41% of the US population live in states
               | like California with no voter ID laws, with an additional
               | percentage in states where a photo ID (as opposed to a
               | bank statement or utility bill) is optional:
               | 
               | https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jun/13/nikki-
               | hale...
        
         | cato_the_elder wrote:
         | > That's so American.
         | 
         | Not sure if I see anything particularly wrong with that. Apple
         | is an American company.
        
           | sph wrote:
           | Not all their customers are.
        
             | olliej wrote:
             | And you don't have to navigate through multiple layers of
             | settings to turn the feature on if you don't want to?
        
             | cato_the_elder wrote:
             | This is opt-in, they can choose not to use it.
        
             | refurb wrote:
             | Then don't buy Apple, go and buy a mobile phone from a
             | European maker.
        
         | alexruf wrote:
         | As an European I agree. I am a bit afraid of this new feature
         | since I might not agree with Apple what falls into the category
         | of sensitive content and what I would consider as ok. In fact
         | there is a big cultural difference. For me personally a nipple
         | or even a fully exposed breast is not a problem (we even have
         | that on public TV), whereas explicit shots of genitals I would
         | agree fall into a category which should be censored.
        
         | rmbyrro wrote:
         | From studying history, I have the impression the normalization
         | of nudity in public started after WWII in Europe.
         | 
         | Could it be that the precarious conditions (families disrupted,
         | lack of intimate space, moral degradation) to which the
         | populations there were submitted during the war shaped this
         | culture?
         | 
         | If yes, what does it tell about the value of this culture?
        
         | shultays wrote:
         | How one can compare "going to a nude beach with a kid" with
         | "sending penis pictures to a kid"?
        
           | llbeansandrice wrote:
           | I'm floored this is at the top of the comments. But I guess
           | "I didn't read the article. America bad." is what gets
           | upvotes.
           | 
           | I have a feeling that sending nudes to a child's phone isn't
           | exactly lauded as "natural" in Europe. Of course I'm a prude,
           | unnatural, and I guess violent American though so what do I
           | know.
           | 
           | Not to mention it's an opt-in parental control feature for
           | children's accounts.
        
         | dt2m wrote:
         | You raise a great point here. I'm born and raised in Europe,
         | still live here now, but I've spent a great deal of time in the
         | US, and the differences in how we perceive children might be
         | the biggest gap between the two cultures.
         | 
         | I much prefer the European view of children being raised as
         | young adults, seeing the world for what it is, rather than the
         | American idea of creating a puritan parallel society scrubbed
         | of all the "bad" things.
         | 
         | Looking back on this I've found that the European model raises
         | better critical thinkers - partly due to the school system as
         | well - and you end up with a more sustainable parent-child
         | relationship when the children are grown.
         | 
         | In a world where US culture basically shapes the design of the
         | tech products and social media we all use, this scares me.
        
           | deepdriver wrote:
           | The German band Rammstein made a song about this feeling,
           | with a great music video:
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr8ljRgcJNM
        
           | renewiltord wrote:
           | I certainly prefer the non-Bowdlerized world for children,
           | myself, having grown up as such. But if there is any thinking
           | superiority to that technique it appears to not be in action
           | considering that California (not unique in America in
           | cultural puritanism) outperforms most comparable European
           | countries. It certainly beats Germany at innovation, maternal
           | mortality, income, and wealth and has comparable gross
           | product, and life expectancy.
           | 
           | Considering that Californian children are no less sheltered,
           | I find it hard to believe that this effect on thought is
           | meaningful.
        
             | peoplefromibiza wrote:
             | > maternal mortality
             | 
             | it does not
             | 
             | it's 11.7 per 100,000 in California and 7 per 100,000 in
             | Germany.
             | 
             | Despite similar spending per capita in healthcare.
             | 
             | > Considering that Californian children are no less
             | sheltered
             | 
             | They come from families that on average are a lot more
             | wealthy than the average German family and live in a much
             | more pleasant weather.
             | 
             | Bit apples to oranges.
        
               | renewiltord wrote:
               | The 11.7 is the PRMR measure from CA-PMSS, which is far
               | stricter than the definition used in Germany. The
               | corresponding rate using the same definition as in
               | Germany was ~6 / 100k in California.
               | 
               | Easy mistake to make, though, since you have to be aware
               | of definitional differences.
               | 
               | A start to that is here: https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs
               | /CFH/DMCAH/surveillance/CDPH...
               | 
               | But you'll have to go read the guidelines to read the
               | difference.
        
             | allendoerfer wrote:
             | While we are comparing irrelevant metrics to the discussed
             | topic: Germany beats California at World Cups but loses out
             | to it at World Wars.
             | 
             | Turns out a country can be superior at one thing without
             | being superior at all the things.
        
               | renewiltord wrote:
               | Sure, I was asking if it was worth the better critical
               | thinking if it didn't lead to better life outcomes. It
               | looks like, if there is better critical thinking in
               | Europe it's not leading to better life outcomes. So that
               | means one of two things:
               | 
               | * better c-t does not lead to better l-o
               | 
               | * the c-t is worse
               | 
               | If you feel that World Cups are a better measure than
               | maternal mortality rate, then have at it. The measures we
               | choose are arbitrary, so we can just lay them all out.
               | I'm happy to accept relevant metrics if you have them to
               | show. Personally, I think a society with better critical
               | thinking overall would be able to, given resources,
               | reduce the number of dying new mothers but if you believe
               | there is no relationship I am happy to just accept
               | metrics you offer.
        
               | feet wrote:
               | The US is number one is prisoner population, go USA!
        
             | geysersam wrote:
             | Perhaps critical thinking is detrimental to GDP ;)
        
               | cassianoleal wrote:
               | Indeed. Could it be that this is because GDP is not the
               | main measure of happiness, or perhaps even one at all? I
               | wonder. :D
        
               | feet wrote:
               | Money is the end all and be all for some people. It's an
               | incredibly harmful ideology that not only hurts citizens
               | but also the environment and ecosystem
        
             | MomoXenosaga wrote:
             | California is a part of the US last I checked or did you
             | guys finally secede?
        
               | renewiltord wrote:
               | Picked an appropriately sized thing to compare
               | considering the variance in US-state laws and EU-nation
               | laws causes whole-US and whole-EU comparisons to be
               | noisy. Also I live in Cali and know it better than I do
               | the rest of the US.
        
             | mgdlbp wrote:
             | Observe the Netherlands' attitude towards sex education and
             | compare, for example, a quantifiable outcome such as
             | teenage birth rates.
             | 
             | There is a solid case that the US morality is _harmful_ to
             | children.
             | 
             | To girls in particular, even, but this aspect of feminism
             | does not seem popular today.
        
             | tintedfireglass wrote:
             | A lot of that can be attributed to the best people from
             | around the world emigrating to California and not culture
             | and education of Californians
        
               | renewiltord wrote:
               | Flattery will get you nowhere, mate! :)
               | 
               | But I do think that being an attractive immigrant
               | destination is a thing to aspire to.
        
             | beardyw wrote:
             | Many Europeans live happy and fulfilled lives and die
             | peacefully never having innovated or become wealthy.
             | Perhaps that's not a European measurement.
        
               | renewiltord wrote:
               | Right, but the US is happier than most European countries
               | by the last measure I saw
               | https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2022/happiness-
               | benevolence-... (comparable to Germany, better than
               | France) and when you take a state like mine (California)
               | it beats all but the Scandinavians, which, sure I grant
               | you they seem to have a good and happy society.
               | 
               | So, if you take Germany, Californians are:
               | 
               | - happier
               | 
               | - more wealthy
               | 
               | - more innovative
               | 
               | - have fewer mums die
               | 
               | Now, either this means this better critical thinking
               | described isn't manifesting into any life outcomes, or
               | (and perhaps this is a question worth asking), it isn't
               | better after all.
        
               | beardyw wrote:
               | Perhaps Europeans need to study the stats.
        
           | McSwag wrote:
           | America is a wage slave factory. Much like we can't make the
           | cake and eat it too. We can't produce both a world of
           | critical thinkers and a world dominating nationalistic war
           | machine.
           | 
           | While I'm at it with the sweeping exaggerated
           | generalizations, Americans are raised to both hate our
           | parents and hate our children because it makes better wage
           | slaves. Go ahead and downvote me, make my day.
           | 
           | Disclaimer: Another round of shots, bartender!
        
             | feet wrote:
             | You're absolutely correct. The american system is captured
             | by those with capital and what those with capital want is
             | obedient wage slaves.
        
           | baby wrote:
           | The US is very religious
        
           | dotancohen wrote:
        
             | Gasp0de wrote:
             | "I'll not call homosexuality bad, but bad things, including
             | homosexuality, are being promoted to children"
        
               | dotancohen wrote:
               | I do not understand what you are quoting.
        
               | mpol wrote:
               | It's not quoting, it's paraphrasing. The comment was very
               | suggestive in that homosexuality is bad. If that was not
               | what you meant, you might have chosen less suggestive
               | text.
        
               | dotancohen wrote:
               | I specifically said that homosexuality is controversial.
               | You and I might be accepting of same sex couples, but
               | there is no doubt that there exist people with, justified
               | or not, different sets of morals. My post was very clear
               | in labeling the glorification of violence as bad.
        
               | westmeal wrote:
               | To be honest I also read it like the previous guy did but
               | I understand what you mean now.
        
             | lultimouomo wrote:
             | I believe for a large part of the world homosexuality is
             | far less controversial than homophobia, and thus it makes
             | sense that Disney would want to showcase same-sex couples
             | to declare loudly that they are not homophobic. Whether
             | this is sincere or opportunistic it's open to judgement;
             | one could cynically notice that the large part of the world
             | that really doesn't like homophobia is a very high
             | potential market for Disney.
        
             | sampling wrote:
             | I'm struggling to understand what exactly is "bad" about
             | homosexuality? Why does a consenting same sex relationship
             | between two adults need "scrubbing" from Disney?
        
               | dotancohen wrote:
               | I said that homosexuality is controversial, not bad. That
               | means that though you and I may be accepting of it, many
               | others many not be.
               | 
               | I believe that my post was clearly calling out
               | glorification of violent behaviour and drug use as "bad".
        
               | drewbug01 wrote:
               | What you wrote certainly calls homosexuality
               | controversial, but then immediately includes it in a list
               | alongside violent behavior and drug use. Rhetorically,
               | that equates it with the "bad" things.
               | 
               | Unless, of course, you're trying to state that violence
               | and drug use is "controversial." But that isn't clearly
               | implied; you have to read much more into it in order to
               | come up with that interpretation.
        
               | vbezhenar wrote:
        
               | ctoth wrote:
               | I was trying to figure out "good multiplications" and I
               | think what you meant is "good products." and this is a
               | lovely mistake to make since multiplication is taking the
               | product of something. Anyway, nothing useful to add just
               | was trying to figure out where that phrasing came from
               | and was delighted.
        
             | etrautmann wrote:
             | What a weird and narrow perspective.
        
           | nonrandomstring wrote:
           | > In a world where US culture basically shapes the design of
           | the tech products and social media we all use, this scares
           | me.
           | 
           | This is a key point. Today we are all so progressively aware
           | of "cultural hegemony" and wallow in the shame of
           | colonialism. But we don't see its new and more powerful
           | forms.
           | 
           | The prevalence of digital technology means that companies
           | like Apple and Google imposing their values is a real
           | problem. And let's be clear, these _are often_ very parochial
           | values.
           | 
           | It could be said that Europe's digital split with US is only
           | about things like privacy and data control on the surface.
           | Underneath are more subtle cultural forces at play.
        
         | refurb wrote:
         | Are you saying Europe is cool with 11 years olds sending
         | topless pictures to boys in their class?
        
         | ksec wrote:
         | Finally people are getting it!
         | 
         | And it isn't just nude or iMessage either. Tim Cooks' Apple
         | have been forcing their American culture / political stuff to
         | the rest of the world for quite some time.
         | 
         | Part of the reason why I wish I could move away from Apple.
         | Unfortunately Microsoft or Google doesn't seems to be competing
         | and they aren't that much different either.
        
         | dgiol wrote:
         | Exactly, I wish European mobile makers had adapted faster in
         | the late 2000s.
         | 
         | We most likely wouldn't have to deal with the cyber moral
         | police, and total lack of privacy we deal with now (which this
         | is part of)
        
         | Lloydksk wrote:
         | The safety of apple is absolutely horrible. Sometimes you can
         | get banned or scammed. If apple does nothing about it the whole
         | community will be gone. Its a Seruis point.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | baobob wrote:
         | I think you need to qualify "in Europe", as a European it is
         | certainly not true of any place I ever lived "in Europe".
         | 
         | That aside, it would be nice if we could survive just a single
         | thread about a child protection feature without endless
         | absurdist arguments and strawmen being offered.
         | 
         | I appreciate the reply to this comment indicating nudity is
         | often unsolicited. That's very true. A productive thread
         | regarding a feature like this might include discussion of how
         | to limit its scope, or how it might be safely extended to other
         | kinds of harmful content a child might want to avoid. A
         | pointless thread might be one where the heart of the tech
         | industry continues to ignore the fact many new parents ban all
         | unsupervised Internet and new media usage for their children
         | well into their teens due to problems like this remaining
         | unsolved for decades now, and the industry being utterly
         | incapable of having a sober conversation about it.
        
           | bambax wrote:
           | Why do children need to be "protected" from nudity? What's so
           | special about nudity?
           | 
           | The reason people try to control children's access to tech
           | and social media isn't because they might see a nipple (lol)
           | but because it's addictive and prevents them from doing
           | anything else.
           | 
           | If we realy want to "protect the chidren" we should start by
           | dismantling FAANGs.
        
             | baobob wrote:
             | This is precisely what I meant by pointless: outside of
             | 20somethings and certain locales (particularly large
             | cities), alternate lifestyles exist where parents simply
             | may not want this for their children.
             | 
             | I'd suggest arguments for or against any particular culture
             | or lifestyle, or attempting to deny they exist, exceed the
             | scope of discussing the feature itself.
        
             | true_religion wrote:
             | They don't need to be protected from nudity in and of
             | itself. However if they are talking to an adult or a
             | stranger randomly messages them, it would be nice if the
             | device blurs pornographic imagery.
             | 
             | If they are looking for porn themselves (e.g. are of the
             | age to care for such things), they can download it
             | themselves via Safari.
             | 
             | But generally speaking there's no need to trade this stuff
             | on iMessage.
        
           | john_the_writer wrote:
           | I don't let my kids on the net unsupervised not because of
           | things like this, but because of social media and scammers.
           | Honestly, I'm more worried about them getting a call to fix
           | their computer because it "has viruses" than anything else.
        
           | peoplefromibiza wrote:
           | > I think you need to qualify "in Europe", as a European it
           | is certainly not true of any place I ever lived "in Europe".
           | 
           | Nudist beaches or naturalists' resorts are everywhere in
           | Europe, even where it's less obvious, like in the former
           | communist block.
           | 
           | EDIT: if we are talking about kids nudity, like changing them
           | in the open, in front of everybody, that's never been an
           | issue in my almost 50 years on this Planet as European living
           | in Europe.
        
           | gambiting wrote:
           | UK is definitely on the American side of things in this.
           | Lived here for a long time now and there's definitely a lot
           | of that "oh no a child might see a nipple, how awful". But
           | yeah, in Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Spain,
           | maybe even France - people would care a lot less. Especially
           | in Czech Republic and Slovakia - you go to a public swimming
           | pool, people just change in the open, children included, no
           | one minds or cares.
           | 
           | (obviously that's just my own travel experience, I don't
           | doubt there are places in all of those countries where that's
           | not true)
        
             | bambax wrote:
             | The UK made it very clear they don't want to be part of
             | Europe. Which is fine by me.
        
               | gambiting wrote:
               | They are though, whether they want to or not. If someone
               | says "in europe people do X" then "europe" includes UK.
        
               | ryandvm wrote:
               | The UK is culturally isolated, geographically isolated,
               | and politically isolated. They are about as European as
               | Mexico is North American which is to say it's technically
               | true, but practically false.
        
         | TacticalCoder wrote:
         | > At the same time in Europe you go to a nude beach and there
         | are whole families with kids and literally nobody has problems
         | with it.
         | 
         | Well ok: if you specifically go to a nude beach, I'd expect
         | you'd see naked people and nobody going there having any issue
         | with it. That's why it's called a "nude beach" right?
         | 
         | But they're not common. In France where I go the most often,
         | out of 8 kilometers of beaches on the district, there's like
         | 100 meters (1/100th of the coastal area) where nudism is
         | allowed. And it's not even on a beach: it's all rocks. The town
         | hall picked that one spot, far away from the beaches, to
         | isolate the nudists. It's tiny. There may be a few famous
         | nudists spots around the country but they're not common.
         | 
         | Still France: there are only two cases I can think of where a
         | woman showing its nipples in public is considered normal and
         | that'd be monokini on the beach (but not full nudism) and
         | breastfeeding. You don't see women walking topless in the
         | streets.
         | 
         | Monokini on the beaches is allowed everywhere in France as far
         | as I know but it's way less common to actually see women in
         | monokini than it used to be when I was a kid in the eighties.
        
           | Glawen wrote:
           | I'm in Italy on the beach right now and I'm stunned because I
           | did not see yet a nipple. I didn't know they were prude. On
           | the beach in France I would see nipples everyday.
        
         | matthewmacleod wrote:
         | _But yeah, lets ban more normal /natural stuff._
         | 
         | Quite literally nothing has been banned here.
         | 
         | I struggle to believe that you read and understood this article
         | before sharing this view. This is an opt-in feature,
         | specifically for use with the existing parental control system,
         | that enables pretty light-touch and overridable prompts if a
         | child receives something that looks like nudity. It's _clearly_
         | targeted at unsolicited nude pictures being sent to children,
         | and differential cultural views on public nudity have
         | essentially _zero_ relevance to that.
         | 
         | Now instead of an interesting discussion about this feature--
         | why it might be good or bad, the privacy or social implications
         | of it, and so on--we just have a chain of fucking nonsense
         | comments unrelated to it.
        
         | badrabbit wrote:
         | A lot of women getting dick pics would appreciate banning that
         | for sure. I see no problem with this so long as the policy us
         | recipient controlled.
        
         | throwawaylinux wrote:
         | Whenever the conversation veers this way, there's always people
         | pipe up to talk about how _American_ it is to have any concerns
         | about nudity, and that this is portrayed to be a bad thing.
         | Which seems extremely European or western centric.
         | 
         | Having issues with nudity is absolutely not "American". Nor are
         | Germany or Sweden moral compasses by which everybody else
         | should strive to live like.
         | 
         | Look around the world, there are many countries and billions of
         | people around Africa, China, South East Asia, the Middle East,
         | that are as "prudish" if not massively more so than USA. Even
         | with a European or western-centric myopia, does it really hold?
         | How about Poland or New Zealand?
         | 
         | In any case, I don't see what the point is. USA is overall not
         | as liberal with nudity as some European countries. So what?
         | Germany has blasphemy laws and laws punishing people who talk
         | about things, is that normal or natural?
        
         | olliej wrote:
         | Ah yes, it's very American to ban nudity.. oh, sorry, we must
         | have read different articles as this is an opt in feature in
         | parental controls.
         | 
         | I don't see anything about Apple banning nudity, where are you
         | reading that?
        
         | DSingularity wrote:
         | Nobody bothers clothed people? What about France?
        
         | Akronymus wrote:
         | Or how in europe, the sauna is nude and people WILL bother you
         | for going in with swimwear.
         | 
         | In the US it is the opposite.
        
         | Kalanos wrote:
         | this catches child predators. duh
        
       | Erikun wrote:
       | "Messages now includes tools that warn children and provide
       | helpful resources if they receive or attempt to send photos that
       | may contain nudity. [...] Messages uses on-device machine
       | learning to analyze image attachments and determine if a photo
       | appears to contain nudity. The feature is designed so that Apple
       | doesn't get access to the photos."
        
       | HidyBush wrote:
       | >naked photos and videos show the private body parts that are
       | usually covered by underwear or bathing suits
       | 
       | sweet, now the iPhone (which a child shouldn't use in the first
       | place) is nannying the kid and doing "the talk" instead of the
       | parents.
       | 
       | how soon until your phone makes your son sit trough an entire
       | sex-ed class on his first NSFW internet search?
        
         | wonderbore wrote:
         | > how soon until your phone makes your son sit trough an entire
         | sex-ed class on his first NSFW internet search?
         | 
         | I wish I received that the first time I looked for NSFW content
         | (at 11). I'm totally fine with this kind of warnings for kids.
        
         | jrmann100 wrote:
         | Being comfortable with sexuality and nudity is distinct from
         | sexual harassment, and I think this feature is fundamentally
         | designed to prevent the latter.
         | 
         | Some nude content is wanted or warranted by the user, and some
         | of isn't. Apple isn't blocking this content, only optionally
         | hiding it--almost identically to Reddit's NSFW feature for
         | mature adults. The "Ways to Get Help" might overstep the bounds
         | for some situations, but it might also prevent others from
         | getting worse.
         | 
         | Often, children are uncomfortable with sharing about being
         | exposed to uncomfortable content. While that may be a fault of
         | parenting, it doesn't make this tool any less useful.
        
         | dereg wrote:
         | This is the least charitable perspective you could adopt. If
         | you looked at the prompts, it's clear that this system is to
         | help initiate a healthy conversation with your parents/trusted
         | entities about how to deal with and understand these types of
         | photos.
         | 
         | 1:1 conversation couldn't be more different from NSFW internet
         | searches. A malicious party can use coercive tactics to have
         | the child send them compromising photos.
        
           | HidyBush wrote:
           | I am tired of being charitable to these companies.
           | 
           | Children shouldn't drive cars, they shouldn't do drugs and
           | they shouldn't use smartphones.
           | 
           | Would you be fine with a beer company making a "safe" version
           | of beer for kids so they get hooked and once they turn 21
           | they switch to the real stuff and become alcoholics?
           | 
           | Making these devices more "child friendly" is the wrong
           | solution to the problem. Actually, it's the absolute BEST
           | solution if you are Apple and want to calm the parents down
           | and sell more phones and services at the same time.
           | Unfortunately I'm not Apple and my objective regarding my
           | kids is not to maximize profits and push complex technology
           | to people down to the last semi-conscious toddler
        
             | lostlogin wrote:
             | Is there anyone alive that had their first drink at 21?
        
             | dereg wrote:
             | There's no censorship/prohibition of content going on,
             | unless you consider opt-ins censorship. I do not.
             | 
             | I'm curious about how you feel about Google Image's
             | SafeSearch being turned on by default. Is it also worthy of
             | such ire?
        
         | varispeed wrote:
         | They'll call it "Parenting as a Service"...
        
         | threeseed wrote:
         | Not sure what reality you're living in but almost all kids in
         | high school have phones.
         | 
         | This feature is targeted firmly at that demographic who
         | generally aren't going to listen to what their parents say on
         | this matter. But whom will suffer the worst if their photos are
         | spread around the school.
        
       | Claude_Shannon wrote:
       | Well, Discord once thought that my message containing a
       | breadboard was nudity.
       | 
       | I fully expect similar things to happen here.
        
         | Cthulhu_ wrote:
         | Discord's detector is a bit weird, yeah, but it can be turned
         | on or off by the server administrator. I turned it off because
         | we don't get much abuse and we got some false positives.
        
         | raxxorraxor wrote:
         | Did you put the male plugs into the female sockets? Perhaps it
         | was even pornographic material instead of just nude pictures.
        
         | napolux wrote:
         | well, a breadboard is actually naked... :P
        
           | Claude_Shannon wrote:
           | I guess I cannot argue with that :D
        
         | heavenlyblue wrote:
         | Dirty you sharing photos of electronics without the cover
        
       | kevincox wrote:
       | It would be interesting if you could opt into this for all
       | conversations. I know people who get a high enough amount of
       | unsolicited dick pics that they would consider turning it on. Of
       | course the controls and messaging would probably need to be
       | different (for example add "Always allow from this sender" and
       | less emotional support)
        
       | dusted wrote:
       | 'murican led neo-puritanism ftl..
       | 
       | I don't own any iDevices but it kinda bothers me that the world
       | seems to close in on itself while at the same time breaking its
       | own back bending over backwards to include _EVERY_ONE_[1].
       | 
       | [1] Except the ones who are wrong.
        
         | ezfe wrote:
         | It can't be turned on for people 14 years old or older, and
         | it's opt in for 13/younger
        
       | AndrewDucker wrote:
       | Very few people seem to have actually read the post.
       | 
       | Apple aren't banning anything. They're detecting nudity, and
       | asking you if you're sure. And that's only if you've turned this
       | on!
       | 
       | I can think of several women I know who would quite like to have
       | had a warning about incoming nudity before it appeared.
       | 
       | More information is better than less. I don't see a problem here
       | at all.
        
         | kemayo wrote:
         | Yeah, I'm actually surprised that there's not a way to turn
         | this on for non-child accounts. I've _definitely_ known people
         | who 're in the dating scene who'd like to have a choice before
         | seeing a nude picture from someone who has their number.
         | 
         | For that matter, I could see the appeal of just the blurring
         | feature in general. Checking your texts in public might be a
         | risky proposition even if the photo is totally _wanted_.
        
       | tibbydudeza wrote:
       | I used to backup all family photos taken by my wife/kids to my
       | NAS until one day I browsed the gallery looking for something and
       | found a nude full frontal my daughter (17) received from her
       | boyfriend.
       | 
       | I said nothing - stopped the archiving and deleted everything
       | except for my own photos.
       | 
       | They deserve their privacy and do whatever on their devices
       | without snooping - if we go away on vacation I now ask them if
       | they want to share any pics they want so I can keep it.
       | 
       | Apple is turning out to be big brother.
        
         | fastball wrote:
         | Doesn't this check only happen on the user's device?
        
         | teekert wrote:
         | I think you did the right thing. But still, I think it could
         | also be used as moment for education. For the boyfriend: "You
         | have 0 control over where the image ends up when you send it to
         | someone, perhaps even before you send it." For the Daughter:
         | "You are in possession of nude material from a minor. This
         | carries some risk, you should be aware of it."
         | 
         | But I get the struggle, I also turned of logging in my AdGuard
         | home instance, at least for my wife's phone. But it was also a
         | lesson for her when I jokingly told here the website she was on
         | right now... The ISP and Google probably know this too. And, I
         | can find it in my Router without AdGuard, and that Router can
         | be hacked. It's also a good time for education imho.
         | 
         | Modern tech is so interesting. When I can't get a hold of my
         | wife I sometimes find myself checking the hallway's motion
         | sensor, seeing it just registered movement, the unify network
         | reports to Home Assistant that indeed her phone is connected
         | right now. Ah, gas usage, bathroom lighting and moisture
         | sensors indicate she's taking a shower (boy it seems to be a
         | long one, 0.4 m3 of gas!). I'll just wait 10 min and if she
         | doesn't pick up I'll flash some lights or let the Sonos speak:
         | "Pick up your Phone". Yeah it's pretty creepy but sometimes I
         | don't even think about it... But writing it down like this I
         | could write a "state" sensor for my wife that could, with high
         | probability, tell me what she's doing and log it.
        
           | tibbydudeza wrote:
           | We had that talk about the Internet with my kids due to some
           | incidents at school and that made the news but fortunately
           | NOT (oops corrected) involving them - racist remarks on
           | Facebook - oversharing of details - stalking - posting bikini
           | photos on Insta - accepting friend requests from only people
           | they know - privacy settings - cover your laptop camera -
           | don't click links you receive - spam - the usual.
           | 
           | Friends of ours came to me how to deal with nude photos taken
           | by their underage daughter sent to her boyfriend - told them
           | to contact the parents and go to his house immediately -
           | watch him in the act of deleting the photos.
           | 
           | Fortunately he was not stupid to share it with his mates.
           | 
           | Also told them kids do stuff without thinking through the
           | consequences and not to be too hard on them - think she only
           | lost phone privilege's for a week.
           | 
           | I do have a IP camera in the house but it is angled and to
           | watch our parrot when he is on top his cage and alert us if
           | he decides to take a walk.
        
         | dereg wrote:
         | "Big brother" is not what's happening here. At no point does
         | Apple inform a parent if their child is sending or receiving
         | nude photos. It merely provides a prompt that gives them the
         | bare minimum information to understand the decision they're
         | about to make.
         | 
         | Microsoft Outlook sends me a prompt when I forget to attach
         | something to an email. Something like "Hey it looks like you
         | forgot to add an attachment, would you like to proceed?" The
         | prompt gives me two choices, cancel or send anyway. Similarly
         | to the nudity check, Microsoft scans the content of your email
         | to understand if you intended to send an email with an
         | attachment or not. Would you consider this to be "big brother"?
         | 
         | This isn't just a feature for children. Adults can turn this
         | feature on to prevent themself from ever accidentally sending
         | nude pics.
        
           | hef19898 wrote:
           | Checking for the _presence_ of contebt is compketely
           | different from _checking and reading_ of said content.
        
             | dereg wrote:
             | In this case, it's exactly the same. Microsoft (and Google)
             | is reading the content of your email, searching for words
             | or phrases that may hint to the fact that a file should be
             | attached. If it believes that you're erroneously sending an
             | email without an attachment, it'll send you a confirmation
             | prompt.
        
               | hef19898 wrote:
               | I never saw it that way... But you are right, how would
               | Outlook know that I want to send an attechment without
               | reading my email in the first place. Still hope Outlook
               | isn't reading the attachment so...
        
             | tibbydudeza wrote:
             | I presume they use that Microsoft technology to check for
             | presence of too much skin tones in the shape of a human
             | body ???.
             | 
             | The problem is if the ML flags something and forward it to
             | a human (even anonymized) to decide on for quality control
             | purposes - that is why Alexa,Google and Apple smart
             | speakers are banned in my house.
             | 
             | I only allow dumb bluetooth speakers.
        
               | afiori wrote:
               | At least once upon a time the attachment check was
               | essentially a search for the string "attach" in the email
               | body.
        
               | hef19898 wrote:
               | Well, we have an Alexa. It is always unplugged except
               | when someone wants to listen to music using it. Agree so
               | that a Bluetooth speaker would do the same thing, worth
               | thinking about.
        
           | tibbydudeza wrote:
           | Think a nude is rather different issue from a missing TSP
           | report.
        
         | agilob wrote:
         | >I said nothing
         | 
         | I think she deserves to know it leaked outside of her assumed
         | "comfort zone"
        
           | tibbydudeza wrote:
           | Let sleeping dogs lie and she is now 22.
           | 
           | There was no malice intended by me and I learned a life
           | lesson regarding privacy - I expected for myself but did not
           | even think about granting the same to my kids.
           | 
           | So I don't log internet activity - no net nannies - just use
           | Unifi WiFi to make sure bandwidth is distributed fairly to
           | all devices and to block spam/ads via Piehole.
        
             | ziml77 wrote:
             | You made the right choice to not say a word about it.
             | Absolutely nothing good would have come from telling her.
             | 
             | And it's wonderful that you learned a lesson about the
             | privacy of your children. I'm positive there are many
             | parents who would have freaked out and gone further in
             | violating their child's privacy and autonomy.
        
       | sdwolfz wrote:
       | M-x story-mode.
       | 
       | When you are together with a significant other, sometimes you
       | video call them, and sometimes they're in the bathroom, or
       | shower, when they answer (what are they supposed to do, not
       | answer a call from their beloved?). And during these calls they
       | tease eachother, shift the camera in a non conventional angle,
       | private parts exposed. Or they send naughty pictures to
       | eachother, starting small scale, maybe escalating a bit.
       | 
       | All of this is normal, natural, playfully, I would even say:
       | innocent fun. Nobody plans for it, maybe not even asking each
       | other to do it, it naturally evolves with the relationship,
       | partners doing it out of their own free will. Adults do it,
       | teenagers do it. Again, it's normal!
       | 
       | Whenever this happes through a system that is not fully E2E
       | encrypted, those pictures/videos get stored, analysed, accessed
       | by employees, or even 3rd party contractors that label them for
       | text to speech ML purposes.
       | 
       | My advice, use Signal (since it's always e2e encrypted) to avoid
       | the creepy 3rd party eyes, and carry on with your life.
       | 
       | As for the presented "nudity filter" and it's functionality...
       | you can't stop a determined teenager from doing what they aim to
       | do. Assume they're smarter and more tech savy than you are, and
       | this will just be a barrier they will find a way to overcome.
       | Better to keep them safe (give them Signal e2e encrypted) rather
       | than giving them prohibition (this never worked, and it most
       | likely never will).
        
         | theshrike79 wrote:
         | Unless your significant other is a literal child and marked as
         | such on their iCloud account, this'll never affect you in any
         | way. No data is sent to anyone anywhere.
         | 
         | > Messages now includes tools that warn children and provide
         | helpful resources if they receive or attempt to send photos
         | that may contain nudity.
         | 
         | > Messages uses on-device machine learning to analyze image
         | attachments and determine if a photo appears to contain nudity.
         | The feature is designed so that Apple doesn't get access to the
         | photos.
        
       | pdpi wrote:
       | If they're going to do this at all, "It's your choice but make
       | sure you feel safe" is probably the right tone to hit here. It's
       | all carefully worded to remain non-judgmental while still saying
       | "We've got your back if you don't feel comfortable".
       | 
       | Also, I have to respect that it's an opt-in feature by the
       | parents/guardians, but the feature still allows the kid to view
       | whatever the image was without actually alerting the parents. In
       | a way, _that_ tradeoff is the best-case scenario for this sort of
       | automated scanning -- it allows parents to put safeguards in
       | place while still giving kids their privacy and not blocking
       | anything. Curious to see if that becomes leverage to normalise
       | scanning in general.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | selimnairb wrote:
       | Why does my phone care that my preferred attire for writing
       | iMessages is none?
        
         | ezfe wrote:
         | It doesn't unless your 10 and your parents turned the feature
         | on
        
       | Gareth321 wrote:
       | I don't love it but at least it's not that disastrous on-device
       | "CSAM" scanning they were planning to roll out with this. That
       | must have been one of Apple's biggest blunders in history.
       | _Apple_ announcing they would scan _our phones_ for government
       | banned content. Pants on head crazy.
        
         | GeekyBear wrote:
         | Didn't we have yet another thread on Google scanning all the
         | files in your Google Drive just the other day?
        
           | izacus wrote:
           | What does Google have to do with any of this? Isn't Apple
           | supposed to be better at privacy than Google?
        
             | GeekyBear wrote:
             | What does Google have to do with scanning all a customers
             | data? It's something they have already been doing for
             | years.
             | 
             | For instance, this article from 2014:
             | 
             | >Google scans everyone's email for child porn, and it just
             | got a man arrested
             | 
             | https://www.theverge.com/2014/8/5/5970141/how-google-
             | scans-y...
        
         | threeseed wrote:
         | > Apple announcing they would scan our phones for government
         | banned content
         | 
         | Until you realise Apple has been scanning your iCloud photos
         | for government banned content for years.
         | 
         | And that the on device option was better for your privacy not
         | worse.
        
           | gambiting wrote:
           | >>And that the on device option was better for your privacy
           | not worse.
           | 
           | No it wasn't. Previously pictures weren't scanned directly on
           | my phone, then they were about to be. That was a downgrade of
           | privacy, not an improvement. The fact that it was only going
           | to be applied to photos due to be uploaded to iCloud is
           | irrelevant - you are still using my own device to scan my own
           | photos, and if it fails some completely opaque check that I
           | have no control over, you will report me to law
           | enforcement(who will then do god knows what). Not to mention
           | that during the analysis process my pictures will be shown
           | directly to a human in a centre somewhere who will judge them
           | if they are legal or not. Again, I'm really struggling to see
           | how this is an improvement in privacy.
           | 
           | >>Until you realise Apple has been scanning your iCloud
           | photos for government banned content for years.
           | 
           | Source? Apple has maintained for years that they _don 't_
           | scan pictures already uploaded to iCloud, since they are
           | encrypted and Apple doesn't have access to them.
        
             | GeekyBear wrote:
             | >Previously pictures weren't scanned directly on my phone,
             | then they were about to be. That was a downgrade of
             | privacy, not an improvement.
             | 
             | Absolutely not true.
             | 
             | When you scan on the server, like Google does, that
             | information is open to abuse by anyone who issues a
             | warrant, and I wouldn't be willing to bet that the warrant
             | is a hard requirement.
             | 
             | >Google's Nest Will Provide Data to Police Without a
             | Warrant
             | 
             | https://petapixel.com/2022/07/27/googles-nest-will-
             | provide-d...
        
               | gambiting wrote:
               | >>Absolutely not true.
               | 
               | Which part isn't true? Pictures aren't scanned directly
               | on the phone anywhere, that's true of both Android and
               | iOS. Apple's implementation would change that, again,
               | making their privacy implementation worse not better.
               | 
               | >>When you scan on the server, like Google does
               | 
               | I don't see how that's relevant. Apple wasn't scanning on
               | their servers(at least that's what they say publicly, I
               | don't doubt that NSA has access to the data anyway).
        
               | GeekyBear wrote:
               | Apple designed their system so that they don't have
               | access to the scan data or the scan results.
               | 
               | Google is scanning everything in your Google Drive on
               | server, and that data can be accessed and abused by
               | anyone willing to issue a warrant.
               | 
               | Google's system is worse for privacy.
        
               | gambiting wrote:
               | >>Apple designed their system so that they don't have
               | access to the scan data or the scan results.
               | 
               | That's explicitly not true - your phone would scan the
               | photos, if it failed the scan, then the photo would be
               | uploaded to their verification centre where a human would
               | look at the pictures in person and decide to forward them
               | to law enforcement or not. We can argue whether the
               | "verification centre" is Apple having access to scan
               | data/results, but I feel like that's splitting hairs.
               | It's a downgrade for the privacy that you used to have
               | with Apple, not an improvement.
               | 
               | >>Google's system is worse for privacy.
               | 
               | I have zero idea why you keep bringing Google up. I'm
               | saying that Apple's proposed system is a downgrade of
               | their privacy implementation, not an improvement. What
               | google does or does not do is not relevant to that
               | argument.
        
               | GeekyBear wrote:
               | > That's explicitly not true - your phone would scan the
               | photos, if it failed the scan, then the photo would be
               | uploaded to their verification centre where a human would
               | look at the pictures in person and decide to forward them
               | to law enforcement or not.
               | 
               | You seem to be discussing the system Apple never
               | implemented.
               | 
               | I am discussing the system that has just been announced.
               | 
               | Yes, in the system just announced, it's an opt in
               | parental control where Apple has no access to the images
               | being scanned and doesn't know the scan results, while
               | Google is busily scanning all the contents of everything
               | in your Google account.
               | 
               | How do Google customers opt out of that?
        
               | gambiting wrote:
               | >>You seem to be discussing the system Apple never
               | implemented.
               | 
               | What gave it away? The fact that I originally replied to
               | the comment which was discussing that never released CSAM
               | scanning system?
               | 
               | >>I am discussing the system that has just been
               | announced.
               | 
               | So as I suspected, you are arguing against an argument I
               | have never made.
               | 
               | >>How do Google customers opt out of that?
               | 
               | How do I opt out of you asking about Google if literally
               | no part of my argument was about Google?
        
             | randyrand wrote:
             | Dont have time to look for a source, but iCloud Photos are
             | encrypted with keys that Apple _does_ have access to. They
             | hand it over for law enforcement.
        
               | gambiting wrote:
               | Right, but they don't actively scan everything uploaded
               | to iCloud, is my understanding - they will decrypt your
               | iCloud storage when asked, but they don't scan the
               | contents by default. At least that's how I understand it.
        
             | threeseed wrote:
             | Jane Horvath, Apple's chief privacy officer, said at a tech
             | conference that the company uses screening technology to
             | look for the illegal images. The company says it disables
             | accounts if Apple finds evidence of child exploitation
             | material, although it does not specify how it discovers it.
             | 
             | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/01/08/apple-
             | scan...
             | 
             | And of course the whole issue with backups not being
             | encrypted.
        
             | theshrike79 wrote:
             | Every major cloud provider scans their hosting for CSAM
             | automatically. It's the cost of doing business. Either you
             | do it or the feds do it for you. The automated way is a lot
             | cheaper and easier.
             | 
             | If Apple could do it on-device reliably, they could encrypt
             | their storage and there would be no "think of the children"
             | -reason to allow government agencies access to the files
             | anymore.
        
               | gambiting wrote:
               | Again, as I said in my other comments - Apple has
               | explicitly said many times that they don't scan your
               | icloud photos by default, because they are encrypted
               | already. They will hand your encryption keys to law
               | enforcement when presented with a warrant, but by default
               | nothing is scanned.
        
           | Gareth321 wrote:
           | Apple can scan whatever it likes on their servers. That is
           | _worlds_ away from scanning content on _my_ phone. How on
           | earth can you claim that is better for privacy? It 's the
           | exact opposite.
        
             | kemayo wrote:
             | Their proposed system was to scan stuff on your phone as
             | part of the upload-to-iCloud process. I.e. only stuff that
             | was about to be on their servers (where it could be
             | scanned) anyway would get scanned, and you could thus
             | completely opt out by turning off their iCloud Photo
             | Library stuff.
             | 
             | To me this winds up feeling totally fine as a trade-off,
             | particularly if it wound up paving the way for actual end-
             | to-end encryption of the photos, though I see that it
             | bothers some people.
        
       | ezfe wrote:
       | 1) _CAN NOT_ be turned on for people over 13 years old 2) Opt-in
       | 3) Just puts a warning over sexual photos, doesn 't block
       | anything
        
       | cft wrote:
       | That means they have not given up on the whole direction of on-
       | device image scanning, the idea of clandestinely reporting your
       | device images [1], that they (temporarily) abandoned due to a
       | backlash. There must be an internal censorship struggle within
       | Apple, and it's unclear which group will win. I personally
       | skipped their M1 laptops when the news of [1] came out. Was
       | waiting for M2 14" pro after they abandoned it, but now will
       | probably go with an XPS13
       | 
       | 1. https://www.macrumors.com/2021/12/15/apple-nixes-csam-
       | refere...
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | st-keller wrote:
       | Why is nudity such a big thing? Sorry, but I don't get it. Maybe
       | i do not understand this, because i am german? My children (as
       | they were little) got in contact with content that distrubed them
       | a lot. The most troubling of them videogame- and movie-previews
       | with violent and gruesome content, that got to them were the
       | enviornment was somehow unconstraint. Sometime they could'nt
       | sleep! Darn - i myself really hate that stuff i have to look at
       | everyday - and i am 52! Maybe nudity is a problem - ok - do
       | something against it! But the other stuff - we don't care?
       | Really?
        
         | kemayo wrote:
         | This feature isn't really aimed at nudity-in-general, but
         | rather at specifically sexual targeting of minors. The scenario
         | it's most totally thinking of is "a creepy older person tries
         | to trade naked picture of themselves with your 8 year old".
         | Though also "before you share this picture of yourself with
         | your boy/girlfriend, think for a second first".
         | 
         | Can't speak for Germany, but in the US there's been a lot of
         | furor around school-aged people having some pretty severe
         | troubles after nude photos they shared with a partner got
         | shared more widely -- suicides, etc. We could certainly argue
         | that the fact they're facing trouble because of such things is
         | itself a symptom of a problem in American society, but a first-
         | level solution of warning people before they get into the
         | situation seems like something Apple can do, whereas broad
         | cultural changes are outside their power.
        
       | olliej wrote:
       | So it's an opt in part of parental controls - if parental
       | controls are involved we're already talking about devices that
       | are under the control someone's parents.
       | 
       | The analysis is done on device, and no data is sent to Apple, and
       | no data is decryptable by Apple (presumably this also applies to
       | SMS but SMS is unencrypted and routed through carriers).
       | 
       | If the device does decide that a message contains nudity it blurs
       | the image and provides "age appropriate prompts" which sounds
       | like suggestions to contact their parents.
        
       | iammjm wrote:
       | USA ad 2022 is still so puritan it blows my mind. Nipples seem to
       | frighten people more than semi automatic guns
        
         | ezfe wrote:
         | Yes, the opt-in, 13 year old/younger only feature that just
         | warns kids before their nudes get sent around school is
         | puritan.
        
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