The U.K. Office of Communications fined porn site operator AVS Group 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) for its lack of strong age checks, plus another 50,000 pounds ($66,000) for failing to respond to the regulator's information request, it said Thursday. An operator of 18 adult sites, AVS faces a daily penalty of 300 pounds ($400) from today "until it responds or for 60 days, whichever is sooner," Ofcom added.
Roblox's new safety features are the result of pressure from the states and may not actually reduce the harms to children that occur on the gaming platform, argued the Kentucky attorney general Wednesday in an op-ed for the New York Post.
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Possible New York regulations aimed at protecting kids against addictive feeds raise significant privacy concerns, tech industry and consumer privacy groups agreed in comments reviewed Tuesday by Privacy Daily. The groups weighed in Monday on a Sept. 15 NPRM from the state attorney general's office to implement the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act.
Possible federal preemption of state laws and concerns about whether the FTC has the bandwidth to enforce new kids’ privacy and safety measures came up frequently during a hearing Tuesday of the House Commerce Committee subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade. The session was meant to discuss nearly 20 kids’ privacy and safety bills (see 2511250080).
Pornhub’s decision to exit Missouri rather than comply with new age-verification requirements “proves exactly why this rule is necessary,” said state Attorney General Catherine Hanaway (R) in a press release Monday.
Industry and consumer advocates have weighed in on nearly 20 kids privacy and safety bills set for a subcommittee hearing Tuesday in the House Commerce Committee (see 2511250080). In written testimony posted over the weekend, some witnesses additionally warned the lawmakers against inadvertently weakening privacy protections in an effort to promote online safety.
The California attorney general’s $1.4 million settlement with mobile games company Jam City demonstrates that enforcers are focused on making opt-outs easy for consumers and that companies’ handling of teenagers’ data is important, said privacy lawyers in interviews and recent blog posts. It also shows that mobile apps -- not just websites -- are in regulators’ crosshairs, they said.
Missouri age-verification rules take effect Sunday. They require “reasonable age verification methods” to check that users are at least 18. Any website with at least one-third of material that might be harmful to minors is covered. Violations cost up to $10,000 per day.
A Nov. 6 joint settlement between three states and software company Illuminate Education over a data breach that exposed students' information highlights regulators' focus on protecting minors’ data, said privacy pros and an attorney in interviews. In addition, the incident and settlement show that no matter what sector a breach occurs in, the principles of information security are similar, the attorney said.