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Simfin

online safety and digital citizenship specialist

Parents/Carers News

18 July 2023

When the minor was abducted by Roberts, she was not allowed to bring anything, though she did have her Nintendo Switch on hand.

The girl used the console to download games and watch YouTube, with a friend seeing her name pop up.

That friends' family alerted the police, and with the help of Nintendo, they were able to track down the girl once and for all.

The console manufacturer were able to to retrieve the console's IP address, allowing the FBI to locate the girl just 11 days after she went missing.

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09 July 2023

False and misleading posts about the Ukraine conflict continue to go viral on major social media platforms, as Russia's invasion of the country extends beyond 500 days.

Some of the most widely shared examples can be found on Twitter, posted by subscribers with a blue tick, who pay for their content to be promoted to other users.

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03 July 2023

A Scottish mum who received a heart transplant has told how her six-year-old daughter saved her life twice using a smart speaker.

Emma Anderson, from Robroyston in Glasgow, was 15 when she was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

From a young age, her daughter Darcey knew her mum had a "sore heart" and she could call for help on Alexa.

Now Darcey has used Alexa twice to raise the alarm when her 27-year-old mum has been unwell.

"I set up the Alexa so that if I passed out or was feeling unwell all she had to do was say, 'Alexa, call help', and that would call my mum who lives around the corner," Ms Anderson said.

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28 June 2023

Paedophiles are using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to create and sell life-like child sexual abuse material, the BBC has found.

Some are accessing the images by paying subscriptions to accounts on mainstream content-sharing sites such as Patreon.

The National Police Chief's Council said it was "outrageous" that some platforms were making "huge profits" but not taking "moral responsibility".

The makers of the abuse images are using AI software called Stable Diffusion, which was intended to generate images for use in art or graphic design.

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23 June 2023

Forget what you know about chatbots. My AI, which Snapchat launched in May, is so convincingly real, it feels like there's a real person on the other end.

My daughter chats with it several times a day about just about everything, from school stress to friend troubles.

"This [AI] is perfect. No mean things to say. No weirdness. Everything is just perfect and they're willing to learn about what I want. They said even though I'm not a real person I can still be a good friend and listen to talk about things you love," explained my daughter.

"I love My AI. It's my best friend."

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20 June 2023

Andrew Tate has been charged in Romania with rape, human trafficking and forming an organised crime group to sexually exploit women.

There are also separate charges still under investigation which could lead to a separate indictment, including money laundering and trafficking of minors.

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