New Survey Shows Despite Many Online Safety Laws, Children Under 13 are Still Able to Use Social Media Accounts

The eSafety Commission in Australia conducted a study which found that most of the kids under 13 often bypass social media age restrictions to use platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat. The study found that most of these kids use social media through their caregivers or parents’ accounts while 5% of them also use accounts of their friends or siblings. More than one-third of under 13 also said that they have their own social media accounts, while there were also kids under 13 who could access social media without having an account.

Even though there are many social media platforms that do not enable kids under 13 to make their own accounts, only 13% of the kids under 13 got their accounts deleted because they weren't of appropriate age. The study surveyed 1504 children between the ages of 8 to 15 to find out social media use among them, especially when the government of Australia is aiming for an under 16 social media ban by the end of 2025. The Online Safety Amendment bill has already been passed and 77% of the public is in favor of it.

Another report showed that 95% of the children under 16 have already used at least one social media platform, with 80% of these kids being between the ages of 8 and 12. The accounts focused in the report were YouTube, Reddit, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch and Discord. When these platforms were asked about their age restriction policies, it was found that all platforms except Reddit ask for user age when a new account is being made. But there are no age reassurance tools on these platforms that can verify that the age being entered is true.

Only YouTube is the platform that allows a child under 13 to use the platform under their parents account. This shows that many children are able to access social media just because there is no tool that can access their ages and this is a matter of deep concern. But some tools like Twitch, TikTok and Snapchat use proactive language analysis technology to detect under-13 users. TikTok also uses AI for facial age estimation while YouTube uses classifiers on channels. If the platforms like Reddit, Twitch, Discord and Snapchat detect that a user is under-13, they immediately terminate the account while TikTok does a manual review of the user account to find out what could be the users’ age. Meta platforms also use some tricks to stop someone under 13 to make an account and also use facial age estimation AI called Yoti when there's need.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

OpenAI's ChatGPT Surpasses 400M Weekly Users, Doubling Growth Amid Rising AI Competition

It looks like OpenAI is unstoppable as the company recently shared another mega milestone that it’s so proud of.

OpenAI's ChatGPT exceeded 400 million weekly active users in February, a spokesperson confirmed Thursday, reflecting AI's growing adoption.

The software giant recorded a whopping 300 million weekly active users in December of 2024. But that’s not all. The company’s business tier users also crossed the two million figure in February. This means it nearly doubled in stats than what we saw in September which is when the latest update arrived.

The greater number of figures comes just a few weeks after we saw Chinese startup giant DeepSeek launch its AI model. The company shared more on this front including how it might end up outperforming rivals in the West at a minimal cost while still offering the best performance features. That led to a stirrup in the AI space where America continues to dominate.

But that massive success is slowly dwindling now. Many are pointing fingers at questionable behavior including possible bans due to privacy leaks in the small startup. There are also a lot of doubts in terms of how the company was able to attain Nvidia’s H800 chips. These are used for training AI models, even though there’s a current ban on exports in the US for all Chinese goods.

The makers of ChatGPT shared the whopping twofold rise in developer traffic for the reasoning models over the last six months. There was similarly a fivefold rise for the o3 model since the launch that took place in late January. The figures were confirmed similarly by CNBC.

This is proof of the fact that 2025 is not being taken slow by the tech giant and despite competition springing up in all directions, OpenAI has its eyes set on the prize.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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• Governments Have Access! The Terrifying Reality of AI Data Collection by ChatGPT and DeepSeek

by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Governments Have Access! The Terrifying Reality of AI Data Collection by ChatGPT and DeepSeek

We use a lot of online services that use our data for different purposes but most of the time, we do not know where our data goes and how it is being used. There are also a lot of government contracts involved that enable the collection of data behind the scenes. Most of the online services we use put users in close contact with intelligence agencies if the data isn't being directly harvested and this creates privacy risks. There are a lot of concerns about privacy violations on DeepSeek but this also took us to some concerning things about privacy on ChatGPT.

DeepSeek has data servers in China but most of the discussions about its privacy are recycled and everyone's repeating the same things. This shows that there are no new insights about information regarding privacy on these platforms but there are some new things that have emerged. The context of data protection law in China is nearly similar to the US one and the Article 35 of China’s data security law states that authorities are allowed to collect user data if it is concerned with national security or for investigating crimes. This shows that data can be obtained under specific circumstances in China as well as the US where government agencies can request user data when it comes to national security. But to obtain that data, there are some approval procedures and users are required to cooperate with the data collection.

• Also read: Five Billion Accounts Breached, Cybercrime Hits Unprecedented Global Scale

The CLOUD Act (2018) in the US allows the authorities to access data which is stored in foreign countries if the servers are owned by businesses in the US. This allows authorities to collaborate with foreign authorities on sharing of data under specific conditions with cooperation. The US based companies like Meta, Google and Apple cooperate with law enforcement but people often forget how the law works in the US. China, as both regimes have an authoritative approach when it comes to data collection programs which have limited transparency and have many legal loopholes.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT depends on Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure which is also used by the US government agencies. Microsoft also announced the launch of Azure Government Top Secret in August 2021 which will allow the government to handle top-secret data for the US intelligence agencies. This means that the infrastructure which is being used by ChatGPT is also being used by government agencies. Even though there are still some boundaries, they get blurred because OpenAI’s GPT-4 is integrated through Azure for the US government top secret cloud. This means that Azure cloud is being used for commercial applications as well as government functions.

On the other hand, data from DeepSeek is sent to China Mobile which is a state owned telecom company and is obligated to cooperate with law enforcement if it is a matter of national security. OpenAI says that it doesn't share user data with third parties, even if it's for marketing purposes but DeepSeek’s connection to China is a big concern due to several reasons. DeepSeek’s privacy policy says that it shares specific data to third parties but the policy doesn't provide any details and lacks transparency. This shows that both ChatGPT and DeepSeek are suspicious when it comes to protection of user data on these platforms.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Apple Releases Sleeker Version of Its Low Budget iPhone To Revive Demand

Tech giant Apple has just rolled out a more sleeker and expensive variant of its low-budget iPhone.

The company is trying to revive demand and widen its audience for the AI-featured model. The phone is 16e and was launched on Wednesday as the fourth-generation model that’s sold globally at a much lower cost than the standard and premium variants.

The former bargain-bin models were dubbed iPhone SE while the final variant was said to be rolled out in 2022. Similar to how its iPhone 16 lineup works, this 16e model features a unique computer chip for processing different AI offerings. Common features include text summary, audio, and the ability to produce emojis on the go. Another great feature is its smart virtual assistant, Siri. Users can also look forward to having a more powerful battery with a great camera.

All the upgrades translate into a much higher starting price for the iPhone 16e for $600. That’s a 40% rise from the usual $430 that was seen on the final iPhone SE. The only difference is that this 16e iPhone is more affordable than the usual iPhone 16 which comes for $800. The latest model will be seen across different stores by this month’s end but pre-ordering begins Friday.

The company shared more on this front including how the iPhone 16e would complete its lineup as a great device that’s more affordable in price so greater audiences can benefit from the entire iPhone experience.

Apple is also looking to balance the desire to offer more affordable iPhones that entice more users into the product sphere against self-interest in bettering profits from higher-priced products.

• Also read: The Demand for Premium Segment Smartphones is Increasing, with Apple Dominating the Market Share
  

The issue happens to be related to Apple wanting cheaper models to enter its luxury portfolio so that it’s good but not as great as the classic or premium offerings. While the company has been busy hyping its foray into the world of AI and Apple intelligence, the latest collection of features is yet to be shared with US users. Moreover, many nations don’t have this kind of technology on offer.

Apple is on a mission to better sales for its products in places like China. It’s not specified when this iPhone will be present in the region or when Apple Intelligence will be launched there. But we did see Apple strike a great deal with Chinese company Alibaba that might pave the way for better technology arising inside iPhones in the country this year in spring.

Other than handling AI, the latest 16e low-budget model has a unique look to previously launched SE models. It has a larger display screen and no home screen button. It features face recognition for unlocking like other premium models do.

• Related: Apple Intelligence Falls Short of iPhone Users’ Expectations

Image: apple NewsRoom

Read next: New Study Shows AI Models Are Not Able to Perform Even the Low-Level Software Engineering Tasks Yet
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

New Study Shows AI Models Are Not Able to Perform Even the Low-Level Software Engineering Tasks Yet

OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, says that many companies are incorporating AI into their systems but the companies should think before replacing AI with human engineers because it still cannot do a lot of tasks well. Some researchers developed a benchmark called SWE-Lencer to test how well large language models perform when it comes to performing real freelance software tasks. The results of these tests showed that LLMs are capable of fixing bugs but they are not able to understand how these bugs are caused and make mistakes because of this reason.

The researchers tested Claude 3.5 Sonnet, OpenAI’s GPT o1 and 4o with 1488 freelance software engineer tasks from Upwork. All of those tasks were equal to $1 million in payouts. The tasks were divided into two categories: management tasks where the models were asked to act as a manager and choose the best solution and individual tasks where the models were asked to fix bugs and implement features. The results showed the real world freelance software problems were hard to solve even for advanced AI models and that's why they are not capable of fully replacing humans.

The tasks selected by researchers and other 100 software professionals were put into Docker containers without any internet access so the models cannot get the codes from GitHub. After that, the tasks were added to the Expensify platform and the researchers generated prompts based on descriptions of tasks. Playwright tests were used to simulate real-world user flow and the tests were triple verified by professional engineers to ensure that solutions from models worked.

The results showed that none of the models could earn the real value of the tasks given to them. The best performing model was Claude 3.5 Sonnet which earned $280,050 and solved 26.2% of the tasks. All the models performed best in manager tasks which showed that AI models can handle reasoning and technical understanding of lower-level coding problems but they still cannot replace low-level engineers.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: TikTok Leads, Instagram Follows, X Struggles in Post Interactions
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

TikTok Leads, Instagram Follows, X Struggles in Post Interactions

A new report from Socialinsider looks at average performance of each post on different social networking apps after analyzing 125 million social media posts. The report looked at engagements through comments, likes and other interactions and it was found that TikTok is the best social media app in terms of performance. According to the report, TikTok has an engagement rate of 2.50% which is the most among other social media apps and its engagement is all due to organic and engaging content. In the US, TikTok having the most engagements might not be good news because it can get banned any day from now.

Followed by TikTok is Instagram which has the most post engagements but it still cannot compete with TikTok engagements. Facebook is even farther in post engagements. It can be also because Meta is putting more effort on Reels and is trying to reduce external links on the app. On the other hand, X had the worst post engagement while it was better last year. There also some difference in post engagements of brands who pay for X premium while who don't.

All these engagement rates are based on profile performance, which means likes and comments are counted based on number of followers on social media profiles. TikTok also has more average likes than posts on other social media apps as users are growing more familiar with the app. Posts on X aren't getting that much likes, while Instagram has the most comments after TikTok. This shows which social media apps are getting the most post engagements, with TikTok being the best and X being the worst.

For more insights, check out these charts:

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

South Korea Confirms DeepSeek Was Banned After It Sent User Data To ByteDance

DeepSeek may have made a lot of heads turn after it released AI models that many felt were superior to OpenAI at a fraction of the cost. However, the fame is slowly dwindling down thanks to some questionable findings.

The latest nation to ban the Chinese Startup is South Korea which confirmed that the decision was taken after it sent user data to TikTok’s parent firm ByteDance. This news comes days after we saw the PIPC share that new downloads of the app were suspended after it failed to consider the agency’s rules on data protection.

The company did set up a legal team to probe the matter in South Korea where it acknowledged its neglected actions towards the country’s data laws. Now the question still arises about which data was sent and to what kind of extent.

Under this law from South Korea, explicit content is needed from users if the matter has to do with personal information given to third parties. DeepSeek was installed close to more than one million times before it was removed from various app stores this past weekend.

We’ve seen the data protection authority Garante also order a probe and block the chatbot after it could not defend the concerns of the regulator linked to privacy policies. So far, critics from China have long mentioned how the nation’s National Intelligence Law provides the government full access to all data it needs from companies in China if they’re investigating threats related to national security issues or major offenses.

The context of this law in China is nearly identical to how the US handles issues such as data protection. Many businesses in America will need to cooperate with the authorities if and when asked to do so.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World