Alt link: https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=JaHD9yLY1WY

Japan protects children online very differently to the UK. (Shout out to red rose for the heads up - it was interesting.) While the UK Online Safety Act is driving biometric age verification and platform-based ID checks, Japan has taken another route: mobile carrier filtering enabled by default for under-18s, combined with parental control and digital literacy.

There is no nationwide social media ban in Japan. Instead, age controls typically sit at the telecom/SIM registration layer rather than at individual platforms.

In this video I explain: • Japan’s 2008 Youth Internet Environment framework
• How mobile carriers determine age at SIM registration
• Why filtering is enabled by default for minors
• The parental opt-out (waiver) mechanism
• The privacy trade-offs compared to UK-style age verification
This isn’t “no regulation” — it’s a different regulatory architecture.

Sources:

Nippon.com – Overview of Japan’s youth internet law and filtering model
www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d01099/

Children and Families Agency (Japan) – Sixth Basic Plan outline (youth internet measures)
www.cfa.go.jp/assets/contents/node/basic_page/fiel…

NTT Docomo – “Request for Not Using Filtering Services” (waiver form example)
www.docomo.ne.jp/english/binary/pdf/support/proced…

The Japan Times – Commentary on social media regulation debate
www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2024/11/28/japan/s…

The Japan Times – Reporting on youth victims and social media concerns
www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/02/27/japan/crime-l…

If you’re following UK Online Safety Act developments, this comparison shows that “protecting children online” does not automatically require biometric ID checks across platforms — but every model comes with trade-offs.

Let me know in the comments: would you prefer telecom-level filtering, or platform-based age verificatio

The age assurance future is coming for games.

They are currently voting on amends to the regulation. The "Chat Control" proposal would legalise scanning of all private digital communications, including encrypted messages and photos. This threatens fundamental privacy rights and digital security for all EU citizens.

https://fightchatcontrol.eu/

Privacy-focused email provider Proton Mail provided Swiss authorities with payment data that the FBI then used to determine who was allegedly behind an anonymous account affiliated with the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta, according to a court record reviewed by 404 Media.

The records provide insight into the sort of data that Proton Mail, which prides itself both on its end-to-end encryption and that it is only governed by Swiss privacy law, can and does provide to third parties. In this case, the Proton Mail account was affiliated with the Defend the Atlanta Forest (DTAF) group and Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta, which authorities were investigating for their connection to arson, vandalism and doxing. Broadly, members were protesting the building of a large police training center next to the Intrenchment Creek Park in Atlanta, and actions also included camping in the forest and lawsuits. Charges against more than 60 people have since been dropped.

Information the FBI received showed a specific person as the payment source for a particular Proton Mail account, the record shows. “On January 25, 2024, subscriber information received from the Swiss Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty Unit, revealed [full name] (SUBJECT) as the payment source for the Proton e-mail address defendtheatlantaforest@protonmail.com,” it reads. 404 Media is not publishing the person’s name because they don’t appear to have been charged with a crime, according to searches of court databases.
[…]
The document says the FBI believes that whoever manages the Proton Mail account likely has administrative access to the blog. The FBI received details about that Proton Mail account from the Swiss authorities via a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, or MLAT. An MLAT is when authorities in one country agree to provide information to an agency in another country. These are often used when the company or entity holding the information may only respond to local law enforcement demands for data.

Edward Shone, head of communications for Proton AG, the company behind Proton Mail, told 404 Media in an email: “We want to first clarify that Proton did not provide any information to the FBI, the information was obtained from the Swiss justice department via MLAT. Proton only provides the limited information that we have when issued with a legally binding order from Swiss authorities, which can only happen after all Swiss legal checks are passed. This is an important distinction because Proton operates exclusively under Swiss law.” Functionally, though, the material was provided to the FBI.

On an evening in late January, Emily was driving through her Minneapolis neighborhood doing something that had become part of her routine in recent weeks: patrolling for ICE.

Emily, who NPR is only identifying by her first name because she fears retribution from the federal government, says she followed an ICE vehicle at a safe distance into a parking lot. "And then someone leaned out of the passenger side of that SUV and took a picture of me and my car," she says.

Emily says she decided to leave at that point, but the SUV made a sudden U-turn and barreled towards her, braking next to her driver's side window. A female agent wearing a gaiter-style mask rolled down the window, leaned out — and addressed Emily by name.

The Banality of Artificial Intelligence

What happens when an AI hallucination leads to bombing an elementary school?

By Michael Altfield
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
https://tech.michaelaltfield.net/

It appears likely that the US government is using Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and/or xAI data models for processing signals intelligence (SIGINT), for AI-generated "kill lists" to determine where to drop their bombs.

[right] This AI datacenter is a machinery of war. Its LLM hallucinations decide which children to assassinate [left] This IG Farben (Bayer/BASF) factory in Auschwitz produced Zyklon B for the Nazis, who murdered over a million children

In Apr 2024, +972 (an Israeli news outlet) published a >9,000 word article describing how the Israeli military had been using Artificial Intelligence to decide which (residential) buildings, hospitals, and schools to bomb in Gaza.

In Feb 2026, the US (and Israel) bombed Iran -- killing over 100 schoolchildren (and Ali Khamenei).

In Mar 2026, it appears that the US has likely built a similar system, leveraging US AI companies' tech to decide which (school) buildings to bomb, false-positive hallucinations be damned.

Who targeted the Shajareh Tayyiba girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran? Could it have been an AI hallucination? A false-positive?
...

Read the full article here:

• https://tech.michaelaltfield.net/2026/03/03/ai-venezuela-iran/

Computer scientists are campaigning against the global march toward age checks online.

The plan would affect people from countries, including the UK, who can fill out a form in lieu of a visa.

Github has made it impossible to create an account when using a VPN and a privacy browser with fully spoofed hardware identifiers. (Use Firefox or Firefox-based Privacy Browser, VPN, install Canvasblocker to test this.) I create an account with Google or Apple (both requiring hardware identifiers and numbers and birthdates) or I can use an email. When I use an email, it comes back with this horrible test, and even if I do it completely correctly, it tells me after I didn't do the test right, gaslighting me with a picture of what I chose (which I didn't choose) and showing me the correct picture (which I did choose and it claims I didn't select).

It's fucking bullshit and it's more corporate control of open source software. For people who have their discussion or issue tracker, I can't even participate without hardware identifiers likely linked to me some other way and phone numbers. It's fucking bullshit. If anyone from Microsoft is reading this, FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

I am so tired of this bullshit. I just want to post an issue about a piece of software. You don't need my fingerprint, hardware or personal, or biometric shit. This is a slippery slope. Fuck them.

I really hope more developers just get the fuck off Github. Honestly, if you are developing privacy-oriented software and using github, there's a mistmatch and it's bullshit, and I know it's time consuming and annoying to move, but please do. This is fucking bullshit and it's not like it's going to become LESS annoying over time. FUCK THIS.

OC by @someone@lemmy.today