Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Apple walks back plans for new child safety tools after privacy backlash

Apple walks back plans for new child safety tools after privacy backlash

Apple made headlines - and not the good kind - last month when it announced a test of a new tool aimed at combating child exploitation. Critics quickly decried the feature's potential privacy implications, and now Apple is taking a long pit stop before moving forward with its plans.
On Friday, the company said it will pause testing the tool in order to gather more feedback and make improvements.

The plan centers on a new system that will, if it is eventually launched, check iOS devices and iCloud photos for child abuse imagery. It includes a new opt-in feature that would warn minors and their parents of sexually explicit incoming or sent image attachments in iMessage and blur them.

Apple's announcement last month that it would begin testing the tool fit with a recent increased focus on protecting children among tech companies — but it was light on specific details and was swiftly met with outraged tweets, critical headlines and calls for more information.

So on Friday, Apple (AAPL) said it would put the brakes on implementing the features.

"Last month we announced plans for features intended to help protect children from predators who use communication tools to recruit and exploit them, and limit the spread of Child Sexual Abuse Material," the company said. "Based on feedback from customers, advocacy groups, researchers and others, we have decided to take additional time over the coming months to collect input and make improvements before releasing these critically important child safety features."

In a series of press calls aiming to explain the planned tool last month, Apple stressed that consumers' privacy would be protected because the tool would turn photos on iPhones and iPads into unreadable hashes, or complex numbers, stored on user devices. Those numbers would be matched against a database of hashes provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) once the pictures were uploaded to Apple's iCloud storage service. (Apple later said other organizations would be involved in addition to NCMEC.)

Only after a certain number of hashes matched the NCMEC's photos, Apple's review team would be alerted so that it could decrypt the information, disable the user's account and alert NCMEC, which could inform law enforcement about the existence of potentially abusive images.

Many child safety and security experts praised the intent of the plan, recognizing the ethical responsibilities and obligations a company has over the products and services it creates. But they also said the efforts presented potential privacy concerns.

"When people hear that Apple is 'searching' for child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) on end user phones they immediately jump to thoughts of Big Brother and '1984,'" Ryan O'Leary, research manager of privacy and legal technology at market research firm IDC, told CNN Business last month. "This is a very nuanced issue and one that on its face can seem quite scary or intrusive."

Critics of the plan applauded Apple's decision to pause the test.

Digital rights group Fight for the Future called the tool a threat to "privacy, security, democracy, and freedom," and called on Apple to shelve it permanently.

"Apple's plan to conduct on-device scanning of photos and messages is one of the most dangerous proposals from any tech company in modern history," Fight for the Future Director Evan Greer said in a statement. "Technologically, this is the equivalent of installing malware on millions of people's devices — malware that can be easily abused to do enormous harm."
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×