After announcing the establishment of a tool to fight against child pornography, Apple finally seems to have put it in the closet, this time more discreetly.
This was arguably one of the flagship measures that Apple had planned to deploy this year. A few months ago, the company announced the establishment of an automatic photo scan tool for minors. Objective: to sift through any multimedia content received by children on their iCloud account, in order to fight against child pornography, and non-consented images of a sexual nature. With a launch initially planned in the United States, the tool was not necessarily unanimous, but nevertheless seemed to constitute one of the major fights of the Apple.
Yet surprise: on the page which details the new measures to protect young users adopted by Cupertino, the mention of the photo scan has completely disappeared. Since the release of iOS 15.2, there is no mention anywhere of the tool, which seems to have been quietly ousted from Apple’s projects. In a statement by a spokesperson for the brand to the American press, it was finally learned that if the mentions to this technology had been removed from its official site, Apple is not yet ready to abandon it. According to the web giant, it would be a postponement rather than a funeral, therefore, in order to leave its collaborators more time to study the subject, and to take into account the returns of the defenders of the private life.
Apple blurs the subject
Despite the abandonment – therefore temporarily – of the scan on iCloud, Apple retains two measures intended for the youngest: first the blurring of sexual images within the Messages application, and then the provision of resources provided by Siri, Spotlight and Safari on the thorny issue of child pornography and the exploitation of minors. It is not known for the moment when the international deployment of these two features will be planned.
