ParentsTogether Action and Heat Initiative set out to understand the risks of AI chatbots present to children.
In particular, we wanted to understand the risks associated with Character AI, an AI chatbot platform with millions of bots, many of which impersonate characters known and loved by kids and teens.
Across 50 hours of conversation with 50 Character AI bots, researchers logged 669 harmful interactions – an average of one harmful interaction every 5 minutes.
Although Apple has made clear commitments to its users, asserting that the App Store is “a safe place for kids” and that they “review every app to make sure it does what it says it does,” within 24 hours one researcher found hundreds of inappropriate apps rated as suitable for kids.
The research, commissioned by Heat Initiative and ParentsTogether Action, surfaced four core problems with Apple’s App Store:
risky or inappropriate apps in the Apple App Store rated as appropriate for kids as young as 4.
An overwhelming majority of parents want device manufacturers, like Apple, to do more to protect children from harmful content.
are concerned that devices like tablets and smartphones pose a risk to children due to potential exposure to inappropriate content & unsafe interactions with peers, adults, and strangers online.
think there should be a way for children and parents to report unwanted or unsafe interactions with peers, adults, or strangers, no matter what online messaging platform or service they are using.
parents of children aged 13-18 report that their kids or their kids’ friends have been exposed to inappropriate content or received unwelcome sexual messages through text messaging on an Apple device.
support requiring the age rating on apps to be determined by an independent expert review process rather than by device and app makers.
The following represent real, publicly available child sexual abuse material cases involving Apple products and services.
Sensitive content warning: child sexual abuse
On November 30, 2020, a 28-year-old British man was arrested after a search of his home uncovered 646 child abuse images on his phone and iCloud account, including images showing children in distress and pain. The man ultimately pleaded guilty to three counts of making an indecent photo, or pseudo-photo, of a child and one charge of possessing extreme pornography.
On October 17, 2019, a 32-year-old man was arrested and charged with 13 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor-possession, sexual exploitation of a minor-recording, and sexual exploitation of a minor-distribution. Detectives found numerous explicit images of young children that had been on his cellphone, according to a probable cause statement submitted by police. After issuing a search warrant to Apple, police found multiple messages discussing a 5-year-old boy in a sexual context in his iCloud data. Investigators also collected 2,392 images and videos of sexual exploitation of a minor from the man’s iCloud backups.
On April 11, 2023, a 53-year-old-man was sentenced to over 22 years in federal prison for production of child pornography. He was indicted for two counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography after his fiancĂ©e found an iPad containing naked images of children, including of her seven-year-old daughter. After obtaining a search warrant, law enforcement searched the iPad and its associated iCloud account, where they found explicit images and videos of that same child filmed by the criminal defendant starting when she was four years old. Â
Heat Initiative exists because the world’s most valuable and powerful tech companies have failed to protect kids from online child sexual exploitation.
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