UK Government Moves to Ban Social Media for Under-16s and Regulate AI Chatbots

Britain is poised to implement an Australian-style ban on social media for children under 16, potentially as early as this year. This initiative is part of a broader government strategy to address the increasing digital risks faced by young people. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's administration has initiated a consultation process regarding this ban, which aims to close existing loopholes that currently exempt certain AI chatbots from safety regulations. The government is keen to expedite legislative changes following the conclusion of this consultation.

The proposed ban follows similar measures taken by Australia, which became the first nation to restrict social media access for minors. Other countries, including Spain, Greece, and Slovenia, are also exploring similar restrictions. The urgency of these measures has been underscored by recent incidents involving AI chatbots, such as Elon Musk's Grok, which was reported to generate inappropriate content, raising concerns about the safety of children interacting with such technologies.

Britain's Online Safety Act, regarded as one of the strictest safety frameworks globally, currently does not encompass one-to-one interactions with AI chatbots unless they share information with other users. Technology Minister Liz Kendall has highlighted the necessity of addressing this regulatory gap, stating that the government cannot afford to leave such vulnerabilities unaddressed, especially after the lengthy process it took to enact the Online Safety Act.

Kendall expressed her concerns regarding the impact of AI chatbots on children, noting that many young users are forming personal relationships with these systems, which were not designed with child safety in mind. The government plans to unveil its proposals before the summer, aiming to ensure that tech companies are held accountable for compliance with British law.

In addition to the social media ban, the government is considering implementing automatic data-preservation orders in cases of child fatalities, allowing investigators to secure crucial online evidence. This measure has been a long-standing request from bereaved families. The consultation will also explore potential regulations to limit "stranger pairing" in gaming environments and to prevent the exchange of explicit images among minors.

While these measures are intended to protect children, they may inadvertently affect adults' privacy and access to services, leading to potential conflicts with free speech and regulatory frameworks, particularly in relation to the United States. Some adult websites have opted to block British users rather than comply with age verification requirements, a situation that could be exacerbated by the proposed restrictions on virtual private networks for minors.

Support for a social media ban among parents and child safety advocates is significant, yet there are concerns from some child protection groups that such a ban could drive harmful activities into less regulated areas or create a stark divide at the age of 16. The government acknowledges the need to clearly define what constitutes social media before any ban can be effectively enforced.

• The UK government plans to ban social media for under-16s, following Australia's lead.

• Legislation aims to close loopholes in AI chatbot regulations.

• Automatic data-preservation orders for child fatalities are under consideration.

• Concerns exist about the impact of these measures on adult privacy and access.

Modular Robots Boost Resilience by Sharing Resources

Roboticists at EPFL have demonstrated that modular robots can become significantly more resistant to failure by sharing power, sensing, and communication resources among individual units. This approach reverses the trend where traditional robotic systems often lose functionality if one element breaks down.

Credit: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne

Minimising the possibility of failure is a top priority in robotic design, particularly as systems with multiple units can perform more diverse functions. However, more units historically meant more parts that could potentially fail.

Researchers, led by Jamie Paik, head of the Reconfigurable Robotics Laboratory (RRL) at EPFL’s School of Engineering, have designed a modular robot that actually lowers its odds of failure through resource sharing. Paik explained that this marks the first time a method has been found to reverse the trend of increasing failure odds with more functionality.

“We introduce local resource sharing as a new paradigm in robotics, reducing the failure rate with a larger number of modules,” Paik stated. The team published their findings in Science Robotics.

Their paper showed how a modular origami robot successfully navigated complex terrain, even with one module completely deprived of power, sensing, and wireless communication. This was possible by exploiting redundant resources and sharing them locally.

The RRL team drew inspiration from nature, where collective solutions often address failure. Birds share local sensing information through flocking behaviour, while some trees communicate threats to neighbours using airborne signals. Cells continuously transport nutrients across their membranes so that the death of any individual doesn't significantly impact the overall organism.

Modular robots, composed of multiple connecting units, are analogous to multicellular or collective organisms. Until now, their design presented a vulnerability, as a single module's failure could disable some or all of the robot's tasks.

Some modular robots feature built-in backup resources or self-reconfiguration abilities, but these often do not completely restore functionality. For their study, the RRL team utilised hyper-redundancy, involving the sharing of all critical power, communication, and sensing resources across all modules without altering the robot’s physical structure.

Paik noted that sharing only one or two resources was insufficient. If each resource had an equal chance of failure, system reliability would continue to drop with more agents. However, when all resources were shared, this trend was reversed.

In a locomotion experiment using the Mori3 robot, which consists of four triangular modules, the team cut battery power, wireless communication, and sensing to the central module. Normally, this "dead" central module would impede the articulation and movement of the other three.

Thanks to hyper-redundancy, the neighbouring modules fully compensated for the central module’s lack of resources. This enabled the Mori3 to "walk" toward a barrier and contort itself effectively to pass underneath.

RRL researcher Kevin Holdcroft, the first author, summarised, “Essentially, our methodology allowed us to 'revive' a dead module in a collective and bring it back to full functionality.” He added that the local resource-sharing framework has the potential to support highly adaptive robots that operate with unprecedented reliability, resolving the reliability-adaptability conflict.

Future work could focus on applying this resource-sharing framework to more complex systems with an increasing number of agents. The concept may extend to robotic swarms, with hardware adaptations allowing swarm members to dock for energy and information transfer.

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• Modular robots can increase resilience by sharing power, sensing, and communication resources.

• This resource-sharing approach reverses the trend of increased failure with more robot modules.

• The Mori3 robot successfully performed tasks even when a central module was deprived of all resources.

Source: TECHXPLORE

Warner Bros Discovery Considers Revived Paramount Sale Discussions

Warner Bros Discovery is considering reopening sale talks with rival Hollywood studio Paramount Skydance. This comes after receiving Paramount's most recent amended offer.

Credit: PARAMOUNT

The Warner Bros Discovery board is discussing whether Paramount could offer a path to a superior deal. The board has not decided how to respond and may maintain its current agreement with Netflix.

Paramount enhanced its Warner Bros Discovery bid last week. It offered shareholders extra cash for each quarter the deal fails to close after this year.

Paramount also agreed to cover the breakup fee Warner Bros Discovery would owe Netflix if it ended the current agreement. The CBS owner did not raise its per-share offer.

Paramount offered shareholders a 25-cent-per-share quarterly "ticking fee" of approximately USD 650 million in cash. This fee would begin in 2027 and continue until the deal closes.

It also agreed to cover Warner Bros Discovery’s USD 2.8 billion breakup fee to Netflix. However, Paramount did not increase its USD 30-per-share offer, which values the deal at USD 108.4 billion including debt.

Netflix and Paramount both desire Warner Bros Discovery for its leading film and television studios, its extensive content library, and major franchises. These franchises include "Game of Thrones," "Harry Potter," and DC Comics superheroes Batman and Superman.

Activist investor Ancora Holdings, which built a nearly USD 200 million stake, stated last week its plan to oppose the Netflix deal. The firm argues the board did not sufficiently engage with Paramount over its rival bid, which includes cable assets such as CNN and TNT.

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• Warner Bros Discovery is considering reopening sale talks with Paramount Skydance.

• Paramount's enhanced offer includes a quarterly "ticking fee" of approximately USD 650 million, starting in 2027, and coverage of Warner Bros Discovery's USD 2.8 billion breakup fee to Netflix.

• Paramount did not raise its USD 30-per-share offer, valuing the deal at USD 108.4 billion including debt.

Source: REUTERS