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NBC News
a day ago
- Business
- NBC News
Who should keep kids safe on smartphones? Many point at Google and Apple
Age verification is coming for app stores. Laws requiring Google and Apple to check people's ages before they can download apps are gaining momentum in the United States and around the globe in what could be a radical shift for how people access content on their phones. While age checks have become increasingly common across the internet, the focus of attention has usually been on individual websites and app makers, not app stores. That's shifting as some politicians and tech companies argue it would be more efficient and uniform for app stores to check people's ages in the name of child safety. Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, said there's a battle raging within the tech industry over who's going to be accountable for children's lives during the hours they spend on phones and tablets. 'We've got this food fight,' he said. 'Everyone's pointing the finger at each other.' Three states — Texas, Louisiana and Utah — have passed laws this year compelling app marketplaces to check the ages of everyone when they create accounts. They were joined by Singapore, an Asian tech hub that passed a similar law. All four laws are scheduled to take effect next year, and similar proposals are under consideration in other states and in Congress. But some argue the laws have potential costs in reducing privacy and burdening free speech. Some people in the United Kingdom, which has a new mandate for age checks, are verifying their ages through selfies that are run through facial age verification software. And it's not clear how much the new laws would limit access to adult content, especially if they don't affect web browsers. Online age checks are often followed by surges in workarounds, such as virtual private networks, or VPNs, which mask users' locations to sidestep local regulations. Lobbying for the new laws is coming partly from within the tech industry. Mark Zuckerberg's Meta and some other app makers are eager to shift the burden of online kid safety to the app stores rather than take on more of the responsibility themselves. But the trend is getting pushback from Apple and Google, which run the biggest app marketplaces, as well as from civil liberties advocates who see age verification mandates as a death knell for the internet's privacy and anonymity. Goldman, who opposes age verification mandates on privacy and free speech grounds, said the laws are popular now for several reasons: the broader backlash against tech companies; the number of hours kids spend online, especially since Covid-19; and the lack of unity in the tech industry. 'Censorship is in style today,' he said. 'Regulators are full-throated in embracing censorship as a good thing, and they're more than willing to exert their will on other sources of power in our society.' State lawmakers who are pushing the measures say the status quo isn't working. 'Parents are constantly fighting to protect their children, especially from dangerous content on their phones, tablets, and other devices,' Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton, a Republican who sponsored the new law there, said in a statement. The law says an app store 'shall use a commercially reasonable method of verification to verify the individual's age.' Google and Apple object to the laws on various grounds, including that they are too sweeping and that they require collecting too much data about users. 'This level of data sharing isn't necessary — a weather app doesn't need to know if a user is a kid,' Kareem Ghanem, a director of public policy at Google, said in a blog post about the state laws. He argued that app makers are best positioned to think about age. 'By contrast, a social media app does need to make significant decisions about age-appropriate content and features,' he said. More broadly, age verification has built up considerable momentum. Twelve states have passed laws restricting children's access to social media or requiring parental consent, though the courts have blocked three of those laws, according to the Age Verification Providers Association, a trade group for tech companies that handle age checks. And 24 states have passed laws requiring age verification to view pornography online, the association says. To some app developers, a state-by-state patchwork seems like a regulatory nightmare to deal with. But to the app stores, it's evidence that there's already a clear standard in the United States for who's responsible for dodgy content. Age checks online are already so complicated that the sector has its own trade group — the Age Verification Providers Association lists more than 30 members on its website. In a blog post in May, when Texas was debating its law, the group argued that app store age verification wasn't by itself enough. It cited many reasons, among them that app stores have little or no authority when it comes to the open web. Both Apple and Google say they're willing to take on some additional responsibility for children's safety. They say they support a framework whereby makers of the riskiest apps would get an industry-standard ' age signal ' from app stores about a user's general age range, which the user or a parent would provide. Apple says it plans to roll out a version of the system, known as 'age assurance,' on its operating systems soon. Apple said in a statement that it wants to 'empower parents to share their child's age range with apps without disclosing sensitive information.' 'Importantly, this solution does not require app marketplaces to collect and keep sensitive personal identifying information for every person who wants to download an app, even if it's an app that simply provides weather updates or sports scores,' it said. Apple has had 'child accounts' for years and recently updated how parents can manage them. In a policy paper this year, Apple compared itself to a mall owner and compared the riskiest apps to liquor stores or bars. 'We ask merchants who sell alcohol in a mall to verify a buyer's age by checking IDs — we don't ask everyone to turn their date of birth over to the mall if they just want to go to the food court,' it said. In May, Apple CEO Tim Cook waded into the debate with a phone call to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, asking for changes to the app store bill or a veto, according to The Wall Street Journal. Abbott, though, signed the bill into law. Some legal experts argue that the laws could violate the First Amendment because they place a burden on adults' right to see protected speech. But neither Apple or Google nor their representatives have sued to block the laws. The Supreme Court in 1997 struck down a set of internet rules that included age verification, but this year, the Supreme Court on a 6-3 vote upheld a narrower age verification law out of Texas that was aimed at pornographic content. Congress has meanwhile struggled to come up with nationwide legislation on the topic of child safety online. The proposed Kids Online Safety Act, which would create a legal ' duty of care ' for internet platforms to limit harm to users, passed the Senate last year but not the House. Legislation from Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rep. John James, R-Mich., would try to tackle problems like violent or sexual material through the app stores. One attraction of putting app stores in charge of age verification — if tech companies are going to do it at all — is the idea of creating a uniform system of age checks, said Peter Chandler, executive director of Internet Works, a lobbying and trade group for more than 20 medium-sized tech companies such as Reddit and Roblox. 'Imagine an age verification compliance regime that required every single platform or website to come up or create its own age verification system,' he said. 'What you'd end up with is this very siloed age verification system. How can we possibly ask parents to understand and navigate that?' he said. 'Sometimes simplest is best.'
News18
22-07-2025
- Politics
- News18
What Was Maria Farmer's ‘Troubling Encounter' With Trump? How Is She Linked To Epstein Case?
Last Updated: Maria Farmer is now alleging a 'troubling encounter' with Donald Trump in the 1990s and linking him to Jeffrey Epstein The Jeffrey Epstein case has been grabbing the headlines for a while now. While the resurgence of interest in Epstein and unanswered questions about his crimes, has led to a boost in book sales, Netflix streams and YouTube searches, President Donald Trump has filed a libel lawsuit against the publisher of the Wall Street Journal and reporters who wrote a story about a collection of letters gifted to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003, including a note bearing Trump's name. Maria Farmer, one of the first to file a criminal complaint against Epstein, is now alleging a 'troubling encounter" with Trump in the 1990s and linking him to Epstein. Who is Jeffrey Epstein? Jeffrey Epstein was an American financier and convicted sex offender who became notorious for running a large-scale sex trafficking operation involving underage girls and connections to influential elites. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1953, he initially worked as a teacher and later moved into finance, claiming to manage the wealth of billionaires through a secretive investment firm. In 2005, Epstein was first investigated by Florida police after a 14-year-old girl accused him of sexual abuse. The investigation uncovered more than 30 underage victims, but in 2008, Epstein struck a controversial plea deal that allowed him to plead guilty to lesser state charges, serving just 13 months in jail with generous work-release privileges. In July 2019, Epstein was arrested again—this time by federal authorities in New York—on charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to traffic minors, with prosecutors accusing him of sexually abusing dozens of girls between 2002 and 2005 at his residences in Manhattan and Florida. While awaiting trial in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, Epstein died on August 10, 2019, in what was officially ruled a suicide. At the time of his death, Epstein had been denied bail and faced potentially decades in prison. His associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was later arrested and convicted for her role in helping Epstein recruit and abuse underage victims. Who is Maria Farmer? Maria Farmer is an American figurative visual artist and one of the earliest known accusers of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. She filed a criminal complaint about Epstein's conduct in 1996. She grew up in Kentucky; studied art at Santa Clara University (B.A., 1992), then earned her MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 1995. She completed a postgraduate workshop at the Santa Fe Art Institute under painter Eric Fischl in 1995. Maria Farmer's allegations against Jeffrey Epstein Farmer was introduced to Epstein and Maxwell at her MFA show in 1995. She was subsequently hired by Epstein as an art consultant and desk receptionist at his New York townhouse. In 1996, while isolated at Epstein associate Leslie Wexner's Ohio estate, Farmer alleged she was sexually assaulted by Epstein and Maxwell. She escaped and reported the incident to the NYPD and FBI. Despite detailing threats from Maxwell and lack of follow-up by authorities, her case faded from public view until journalist Vicky Ward's 2002 Vanity Fair exposé omitted her story — reportedly under pressure. The trauma impacted her art: she paused painting for over 20 years. What did Maria Farmer say about Donald Trump? In July 2025, Farmer alleged she reported concerns about Donald Trump—who allegedly made her uncomfortable at Epstein's NYC offices—to the FBI in 1996 and again in 2006. Farmer alleged she told the authorities to look at the relationship between Epstein and high-profile celebrities like Trump and politicians like Bill Clinton. She said she mentioned Trump specifically because the two men 's eemed so close". Farmer has alleged she had a 'troubling encounter' with Trump in the 1990s. At the time, she was a teenager and Trump was a real-estate developer. Farmer, who was wearing running shorts, alleged Trump, who was in a business suit, 'stared at her bare legs". She said she remembered feeling scared. Then, Epstein came into the room. He told Trump, 'No, no. She's not here for you." The men then left the room, she said. The White House has denied the incident ever occurred. 'The president was never in [Epstein's] office. The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep," White House communications director Steven Cheung said. The Epstein controversy impact top videos View all The Epstein controversy has created a major fissure between Trump and his loyal base, with some of his most vocal supporters slamming the White House for the way it has handled the case, and questioning why Trump would not want the documents made public. With Agency Inputs About the Author Manjiri Joshi At the news desk for 17 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing special copies ...Read More Get Latest Updates on Movies, Breaking News On India, World, Live Cricket Scores, And Stock Market Updates. Also Download the News18 App to stay updated! view comments Location : Mumbai, India, India First Published: July 22, 2025, 15:25 IST News explainers What Was Maria Farmer's 'Troubling Encounter' With Trump? How Is She Linked To Epstein Case? Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Newsweek
18-07-2025
- Business
- Newsweek
Why Are So Few Women in Tech Leadership?
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Reaching equitable gender representation has remained an elusive challenge in the tech world. Despite decades of promises to make the world a better place and democratize opportunity, the tech establishment and its investors have not delivered. Just 3 percent of venture capital investment in 2024 went to solely women-owned businesses, and just 26 percent of the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index CTO or CIO positions are held by women, according to a 2024 analysis by Russell Reynolds Associates. "The main issue, I think, is unconscious bias," Francine Gordon, management professor at Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business, told Newsweek. "I think that has a lot to do with why women in tech tend to leave. ... They don't see upward mobility, and a lot of that is because of unconscious bias." She added that these biases affect key career moments such as hiring, performance reviews, promotion conversations, leadership searches and investor pitches. The tech industry has long viewed itself as different from the business titans of yesteryear. After the dot-com boom and bust, optimism soared around the ability to rapidly share information and work more productively, thanks to software, the cloud and, later, augmented or virtual reality, machine-learning and generative AI. This optimism drove heavy investments and high salaries and birthed a new culture, headquartered in Silicon Valley, with profits soaring as the world evolved from analog to digital. With great profits came job security, prestige and hefty compensation packages, driving glamorization of STEM fields to students and early-career professionals. But it has also driven exclusivity. Alongside this push, women were encouraged into science and technology fields, through programs like Girls Who Code, or into entrepreneurship, by funds like Anu Duggal's Female Founders Fund or Jesse Draper's Halogen Ventures, but those efforts have been overshadowed by a persistent inequity driven by societal, organizational and financial pressures, according to recent research. Larger workforce inequality in tech and startups and tech's failure to be a meritocracy play strong roles in the lack of gender equity and female leadership in tech. Larger workforce inequality in tech and startups and tech's failure to be a meritocracy play strong roles in the lack of gender equity and female leadership in tech. Newsweek Illustration/Canva/Getty A 2024 survey of women working in tech by Web Summit found that 50 percent of women reported experiencing sexism in the workplace, while half of women (49 percent) also feel pressured to choose between family and career. "Respondents identified unconscious gender bias, balancing career and personal life, the scarcity of female role models, imposter syndrome, lack of support networks, and difficulties in funding as their most significant challenges," the report stated. Institutional Bias and Support After completing her Ph.D. in organizational behavior at Yale, Gordon was part of the first "wave" of two female faculty members at Stanford University's business school. When they started in 1972, she said, it was a "very hostile environment," adding that her lone female colleague, Myra Strober, had people walking out of her classes because they didn't want to be taught by a woman or hear women's ideas. Gordon also recalled that office secretaries had to be reassigned because some didn't want to work for her, highlighting how even women can internalize bias. Through the struggle, she learned the importance of friends and allies at work. "I don't think people meant it to be hostile, but it really was. [Strober] and I became very good friends," Gordon said. "If you're the only one, it's very hard to succeed. Everybody's watching you, and you also have the sense of, "If I don't do well, everybody's going to think all women are bad." Gordon later worked in management roles at Pacific Bell, Ungermann-Bass and Boston Consulting Group before starting a consulting firm called Womennovation. She emphasized the importance of mentorship and sponsorship in the advancement of women's careers in tech. An article in a 1992 issue of Stanford Business magazine quotes Strober saying that with a supportive dean in place at the school, "[women] began to apply in large numbers. ... It was difficult for many of our male colleagues to understand that we were the beginning of a social revolution. I'm not sure that we understood it ourselves!" Gordon notes that "things are much better now," though a slight reversal has occurred over the last few years, amid a new presidential administration and its high-profile collaborations with the tech industry. "People are more resentful of women who have advanced," she adds, noting that DEI has come under a microscope as part of a multiyear advocacy movement. "There's been an increase in attacks on people who are different, and it's really widespread. Everyone thinks California is so liberal; we have a lot of hate groups here, too, and I think it's been encouraged to some extent." Gordon also mentioned concern around seeing well-known leaders making public commentary that is anti-woman, anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ, contributing to a culture that skews toward labeling anyone in an out-group as inherently unqualified. Melissa Faulkner, CIO at the global construction company Skanska, points to strong mentorship and a culture of diverse leadership that allowed her to reach the CIO post in 2021. "I've been fortunate to have a lot of incredible mentors during my time here at Skanska and even previously," Faulkner told Newsweek. "We're a servant leadership company. We have a lot of empathy and are really focused on empowering teams." Faulkner also noted her company's strong female presence in leadership as an indicator of an inclusive culture. "Our executive leadership team is made up of more than 50 percent women. ... We have strategic operational leadership, where there's women running our business and running P&L. So I do feel like Skanska is a place to be celebrated for how women have been able to stand in leadership positions." Tracking the Data Without proper measurement, many companies are likely to be in the dark about the state of gender equity within their own companies. Financial consulting firm Grant Thornton has recommended tracking turnover data by gender, finding in 2024 that just 22 percent of tech companies do so, and keeping close tabs on pay equity as well. However, representation itself should not be the lone goal, as Mary A. Armstrong and Susan L. Averett, professors at Lafayette College, wrote in a paper that bore the book Disparate Measures: The Intersectional Economics of Women in STEM Work. "They're partial solutions," Armstrong said in an interview on a New Books Network podcast. "Part of the true lies of STEM is that we let ourselves imagine that opportunity and access or the power of diversity ... [are] complete solutions, but they're not. They're only partial solutions. They matter, but they don't correct the larger system that disadvantages women in the labor force, including in the STEM and STEM-related workforce." Disparate Measures also asserts that it is a myth that women do not seek STEM roles or leadership and that by simply encouraging them to enter the utopian techno-meritocracy that lives in the minds of tech investors and leaders, we can meaningfully address gender equality. Faulkner shared a similar thought as well. "We've always been interested in technology, but now there's a visibility component where there wasn't before," she said. Faulkner also noted that it wasn't as much about knowledge or access as it was those early STEM environments, such as science and math classes and extracurriculars in school as well as entry-level jobs. "Knowing that's a role and a place that they can have a career starts really early in education. ... For so long, it really wasn't a very inclusive environment where women who were interested were welcomed, if you will, into technology. That has really changed a lot, but it starts early on," she said. Armstrong and Averett's book highlights, among other challenges, difficulties in finding reliable data across time, the lack of parental support in the United States and unequal treatment of women as well as immigrants and people of color as the vectors for ongoing inequality in STEM. "Often we discuss STEM jobs as if they are some sort of magic set of occupations that live in the ether and function in a way that is entirely distinct from the rest of the labor force," Armstrong, a gender studies professor, said. "We are perhaps in a habit of pretending that STEM work is not wired into all the other systems of inequality that shape society. [But] STEM work is not exempt from these dynamics." The category of STEM-related work—roles like nurse or health care technician that require high levels of skill and certification but are not considered "core STEM" roles like those in engineering—Armstrong and Averett note, has strong female representation but is also correlated to lower earning potential, effectively segmenting women out of the higher-earning fields. "[STEM-related jobs] are diverse in training and technical demands, but they're often omitted from policy research discussions," Averett, an economics professor, said. "It turns out women in STEM-related work are potentially concentrated in lower-paid roles, which reflects persistent patterns of occupational segregation." So, while many of the issues of inequality persistent in tech are persistent in society writ large, the tech industry benefits from certain protections—such as idealism and sky-high profits—that have allowed it to propagate inequality, both socially and within its workplaces. Unless societal issues are addressed, working in tech or STEM will be like working in any other field, or maybe worse if concentrated power goes unchecked—it's not the utopian meritocracy that many believe it to be.
Straits Times
13-07-2025
- Straits Times
You thought AI was coming for your job? It's already come for your job interviewer
SAN FRANCISCO – When Ms Jennifer Dunn, 54, landed an interview in June through a recruiting firm for a vice-president of marketing job, she looked forward to talking to someone about the role and learning more about the potential employer. Instead, a virtual artificial intelligence (AI) recruiter named Alex sent her a text message to schedule the interview. And when Ms Dunn got on the phone at the appointed time for the meeting, Alex was waiting to talk to her. 'Are you a human?' she asked. 'No, I'm not a human,' Alex replied. 'But I'm here to make the interview process smoother.' For the next 20 minutes, Ms Dunn answered Alex's questions about her qualifications – though Alex could not answer most of her questions about the job. Even though Alex had a friendly tone, the conversation 'felt hollow', she said. In the end, she hung up before finishing the interview. You might have thought AI was coming for your job. But first it is coming for your job interviewer. Jobseekers across the United States are starting to encounter faceless voices and avatars backed by AI in their interviews. These autonomous interviewers are part of a wave of 'agentic AI', where AI agents are directed to act on their own to generate real-time conversations and build on responses. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Government looking at enhancing laws around vaping to tackle issue of drug-laced vapes in Singapore Singapore Why the vape scourge in Singapore concerns everyone Singapore I lost my daughter to Kpod addiction: Father of 19-year-old shares heartbreak and lessons Singapore Organised crime groups pushing drug-laced vapes in Asia including Singapore: UN Singapore Prison school to NUS: At 36, former drug abuser finds it's never too late to get a degree Singapore Driver arrested after 66-year-old woman dies in car crash at Geylang pasar malam Singapore Bland and boring? Some hospitals seek help from big names to enhance food menus for patients Asia Patriotism, peace and pain: The politics behind China's World War II narrative Some aspects of job searches – such as screening resumes and scheduling meetings – have become increasingly automated over time, but the interview had long seemed to be the part of the process that most needed a human touch. Now AI is encroaching upon even that domain, making the often frustrating and ego-busting task of finding a job even more impersonal. Talking to AI interviewers has 'felt very dehumanising', said Charles Whitley, 22, a recent computer science and mathematics graduate from Santa Clara University who has had two such conversations in the past seven months. In one interview, the AI voice tried to seem more human by adding 'ums' and 'uhs'. It came across as 'some horror-movie-type stuff', Mr Whitley said. Others said they liked talking to AI interviewers. Mr James Gu, 21, a college student majoring in business, spoke to a robot interviewer for a summer analyst position through Propel Impact, a nonprofit in Vancouver, British Columbia, that teaches young people about financial investing. Being drilled with questions by someone stresses him out, he said, so part of him was relieved not to speak with a person. Autonomous AI interviewers started taking off in 2024, partly driven by tech start-ups like Ribbon AI, Talently and Apriora, which have developed robot interviewers to help employers talk to more candidates and reduce the load on human recruiters – especially as AI tools have enabled jobseekers to generate resumes and cover letters and apply to tons of openings with a few clicks. AI can personalise a job candidate's interview, said Mr Arsham Ghahramani, chief executive and a co-founder of Ribbon AI. His company's AI interviewer, which has a customisable voice and appears on a video call as moving audio waves, asks questions specific to the role to be filled and builds on information provided by the jobseeker, he said. Ms Jennifer Dunn, a marketing professional, at her home in San Antonio, Texas, on July 2. Ms Dunn said she had a job interview with a virtual artificial intelligence recruiter. PHOTO: ARIANA GOMEZ/NYTIMES 'It's really paradoxical, but in a lot of ways, this is a much more humanising experience because we're asking questions that are really tailored to you,' Mr Ghahramani said. Propel Impact began using Ribbon AI's interviewer in January. That allowed it to screen 500 applicants for a fellowship programme it offers, far more than the 150 applicants who were interviewed by people in 2024, said Propel Impact executive director Cheralyn Chok. 'There's no way we would have been able to successfully recruit and set up offers to 300 people to join our programme,' she added. Ms Chok said the AI interviews also saved applicants the hassle of doing multiple interviews with outside financial firms to determine their fellowship placements. Instead, Propel Impact sent the recorded AI interviews to those companies. Still, humans cannot ultimately be taken out of the hiring process, said Ms Sam DeMase, a career expert at ZipRecruiter. People still need to make the hiring decisions, she said, because AI may contain bias and cannot be trusted to fully evaluate a candidate's experience, skills and fitness for a job. At the same time, more people should expect AI-run interviews, Ms DeMase said. 'Organisations are trying to become more efficient and trying to scale faster, and as a result, they're looking to AI,' she added. Ms Dunn has had about nine job interviews over the past two months. Only one was with an AI like Alex, she said, for which she was 'grateful'. Given the choice, she never wants to interview with AI again. 'It isn't something that feels real to me,' she said. NYTIMES
BBC News
07-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Warwick teen ready for dream Wimbledon debut
A British teenager who started playing when he was four years old has said appearing at Wimbledon has been his dream since he was a little Redza from Warwickshire is due take part in the doubles tournament at Junior Wimbledon on Monday after receiving a wildcard for the 17-year-old qualified with his playing partner, Felix Bockelmann-Evans, after winning a doubles event at the National Championships in coach, Gary Naughton, said: "It couldn't happen to a nicer boy." Redza said when he first started playing "I didn't think anything of tennis", but he stuck with it and when he was nine years old he had to make the choice between pursuing tennis or playing football."From then on its been really good fun playing tennis," he said. Redza is currently ranked sixth in the UK at the under-18 level and has recently been selected to play for Great Britain at an event in Naughton said he was "very proud" of him and added: "It's one thing having talent, but the next thing is you've got to have that desire and work ethic behind it."His mother, Fifi, said he had been "working and training hard" to be ready for Wimbledon and had also secured a four year tennis scholarship at Santa Clara University in California, starting in January 2026. Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
