Technology

Zuckerberg lied about concern for child safety, Meta whistleblower testifies at landmark trial
Posted on Wednesday August 19, 2026

Arturo Béjar, former Meta safety engineer, tells jury tech company was aware of products’ potential harm to children

Meta has taken a “don’t ask, don’t tell” strategy when it comes to the safety of children on its social media platforms, according to a whistleblower who testified during a landmark trial against the company on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Arturo Béjar, a former Meta safety engineer, told the jury that the company was aware of the harm its products caused children, which included its recommendations pushing content from sexual predators and violent and graphic images. He said he repeatedly raised the issue to various Facebook and Instagram executives but that they did little to resolve it.

Roblox commits to privacy overhaul after eSafety discovers adults can contact children via gaming platform
Posted on Wednesday August 19, 2026

Regulator says verifiable safety measures are ‘critical’ to the online service’s viability

Roblox has committed to making changes to its online gaming platform after Australia’s eSafety commissioner discovered adults were still able to see child accounts and send connection requests without parental consent.

The company has provided a legal agreement to the online safety regulator after testing earlier this year also revealed children and adults could view and respond to one another’s posts on forums outside game environments without parental consent.

It used to be our imperfect bodies that made us insecure. With AI, it’s our minds as well
Posted on Thursday August 20, 2026

For most of modern history, technology sought to imitate humans. Humans increasingly seek to imitate technology

Two faces that appeared on my Instagram feed in recent months gave me pause. One belonged to John Travolta at Cannes. The other to Carla Bruni on a date night with her husband, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Both looked recognisably themselves, yet, they both also looked oddly unfamiliar. Their looks have provoked speculation about cosmetic enhancement, though never acknowledged by them. Bruni has previously denied having had work done.

In any case the feeling lasted only a second: a flicker of unease, as though I were looking at people who had become approximations of themselves.

Joseph de Weck is an associate fellow with the German Council on Foreign Relations and writes for Guardian Europe from Zürich and Paris

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Did someone wearing Meta Glasses film you today? Are you sure?
Posted on Wednesday August 19, 2026

People say they’ve been secretly filmed in their own homes, at concerts and at work. Are the wildly popular smartglasses the final nail in the coffin of personal privacy?

“I’ve had one person who told me that their intentions were creepy,” a man tells me over a video call, on condition of anonymity. He’s based in Los Angeles, and while we speak, he eats what appears to be tuna directly out of the can. “He said: ‘I go to strip clubs, and I want to record the strippers … Normally I put my phone in my chest pocket, but the glasses are more convenient.’”

The man I’m talking to runs a business called Ghost Metas. He’s one of hundreds of vendors, easily discoverable online, who specialise in disabling the flashing LED light embedded in Meta’s smartglasses that blinks when wearers capture photos, videos and audio. After Ghost Metas disables the LED, it’s impossible for someone to know they’re being filmed.

OpenAI announces slowing pace of development after hack by rogue agent
Posted on Tuesday August 18, 2026

Amid race with Anthropic, firm plans to overhaul research and training and require more safety parameters after hack

OpenAI on ⁠Tuesday said it had slowed down the ⁠pace of ⁠its AI development while it overhauled its ⁠research and training systems.

The company’s researchers were ⁠caught unaware last month when an ‌AI agent ‌under testing hacked another AI ‌firm, Hugging Face.

Social media on trial as $200bn case against Facebook and Instagram begins
Posted on Tuesday August 18, 2026

Twenty-nine US states are seeking huge damages, claiming Meta’s platforms were addictive by design

In 1994, more than 40 US states came together to sue one of the most powerful industries on Earth: big tobacco.

The suits brought together diverse claims centred on tobacco companies’ misleading advertising and contribution to a mounting public health crisis. They ended in a negotiated settlement with the US government, in which the companies agreed to pay more than any industry ever, and the states agreed to drop a large portion of their claims.

OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Teens with stronger safeguards
Posted on Tuesday August 18, 2026

Teen version is intended for children aged 13 to 17 and includes content protections on self-harm and sexual chats

OpenAI is launching a version of ChatGPT designed for teenagers – the first generation to grow up with artificial intelligence – who are already using it for schoolwork, questions about daily life and even companionship.

The San Francisco-based company says ChatGPT for Teens, which launches on Tuesday, is tailored for children aged 13 to 17 with stronger protections including content restrictions around things such as suicide, self-harm and romantic or sexual chats. It also provides homework and study support designed to help students learn rather than spit out answers and school essays.