Gadgets
Can India Catch Up to Global Standards of Digital Safety and Security?
Young people, especially girls, are often made targets of online abuse and harassment. They are also vulnerable online and often discouraged from accessing digital resources. Further, legal restrictions prevent this group in India from safely and independently engaging on online platforms.
Although risks of digital mediums exist, such as cyber bullying, the lack of clear privacy rules, and behavioural addiction, its benefits are far more. Benefits include bridging gaps in communication, promoting civic engagement, and disseminating knowledge.
In the recovery from the pandemic, the Internet also helped classrooms and playgrounds sustain virtually, and became a means through which the child’s education and development continued. Thought provoking examples of effective social media engagement can be: 17-year-old climate change Swedish activist Greta Thunberg mobilising other young people on climate change awareness with the power of social media.
Digital platforms have also become excellent business opportunities for young people. Monetising them for marketing small businesses, blogging or even creating original content is quickly on the rise. Popular creators like Prajakta Koli and Mithila Palkar have built their audience engagement and credibility through platforms before becoming mainstream influencers. The power of the Internet is endless and providing the means for the youth to leverage this can prove to be very useful.
India’s restrictive range of legal frameworks, however, makes it difficult for its youth to access online resources. Unlike global standards, India classifies a child at age 18, and sets that as the bar for independently accessing online forums. India’s draft data privacy law also seeks to introduce age verification and parental consent processes for those under the age of 18. Given that Internet governance is a shared responsibility, it is necessary for private companies to work with the Indian Government to enhance the data privacy and security regulations, and provide structures for the safety of online users, especially the youth.
The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) provides legal frameworks to mitigate cybercrimes and other forms of online abuses through the Information Technology Act, 2000. Additionally, the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 seeks to regulate minors’ data. The Bill classifies any person below the age of 18 as a child, requiring their personal data to only be processed with parental consent and their age to be verified. This draft law also restricts any ads targeting or behaviour tracking of minors’ data.
Behaviour tracking helps companies keep their minor users’ experience secure and privacy protective. If companies are unable to continue this practice, it could risk exposing children to harmful content online. A recent example of the harmful unintended consequences of barring behaviour tracking comes from the EU. The EU’s ePrivacy Directive, which took effect on December 21, 2020 resulted in companies disabling automatic routine tools from detecting child abuse online.
Here, the Bill assumes that processing and targeting a child’s data is always going to be for harmful purposes, and the provisions do not consider any other potential uses or benefits of online networks or the Internet.
India does not contextualise legal frameworks of digital safety and child protection with social networks for reform. The Indian Government, unlike its global counterparts, should create avenues to enforce reporting policies and set clear legal consequences for online abuse and harassment. This leads to ambiguity for effectively ensure a consistently safe and regulated environment for users, especially young people.
In the US, for example, social media companies that abide by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, require users to be at least 13. Verifiable parental consent is needed only for those who are younger. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation sets the age range between 13 and 16 to maintain tighter privacy rules for children and teens hinged to parental consent. Although the GDPR offers little guidance on what higher standards for children’s data mean in practice, some EU countries have started to design their own protections and enforcement of children’s data rights. Tighter controls have taken place on apps, online games, educational websites, and streaming services that process children’s data in the UK. Brazil’s data protection law, that took effect in August 2020, now provides balanced protections for children’s online privacy.
The definition of a child is varied across Indian laws. For instance, across frameworks like the Indian Penal Code, the Child Marriage and the Restraint Act. The Indian Contract Act, 1872 and the Indian Majority Act,1875, however, specify the age bar of 18 years. This is reflected in the PDP Bill as well.
India’s emerging privacy frameworks are comparatively vague in regard to the age of consent and enforcing digital safety for Internet children. Such restrictions could deprive children from the benefits that the online world provides, if used responsibly.
There is no clear stand on the legal front as to why India sets the age bar at 18, unlike its global counterparts. The ground reality is that children way below the age of 13 are already accessing the Internet, and instead lying about their age just to use online networks. They use it for their schools, connecting with peers, entertainment, and leisure. Safer forums and regulations need to be orchestrated for the privacy and comfort of young users. The privacy for a 13-year-old child is very different from that of a 17-year-old and thus cannot be clubbed in the same category. Instead, considering a wider set of regulations according to various age groups as provisions in legal frameworks around digital safety and privacy is a better alternative.
Factoring in maturity levels of children of different age groups and using a narrower approach that requires mandatory age verification for only those websites that are directed at children or have the actual knowledge that their services will be used by them, like the US legal frameworks would be more ideal. More nuanced factors of maturity, consent and privacy need to be taken into consideration for the Indian PDP Bill and similar frameworks to be more effective and ultimately at par with international standards.
Dr. Ranjana Kumari is the Director of Centre for Social Research as well as Chairperson of Women Power Connect.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. NDTV is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on this article. All information is provided on an as-is basis. The information, facts or opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.
Gadgets
Microsoft Partners With Inworld to Bring AI Game Development Tools to Xbox
“At Xbox, we believe that with better tools, creators can make even more extraordinary games,” Haiyan Zhang, GM, Xbox Gaming AI, said in a blog post. “This partnership will bring together: Inworld’s expertise in working with generative AI models for character development, Microsoft’s cutting-edge cloud-based AI solutions including Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Research’s technical insights into the future of play, and Team Xbox’s strengths in revolutionizing accessible and responsible creator tools for all developers.”
The aforementioned AI design copilot is a toolset that will help game designers turn prompts into scripts and dialogue trees. In contrast, the character runtime will enable dynamically generated plot beats and quests. We’ve already seen heavy AI integration in games by way of procedural generation — a more recent example being the 1000+ planets in Starfield. Not to mention, enemy AI has been around for way longer.
Inworld made headlines in August when it launched a modded story mode for Grand Theft Auto V, Sentient Streets, in which players had to investigate the rise of a bizarre AI-worshipping cult — a segment loaded with characters that spoke in AI-generated dialogue, on the fly. The mod was later taken down by publisher Take-Two, leaving a permanent strike on the creator Bloc’s YouTube channel. As per The Verge, Inworld’s AI technology can also be used for narration in top-down RPGs to warn players about any events awaiting off-screen and respond to questions like we’ve seen in the past year with AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Bing Chat. Microsoft has also been heavily banking on artificial intelligence, having made a $10 billion (about Rs. 83,254 crore) investment in OpenAI. The company has also integrated AI tools into its popular suite of services and also added an AI copilot to Windows.
Despite being a Microsoft-affiliated AI toolset, it would be interesting to see whether titles using them will be allowed to thrive on other platforms. In July, Valve claimed that it would be cracking down on games that included AI-generated assets if the developer didn’t own the copyright to the piece of art. For the uninitiated, when you insert a prompt to create something in AI, the software simply repurposes existing assets found online and mushes them together — basically stealing from other artists and writers without appropriate commercial licenses. Infringing them would lead to the game not being distributed on Steam, forcing the developers to seek proper licenses for the asset by reaching out to the AI companies involved. It’s unclear how Microsoft’s partnership will play out — as long as AI content is being used as a catalyst to innovate and create something new, it should be fine.
Gadgets
BSNL Offers Free 4G SIM Upgrade: Here’s How to Get It
In a post on X shared by BSNL’s Andhra Pradesh (@bsnl_ap_circle) unit, the company confirmed that BSNL users can upgrade their older 2G or 3G SIMs to a 4G SIM for free. Not only will the upgrade be free, but a promotional image shared with the post suggests that users who opt for the upgrade will also receive 4GB of free data that will be valid for three months. It is speculated that BSNL is aiming to boost its upcoming 4G services with this offer. The announcement was first spotted by Telecom Talk.
To access the free data offer and the free upgrade, BSNL users are requested to get in touch with executives at BSNL’s Customer Service Centre, franchisee or retailer stores, or contact one of their Direct Selling Agents (DSA). The promo image also adds in a finer print that the offer is available with certain terms and conditions, but hasn’t detailed any, so far.
Reliance’s Jio recently launched the 4G-supported Bharat B1 feature phone in India. The handset is priced at Rs. 1,299 in India. Alongside 4G connectivity, the phone comes with JioCinema and JioSaavn applications pre-installed.
The Jio Bharat B1 is equipped with the JioPay application, which is said to allow users to make UPI payments. Aiming to increase accessibility, the phone supports 23 languages overall, including multiple regional languages.
Gadgets
Realme GT 5 Pro Teased to Feature 3,000 Nits Display; More Details Revealed
Realme, via Weibo, announced the arrival of the Realme GT 5 Pro in China. The display of the handset is confirmed to offer 3000 nits peak brightness. It has also been teased to offer heat dissipation with a surface area of around 10,000mm2. It is confirmed to ship with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. The post doesn’t specify the exact launch date of the smartphone, however, given the release of the teasers, the launch could be just around the corner.
The Realme GT 5 Pro has been in the news a lot lately. It is expected to feature a 6.78-inch (1,264×2,780 pixels) AMOLED display and is tipped to come in 8GB, 12GB, and 16GB RAM options along with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB inbuilt storage options.
For optics, the Realme GT 5 Pro is said to have a triple rear camera unit comprising two 50-megapixel sensors and an 8-megapixel shooter at the rear. The camera setup might include a Sony LYTIA LYT808 sensor, an OmniVision OV08D10 secondary sensor, and a Sony IMX890 telephoto sensor. For selfies, there could be a 32-megapixel sensor at the front. It is said to carry a 5,400mAh battery with support for 100W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.
The Realme GT 5 Pro is expected to come with upgrades over Realme GT 5. The latter was launched in China in August with a price tag of CNY 2,999 for the base model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
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