Experts from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) have found numerous loopholes in the App Store that allow minors to access adult content. Research has shown that teens can install dating and gambling services even when Apple is aware of their age. According to TTP, in this way the company refutes its own claim that its app store is “a safe place for children.”
The TTP experts conducted an experiment, specifying the user's 14-year-old age and checking 80 applications from the App Store. It turned out that a teenager can easily download and use 37 applications for adults – all that was needed was to indicate during installation that the user was already 18 years old, although in some cases even that was not needed.
For example, researchers installed a dating app that opened to view pornography before asking the user's age. The app store also approved the installation of an adult chat with candid photos and a gambling app to allow deposits and withdrawals.
The study found common flaws in Apple's approach to protecting children, experts said. Chief among them, the App Store and app owners are blaming each other when it comes to blocking underage users. This makes it easy for teenagers to get around restrictions.
The TTP noted that in the course of the litigation between the game maker Epic Games and Apple, it turned out that Apple has long been aware of the problems with the safety of children. In 2020, the company's chief information officer, Eric Friedman, said in a correspondence that Apple cares more about privacy than trust and security, making the company “the best platform for distributing child porn.”
Earlier, “Secret” wrote that Apple decided to scan the iPhone owners and the cloud service iCloud for files with scenes of child abuse and child pornography. Experts called this idea “bad” in terms of the ability to spy on users.
Photo: Pixabay, Pixabay License
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