How much of a role should social media platforms play in censoring dangerous content from kids?
Is TikTok responsible for a viral “blackout” challenge that has led to children’s deaths? Visual social media platform TikTok has recently been playing host to the viral “blackout challenge,” in which users choke themselves until they faint and then get an adrenaline rush as they come to — all on camera, according to Bloomberg. The (obviously) dangerous “challenge” has resulted in 15 children aged 12 or below dying as they tried to partake, but appeared unaware of the dangers.
These cases have raised questions about the extent to which TikTok itself should be held accountable. Although TikTok was initially unaware of several incidents of children’s deaths from the “blackout challenge,” the company has known that children below the age of 13 — its minimum age requirement — have been using the app. A big part of the problem is that kids are claiming to be older than 13 to create adult TikTok profiles, as the platform simply sets the age requirement but has long lacked a meaningful way to verify the information. TikTok has since met with facial age-estimation programs that are able to differentiate between teenagers and kids with relative accuracy but has not signed any agreements and has refused to comment as to why but said that it removes underage kids’ accounts, removing 41 mn accounts in the first half of 2022. Twitter, BeReal and Instagram have since begun utilizing these platforms.
We’re closer than ever to a real-life Black Mirror episode: Brain-chip startup Neuralink expects to begin human trials on its brain computer-interface product within six months, pending approvals from the US FDA, CEO Elon Musk said at a “show and tell” event yesterday (watch, runtime: 2:48:32). The product would essentially “allow a person with a debilitating condition … to communicate via their thoughts,” Bloomberg notes. Neuralink had showcased its technology last year by embedding the chips in monkeys’ brains, allowing them to play video games just by thinking about the physical motions of the game.
The company is also working on two separate products that could help restore physical mobility or other human body functions lost to disease, including correcting spinal mobility for people with paralysis, and using an eye implant to restore lost human vision — even if it was never there. This technology is designed to eventually help people with degenerative and paralytic illnesses by sending brain signals between the chips implanted in the body, much like the brain’s regular neural signaling pathways, according to CNN.