Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined …
Instagram tests new age verification tools for 18 and over accounts, including video selfies
Instagram has been tinkering for years looking for better ways to manage and engage with younger and older users — not just to be more compliant with regulations, but to better target age-appropriate and relevant content and advertising to them. In the latest move, the Meta-owned platform is …
Gen Z social app Yubo rolls out age ‘estimating’ technology to better identify minors using its service
Yubo, a social livestreaming app popular with a Gen Z audience, announced today it’s becoming one of the first major social platforms to adopt a new age verification technique that uses live image capture technology to identify minors using its app, in order to keep them separated from adult …
UK names five projects to get funding for CSAM detection
The U.K. government has named five projects that have scored public funding under a “tech safety” challenge announced in September — when the Home Office said it wanted to encourage the tech industry and academia to develop novel AI/scanning technologies that could be implemented …
Remove that ‘exit strategy’ slide from your pitch deck
A lot of pitch decks I review have a slide that really shouldn't be there: the exit strategy slide. As an early-stage startup, it's downright nonsensical, and it shouldn't be part of your deck at all.