Latest news and stories about online safety in Portugal for expats and residents.
Analyzing the profile and using search tools to see if that material appears on other sites is a way to identify a fake profile.
The European Commission threatened this Wednesday to fine the tech giant Meta for effectively allowing children under 13 to use Facebook and Instagram, deeming their age control mechanisms ineffective. During the morning, it also urged member states to implement age verification on social networks by the end of the year.
Brussels is under pressure to protect kids online as countries move forward with social media bans.
With no rules in force since Friday, Google, Meta, and Microsoft promise voluntary measures. The Commission warns that the protection of children cannot depend on autonomous decisions by companies.
The European Commission urged the European Parliament and member states this Tuesday to quickly reach an agreement on a new legal framework to detect online child sexual abuse, after the rules that were in force expired on Friday. “Co-legislators must drastically accelerate their work to reach a long-term solution.”
The European regime that allows for the detection of online child sexual abuse ends today, leaving all technology platforms prohibited from tracking and reporting images or conversations containing this type of content, marking a 'dark page' for children's rights.
All technology platforms are now prohibited from scanning and reporting images or conversations containing this type of content.
Over 2,400 organisations have warned of a deeply alarming gap in child protection following the expiration of a European legal framework that allowed for the detection of online child sexual abuse. The coalition, which includes the Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV), argues that the failure to extend these rules will hinder the identification of abusers and leave millions of children at risk, as platforms will no longer be able to proactively detect and report illegal content.
The European Union will not extend the rules for detecting online child sexual abuse, which expire on April 3, after the European Parliament, which is extremely divided, rejected the proposal.
The European Commission accused the pornographic content platforms PornHub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos this Thursday of violating European Union (EU) rules by allowing minors access to their services, and threatened them with heavy fines. The Commission's preliminary findings indicate that Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos did not identify or assess...
The European Union (EU) will have a mobile age verification application available next autumn to restrict access to inappropriate content on social media, with the authentication method still to be finalised, the European Commission announced today. “Currently, six of our member states are testing this age verification tool and...”
An independent Roblox game creator said they believe the platform's child safety measures, including age verification, are not strict enough.
The European Commission today accused pornographic content platforms PornHub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos of violating European Union (EU) rules by allowing minors access to their services, and threatened them with heavy fines.
The Portuguese have already adopted AI, with 38.7% of the population using these tools according to the INE, a figure that jumps to 81.5% among students. With 59.2% possessing basic digital skills, the challenge lies in security: 45.2% have already encountered aggressive or discriminatory content online.
The current mechanism expires on April 3rd. According to the companies, failure to renew this exception will create legal uncertainty and reduce the mechanisms available to identify these crimes.
Several technology companies argued today that European lawmakers must act urgently to prevent the loss of protection for children against online sexual abuse, advocating for the maintenance of the current mechanism, which expires on April 3rd.
Rules allowing the analysis of communications to identify illegal content expire on 3 April. A European political stalemate could create a legal vacuum with an immediate impact.
The European Parliament, European Commission, and European Council met on Monday and failed to reach an agreement to allow platforms to continue tracking images of child pornography and child abuse. Tito Morais, founder of the Projeto Agarrados à NET, explains the potential dangers involved.
A study released by the Finnish organization Protect Children takes a journey into the minds of predators, in a world where technology makes life easier than ever for those who consume and produce child sexual abuse content.
Paulo Dias, a security expert, explains how users can avoid being targeted by illegal access from hackers.
The owner of Facebook and Instagram has announced new measures to stop fraudulent schemes and protect those who use the company's networks, using new alerts and advertiser verification.
This article reports that a Europol-led international law enforcement operation successfully disrupted Tycoon2FA, a major phishing-as-a-service platform responsible for tens of millions of phishing messages monthly. The operation involved seizing 330 domains linked to the platform's infrastructure, including control panels and phishing pages, and was supported by private partners like Microsoft, Cloudflare, Coinbase, and others. Tycoon2FA, active since at least August 2023, targeted organizations worldwide—including those in Portugal—by bypassing multi-factor authentication (MFA) to compromise nearly 100,000 accounts across sectors such as government, healthcare, and education. The platform used sophisticated techniques like reverse proxy servers to intercept login credentials and session cookies, enabling attackers to hijack sessions and evade MFA protections. The disruption aims to reduce the threat posed by this widespread phishing operation.
Madrid’s proposal follows efforts in France, Denmark and Portugal to protect kids online.
The PSP is raising awareness among the school community about the risks associated with using the internet.
Authorities warn of the importance of the role of parents and guardians, who should take an active part in monitoring how children use the internet.
Learn how to identify these manipulations and avoid sharing misinformation.
The European Commission has launched a new investigation into X under the Digital Services Act to “assess whether the company adequately assessed and mitigated the risks associated” with the tool.
European Commission's move follows explosion of sexually explicit deepfakes of women and children.
One victim filed a complaint before paying. Another transferred €4,600 to a fake police officer he met online.
European regulators have yet to decide how to handle the explosion of nonconsensual deepfakes on the platform.
