Facebook Is Using AI To Teach Kids To Avoid Being Kidnapped

Dhir Acharya - May 25, 2020

Facebook has launched a new AI tool that will notify minor users of potential scammers as well as remind users under 18 years old to be wary of strangers.

There are a lot of creepers and scammers on social media, including the world-leading platform Facebook. To protect children from them, Facebook has developed an AI-powered safety feature, available in Messenger, which will help children identify bad actors and notify them of suspect accounts. And the feature doesn’t need to read the actual messages.

The social giant launched the featured back in March for Android users and should be rolling it out for iOS users this week. According to Facebook, the feature monitors the behavior of a potential scammer, for example, an adult user that sends many friend requests and messages to users of 18 years or younger.

The feature may also notify a user if someone is impersonating their friend by using their photo when sending a message. Besides, Facebook may also use reported content and reports to train the AI. Notably, as the feature notifies users based on tracking behavior rather than reading messages, it will ensure the end-to-end encryption for users.

The AI feature will notify underage users of potential scammers

However, users are the one to decide whether to block potential scammers or not, the feature will only notify them. Apart from warning against a suspect creeper, the safety notification feature will also provide users with tips to recognize scams as well as remind users to decline to request to send money to a stranger. Also, the feature will remind users under 18 years old to be cautious about adult users that they don’t actually know.