Apple, CSAM Scanning, and You

Once again, with nothing in particular planned for a post, the internet has provided me with a hot topic that I both care about and know something about - and therefore a blog post topic.

This week: Apple’s Expanded Protections for Children. If you follow tech news, you’ve heard about it (probably a lot of wrong things, if what I’ve seen is any evidence), and you probably have an opinion on it, as, of course, do I. But my opinion and post are based on a week or so of reading things, pondering, and experimenting - not the quick hot takes that seem to pass for reporting these days. If you have a problem reading about child pornography (or, as the new term seems to be, Child Sexual Abuse Material/CSAM) and related filtering technologies, just close the page now.

Well, that was my first thought too. CSAM? Child Sexual Abuse Material? Apparently this is the new term for what, historically, would be called CP - Child Pornography. The old name is a bit more direct, the new name is… actually, last week was literally the first time I’d heard of it.

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