In this Sunday, June 26, 2016 photo Nicole Maines poses at her home in Portland, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) --
A transgender activist who won a discrimination lawsuit after her school refused to let her use the girls' bathroom will be TV's first transgender superhero.
Nicole Maines will star in The CW/Warner Bros.' "Supergirl" as Nia Nal, aka Dreamer. Producers describe her character as a "soulful young transgender woman with a fierce drive to protect others."
Maines gained national attention for her battle against her Orono, Maine school district over her right to use the girls' bathroom.
Maine's highest court ruled in 2014 that school officials violated state anti-discrimination law when they required her to use a staff restroom.
It was the first time a state high court concluded that a transgender person should use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify.
A visitor passes the TikTok exhibition stands at the Gamescom computer gaming fair in Cologne, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
The U.K.'s data protection watchdog said Monday that it's investigating how TikTok uses the personal information of teenagers to deliver content recommendations to them when they use the social media platform.
The Information Commissioner's Office said that there are growing concerns around how social media platforms were using data generated by children's online activity to power their recommendation algorithms, and the potential for young people to see inappropriate or harmful content as a result.
The regulator said that it wanted to ensure the robustness of TikTok's safety procedures when it comes to using the personal information of teens ranging in age from 13 to 17.
"It's what they're collecting, it's how they work," information commissioner John Edwards said. "I will expect to find that there will be many benign and positive uses of children's data in their recommender systems."
"What I am concerned about is whether they are sufficiently robust to prevent children being exposed to harm, either from addictive practices on the device or the platform, or from content that they see, or from other unhealthy practices," he said.
As part of the investigation, the regulator will also look into how online forum site Reddit and image-sharing site Imgur use children's personal data and how they estimate or verify a child's age.
TikTok, which is operated by Chinese technology firm ByteDance, said in a statement that it was "deeply committed to ensuring a positive experience for young people on TikTok."
"Our recommender systems are designed and operate under strict and comprehensive measures that protect the privacy and safety of teens, including industry-leading safety features and robust restrictions on the content... Read More
