Of the child safety measures agreed to in Meta’s landmark legal settlement, no category contains more detailed requirements than its commitments on age assurance — and for good reason. No matter how well the protections work, they are of little use if Meta can’t tell which users are kids. Determining which accounts belong to children […]

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Kids under 18 will soon see a host of changes to their Instagram and Facebook experiences thanks to a historic $18 billion settlement Meta Platforms reached Wednesday with 48 U.S. states. Besides the money, which will be paid out over a decade, Meta has agreed to strengthen its age estimates to […]

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s data protection regulator on Tuesday fined TikTok parent company ByteDance more than 153 million reais (nearly $30 million) because of alleged failures in the handling of personal data of children and teenagers. It’s the South American nation’s latest move against social media companies. The regulatory body said in its ruling […]

TikTok has reached a $400 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, ending a 2024 lawsuit alleging the company violated federal children’s privacy laws. The DOJ said Friday that TikTok will pay $300 million immediately and another $100 million after an order vacates an earlier consent decree against its predecessor company, Musical.ly. “This settlement […]

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Artificial intelligence chatbots have become the bane of teachers everywhere, but to prepare for the new school year, a group of educators in Charleston, South Carolina, packed into a high school auditorium and talked about inviting AI into the classroom. The teachers and principals watched as an instructor prompted an […]

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Discord, the popular platform for gamers to communicate online, said on Monday it suspended its livestreams in Brazil after criticism that it failed to protect children and adolescents. The move takes place in the wake of a suicide case. Brazil’s government under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the […]

OAKLAND, California (AP) — A former engineering director at Meta who has testified before Congress about child safety on Instagram told jurors Wednesday at a landmark trial that the company took a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach on kids under 13 on its platforms. During his second day of testimony, Arturo Béjar said Meta consistently […]

In June, the federal government introduced Bill C-34, which would force social media platforms to block access for kids under 16. The exact ways in which social media platforms would verify age haven’t yet been worked out. Culture Minister Marc Miller said there will be “a back and forth with platforms as to what protects […]

In a landmark ruling against Meta, a New Mexico judge likened the company’s social media platforms to factories. The psychological harm to children who use Facebook and Instagram, he said, can be seen as their pollution. Judge Bryan Biedscheid fined the company $567 million in his ruling Thursday, but he also prescribed steps to clean […]

The families of four teenagers who died by suicide are suing Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube over what they describe as “years of escalating harms” from using their platforms that eventually resulted in their deaths. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the Superior Court of Delaware, is the latest in a flurry of suits filed against […]

Over the last two weeks of the parliamentary sitting, the Liberal government made a series of moves related to AI and digital regulation. It introduced a new AI strategy, a bill requiring social media platforms to ban kids under 16 and a long-awaited privacy bill. It also moved to block new rules requiring streamers to […]

The Conservatives and the NDP aren’t offering opinions yet on the online harms bill introduced by the federal Liberal government Wednesday. The bill includes a high-profile plan to force social media companies to ban kids under 16 from their platforms. A spokesperson for the Conservatives said the party is looking at the bill. “Protecting children […]