Santa Clara County, California, sued Meta Platforms Inc. over allegations that the company “knowingly facilitates and profits from billions of scam advertisements” on its social networks, including Facebook and Instagram. The complaint accuses the social networking giant of defrauding seniors and families with scam ads, which the company allegedly tracks. Meta makes approximately $7 billion in revenue each year from these kinds of ads, according to a statement from Tony LoPresti, the Santa Clara County counsel, who is bringing the lawsuit.
They have to have a real name or organization. They have to have a physical address. There has to be a phone number. There has to be some type of tax ID or other type of financial identification so you know exactly who you're dealing with.
When a young person searches about suicide or self-harm, empowering a parent to step in can be extremely important. The fact that Meta has now built this in is a meaningful step forward and is the kind of change that child safety experts have been pushing for.
I am sceptical about whether a ban will work, but I am sure we will end up backing a ban, not least because that is the way the politics is heading. In a way it doesn't necessarily matter whether it is universally adhered to or not – a ban is the clearest signal to the industry that we want them to do more to protect young people online.
Lauren Goodger, 39, Yazmin Oukhellou, 31, Rebecca Gormley, 27, Biggs Chris, 33, Jamie Clayton, 34, Scott Timlin, and Eva Zapico, 27, have all admitted breaking the law when acting as so-called finfluencers. They urged their Instagram followers to sign up to an account offering FX trading tips, Southwark Crown Court heard, despite having no qualifications or authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The Spanish government will ask prosecutors to investigate the social media companies X, Meta and TikTok to determine whether they have committed criminal offences by allegedly allowing their AI to generate and disseminate child sexual abuse material. Spain's socialist prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, said his government had taken the decision in order to protect the mental health, dignity and rights of our sons and daughters and to end the impunity of huge social media platforms.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pledges to end impunity' of platforms X, Meta and TikTok in promoting harmful content. The Spanish government has ordered prosecutors to investigate social media platforms X, Meta and TikTok for allegedly spreading AI-generated child sexual abuse material, the prime minister has said. These platforms are undermining the mental health, dignity, and rights of our children, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on his X account on Tuesday. The state cannot allow this. The impunity of these giants must end.
Some people simply say just get all under-16s off social media, and that's the end of it. NSPCC, obviously an organisation very concerned with children's protection, says no, it'll push children to even darker places. Others I was with young people this morning, 15- and 16-year-olds who are actually going to be affected by this they said to me, look we get our news from social media, we don't read the papers, and therefore you'll stop us accessing the news.
Maher had a lot to say about the current president's recent attacks on climate change. "He thinks it's just some bullshit that people made up out of nothing to get rich. You know, like crypto," Maher said. He went on to say that the EPA's recent decision to stop regulating climate change was arguably "the biggest dick move in American history."
Over the years, a loud, well-funded movement has been built up trying to persuade the public that regulation is always a bad thing. A quick look at how much safer cars have become makes it clear that this is nonsense. The purpose of civilization isn't to support capitalism, the purpose of capitalism is to support civilization. And when it doesn't, it's our job to regulate it so it does.
As a person born in the 90s, social media was once an unknown land for me, a place that felt genuine in the beginning. It still had dangers, but it seemed less risky, or maybe our parents' rules were stricter. I don't want to go down the psychological path here, but I want to look at where we are headed with so much risk, especially on social media platforms.
There are real technical limitations to accurate and dependable age verification. The Australian government's own trial, published in 2025, found that available age estimation technology was only accurate to within 2-3 years on average. In practice, this means some young people under 16 may be able to bypass protections, potentially leaving them with reduced safeguards, while others over 16 may incorrectly lose access.
Pressure is mounting on the UK government to introduce a ban on social media for under-16s, after a decisive vote in House of Lords in favour of Australian-style restrictions. Peers backed a Tory-led amendment to the children's wellbeing and schools bill by 261 votes to 150, despite the government opposing the move. Ministers are already considering a ban as part of a consultation due to report by the summer and so the Lords amendment is unlikely to pass in the Commons.
Schools should be phone-free throughout the entire day, the education secretary has told headteachers in England, stressing that pupils should not use the devices even as calculators or for research. Bridget Phillipson wrote to schools to underline updated guidance issued by the government last week, according to the BBC. Schools should make sure those policies are applied consistently across classes, and at all times and we want parents to back these policies too, Phillipson said.
Common advice like limiting individual youth access to screens, or asking parents to keep tabs on their children's every digital movement is not only impossible, but for adolescents in particular, potentially invasive, Schleider said. Instead, the AAP is putting more emphasis on the structural responsibility of companies and society, Schleider said. Their statement recommends regulations that limit overt, sexualized, commercialised, or harmful content to youth, including algorithms that send teens and children down rabbit holes with damaging themes.
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Each year group in each school will then be randomly assigned to one of two conditions: either the app will simply record students' social media use, or the app will curtail students' social media use by limiting their access to the apps for TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube and Snapchat to one hour a day, as well as imposing a curfew from 9pm to 7am.
