Meta Lobbies Congress for Protection From Child-Harm Lawsuits
June 18 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms has lobbied the U.S. Congress for legal immunity from child-harm claims tied to social media products such as Instagram, as it faces thousands of lawsuits from young users and their families, according to a source familiar with the matter and proposed legislative language reviewed by Reuters.
The 5th Circuit’s App Store Mistake Jeopardizes Free Speech Online
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent decision allowing Texas’ App Store Accountability Act to take effect while litigation proceeds has focused attention on familiar debates: parental controls, online privacy and government oversight of digital platforms.
The Internet is Not a Can of Peas: The Problem With Texas’ App Store Age Verification Law
Texas has joined the growing list of states trying to solve a real problem with a dangerous tool. Senate Bill 2420, the Texas App Store Accountability Act, is intended to protect children from inappropriate online content, exploitative design, risky in-app purchases, adult strangers, and harmful digital environments...
Pence-Backed Think Tank Joins Push to Keep Kids’ Safety Bills out of AI Package
More than a dozen groups including former Vice President Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom are urging Senate Commerce Committee leaders to reject efforts to attach kids’ online safety measures to a national artificial intelligence framework, according to a letter shared exclusively with POLITICO.
UK Teen Social Media Ban is Anonymity-Killer for Adults
The United Kingdom is unveiling a grand new policy it claims will protect children on social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and X. The exact rules governing the ban will be released before its launch next year, but it will use age verification tools to restrict youth access to social media and other programs.
UK Bans Under-16s From TikTok and Instagram: Age Verification Comes With a Privacy Cost
Britain became one of the most aggressive regulators of children's online activity on Monday, when Prime Minister Keir Starmer formally announced that children under 16 will be prohibited from using TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook, and X, with legislation to reach Parliament before the end of 2026 and enforcement expected in spring 2027.
Arizona Age-Verification Bill Raises Serious Speech and Security Concerns
The Arizona state Senate was poised to jump on the age-verification bandwagon after a committee advanced House Bill 2991. Fortunately, as the legislative session winds to an end and the budget takes priority, an amended version of the bill appears to have stalled. Based in part on a controversial and legally uncertain law in Florida, the Arizona bill requires online platforms and mobile operating systems to verify the age of all users in an attempt to limit kids’ access to allegedly “harmful” online materials.
Justices Urged to Stop Texas from Enforcing Age-Verification and Parental-Consent Law on Apps
A student group and a trade association came to the Supreme Court on Monday afternoon on its interim docket, asking the justices to restore orders by a federal judge in Austin, Texas, that bar the state from enforcing a law that imposes age-verification and parental-consent requirements on minors’ access to apps and paid content within those apps. Half the states have similar age-verification requirements for minors.
Congress Shouldn’t Import Europe’s App Store Mistakes
Ingratitude is one of the chief faults of human nature and, consequently, one of the strongest of all the forces in politics. Too often, proposed intrusions into the market are predicated on nothing more than a great forgetting of what benefits the market provides, benefits that can be had only in an atmosphere of economic freedom. Would-be planners assume that tinkering with one aspect of an industry’s operations will not muck up the whole.
