Federal lawmakers want it to be harder for children to access age-restricted material online. But a bill designed to keep kids safe makes it harder for younger readers to access local journalism.

“The kids all laugh about it, ‘What a joke, we haven’t been taken off anything.’” Those are the words of Lauren Hillier, a 42-year-old mother of two Australian teens. Hillier was describing the effects of Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age Act to the New York Times.

Alaska’s most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 19% of high school students reported attempting suicide at least once in the past year, more than double the rate recorded in 2011. Senator Dan Sullivan has spent years making the case that social media platforms bear real responsibility for that trend, hosting the U.S. Surgeon General in Anchorage for community roundtables on the youth mental health crisis and writing publicly that Big Tech’s business model is to get our children hooked.

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 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.

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...

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.

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.

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.