New Zealand: Any method to ban under-16s from social media will drift into digital IDs for everyone

 Initially, as part of the proposed social media ban on under-16s, the New Zealand government considered a restriction or outright ban on using VPNs.

The Government has since backed down on VPNs but the central issue remains: any ban strong enough to stop determined teenagers will almost certainly require intrusive checks on adults.

Using age verification, for example, to limit under-16s access to online content will always drift into digital IDs for everyone and state control over the internet.

The proposed under-16 social media ban is being sold as child protection. That is the attractive part of the policy. Most parents know smartphones and social media can be harmful, addictive and corrosive for young people. But the political danger is that a policy aimed at children may become a system of online control for everyone.

The Post initially reported that the government was considering a VPN ban or restrictions as part of the policy work. National’s Education Minister Erica Stanford has since said she is not pursuing VPN restrictions, after ACT made clear it would block any such move.

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. It encrypts a user’s internet connection and can make their device appear to be accessing the internet from another location.

ACT leader David Seymour took to X to say that “the government” is not pursuing such a thing. He said National MPs had been keen on a VPN ban at select committee, while Stanford has been developing proposals to ban under-16s from social media.

But the question remains how the government plans to enforce an under-16 social media ban without pushing adults toward online age checks, identity verification or other forms of digital access control....<<<Read More>>>...

Nearly One Million UK Toddlers Hooked on Social Media

 Children as young as three are scrolling social media feeds built for adults. New analysis has emerged suggesting almost a million UK children aged 3-5 years old are using platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok. That includes an increase of 220,000 this year alone, with usage spiking despite application age limits and an ever-mounting pile of harmful evidence. 

Former education minister Lord Nash calls it “deeply alarming”, and lawmakers now face a decision that most ordinary people would find obvious. Should the platforms and the overall “attention economy” be regulated for minors, or should we continue letting algorithms trained on adult engagement shape the developing brains of pre-schoolers? ...<<<Read More>>>...

Australian Government to Ban Social Media for Children and Teenagers

 The Australian Government is set to impose social media age limits, amid increasing concern over the effect of social media on youth mental health, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced today.

Legislation is to be introduced later this year, and is expected to gain bipartisan support after the leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, called to ban social media for under-16s earlier this year.

“We know social media is causing social harm, and it is taking kids away from real friends and real experiences,” said Albanese in a statement today, which also happens to be World Suicide Prevention Day.

“The safety and mental and physical health of our young people is paramount.”

“We’re supporting parents and keeping kids safe by taking this action, because enough is enough.”

The federal commitment to legislate social media age limits follows similar announcements from the Victorian and South Australian Governments, both of which want to ban social media for kids under the age of 14.

The new legislation will build on a report by former High Court Chief Justice, Robert French, released on Sunday. The report, commissioned by the South Australian (SA) Government, includes draft legislation banning children under 14 from social media outright, and requiring companies to gain parental consent for 14 and 15-year-olds to use their platforms.

Recent polling shows strong public support for an age-based social media ban, with 61% of respondents agreeing that the government should restrict the use of social media platforms for Australians younger than 17. Unsurprisingly, support was lower among younger Australians: 54% of Aussies aged 18 to 24 agreed with the ban....<<<Read More>>>...

Elon Musk Says Gmail Alternative Called XMail ‘Coming’

 Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed on his social media platform X that he will soon launch a new product called “XMail” as an alternative to the widely used Gmail service.

“It’s coming,” Musk said late Thursday when asked whether he planned to launch an XMail service.

Musk did not reveal any details about when the service might be launched.

His comments came in response to a post from a senior member of X’s Security Engineering program, Nate McGrady, who had asked, “When we making Xmail?”

Musk took over X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022 and has introduced a wide array of changes to the social media platform. Gmail currently has more than 1.8 billion active users worldwide, accounting for about 30% of the global market share for email clients, according to Forbes....<<<Read More>>>..

British government mulling SOCIAL MEDIA BAN for teenagers 16 and younger

The British government under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is considering a crackdown on social media use for teenagers aged 16 and younger – with a ban said to be one of the options on the table.

Despite bringing new controls with the Online Safety Act (OSA) which received Parliament approval in October, ministers are considering the pros and cons of further actions to limit children’s exposure to social media’s harmful content.

British Science Secretary Michelle Donelan said the legislation meant the U.K. would become "the safest place to be online in the world." She added that the OSA's passage "will go down as an historic moment that ensures the online safety of British society not only now, but for decades to come."

The British government is reportedly ready to begin a consultation in January of next year to look at the evidence of social media harm to young teens. According to Bloomberg, a ban on social media use by those under 16 and improved parental controls are two options under discussion.

"We're looking at ways to empower parents, rather than crack down on anything in particular," said a government spokesperson. "We've identified that there is a gap in research, so we'll be looking at what more research into it needs to be done. But nothing is yet signed off by ministers."...<<<Read More>>>...

Study shows social media use is changing the brains of teenagers

 A recent study by psychologists shows that the regular use of social media is linked to changes in the brains of teenagers. This is especially troubling in light of the fact that the most popular social media platform for American teenagers is China's TikTok, which pushes harmful messaging on teens as soon as they sign up for an account. 

The study found that children who regularly checked their social media feed at around age 12 showed increased sensitivity to social rewards from their peers over time. In contrast, teenagers with less engagement in social media showed a declining interest in social rewards. While the study cannot make definitive causal claims about the effects of social media on the brain, the authors suggest that the findings could potentially have long-term consequences well into adulthood.

The study was conducted on a diverse group of 169 students from a middle school in rural North Carolina. The students were split into three groups based on their reported frequency of social media use: habitual (checking feeds 15 or more times a day), moderate (checking 1-14 times a day), and nonhabitual (checking less than once a day). The subjects received full brain scans at approximately one-year intervals as they played a game that displayed rewards and punishment in the form of smiling or scowling peers...<<<Read More>>>...

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Closure of Google+: everything you need to know

The Guardian: Google is finally closing the social network it set up in an ill-fated attempt to take on Facebook, the company has confirmed. Google+ will be shut down for good on 2 April, with all profiles and pages to be deleted on that day. (Blogger just deleted ALL connection with Google + and took with it 35% of my readers -MJH)

The announcement has caused confusion among some Google users; the company made it easy for people to create a Google+ page by accident, leaving many unaware they had joined the social network in the first place.

Any Google+ pages you created, as well as photos and videos stored in your Google+ album archive.

The deletion does not affect other Google services. Photos and videos stored in Google Photos, for instance, will not be affected. Your Google account, which is linked to services such as Gmail, YouTube and Maps, will continue to work, but your Google+ account, which was only used for the social network, will be deleted....read more>>>...