Produced by AI. Original reporting by Lucy Valeski Sat, June 6, 2026 at 9:00 AM UTC South Carolina State Representative Brandon Guffey, R-York, introduces guests before house members debate amendments to the state budget on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (Joshua Boucher/jboucher@thestate.com) South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed a new law aimed at protecting kids’ mental...Read More
Lawmakers across the country are advancing legislation intended to protect minors from harms allegedly caused by social media use. A bipartisan group of United States senators, for example, has introduced the “Protecting Kids on Social Media Act,” which would ban users under the age of 13 from accessing social media platforms and require parental consent...Read More
In 2005, the U.S. Senate designated June as National Internet Safety Month to raise awareness of internet dangers and highlight the need for education about online safety. For prosecutors in particular, June is a time to highlight youth safety, especially for kids with social media access, as online risks have increased dramatically over the years....Read More
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Evan Bray: What Australia’s social media ban is hoping to do? Leaver: Australia has put through legislation that prevents users under the age of 16 from holding social media accounts across the big social media platforms. The aim is to, in the words of our Prime...Read More
ATLANTA — Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Georgia Tech are partnering to develop a new opt-in tool aimed at improving teen safety on social media. The goal of the project is to detect declines in a teen’s mental health before they become serious problems. Dr. John Constantino, Chief of Behavioral and Mental Health at Children’s...Read More
This story was originally published by the Michigan Advance. Wednesday’s session of the Michigan Senate brought new changes for the ways in which Big Tech companies are held accountable for unethical practices that leave children and teenagers vulnerable to the perils of being exploited and bullied online or becoming addicted to endless social media scrolling....Read More
MIAMI, Fla. (WWSB) – Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a school safety bill Friday that expands certain safety measures to Florida’s public colleges and universities. House Bill 757 extends the state’s school guardian program to public postsecondary institutions and requires sheriffs to assist with implementation, DeSantis said during a bill-signing event at Miami Dade College. House...Read More
A group of civil society organizations led by the Open Technology Institute (OTI) at New America and the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) issued an open letter opposing the Kids Off Social Media Act (S. 4213) introduced by Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and Katie Britt (R-Ala.). The group—which...Read More
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Evan Bray: What Australia’s social media ban is hoping to do? Leaver: Australia has put through legislation that prevents users under the age of 16 from holding social media accounts across the big social media platforms. The aim is to, in the words of our Prime...Read More
LAS VEGAS — When Livingston Parish deputies executed a search warrant at a suspect’s home, they discovered him actively using voice-changing technology to pose as a teen girl while communicating with a real child online— exactly the crime they had come to arrest him for. “He had a 14-year-old girl on the phone, he was...Read More
