Under-13 bar; parent-run mini accounts for 13–14s with time caps and safer defaults.
Read →Bring attention and creativity back home.
September was noisy in a useful way. Governments from California to Brussels tightened rules on kids’ feeds and companion AI. Researchers kept reminding us that age checks alone don’t invent healthy habits at home.
Here’s a calm roundup from our Updates strip — and a kitchen-table take for families and schools.
Easy answers can skip practice. Companion chatbots need adult boundaries too.
Lawmakers are treating sticky feeds and easy AI as design problems, not weather. Australia’s under-16 rule is being watched; Europe proposed Kids Act age gates; California barred infinite scroll for under-16s and tightened chatbot rules. France is back at the EU with an under-15 ban proposal.
None of that replaces dinner-table norms: sleep, meals, homework without the feed, and try-alone-first before AI help.
Age gates & kids’ social media
Under-13 bar; parent-run mini accounts for 13–14s with time caps and safer defaults.
Read →Privacy-preserving age checks, rolling out via member states including Ireland.
Read →Roundup after Australia’s under-16 rule and the EU Kids Act.
Read →Reworked proposal after courts struck down the earlier law.
Read →Little early drop in teen use; weak age checks still let many through.
Read →School phone limits, platform rules, learning and wellbeing.
Read →Feeds designed to hold attention
Infinite scroll and autoplay barred for under-16s; chatbot toy safeguards too.
Read →AI and young minds
Parental controls, crisis alerts, and safety audits for companion chatbots.
Read →Chatbot emotional use linked to higher rates of serious emotional problems.
Read →Kids’ online safety, EU Kids Online 2026, and youth voices.
Read →Under-16 bans vs addictive feeds and companion chatbots.
Read →114 systems ban school phones; still stress digital literacy.
Read →Teens’ chatbot use, parental controls, and youth mental health.
Read →Kitchen-table take
Print our free clip kit — Socials and AI practice cards you can cut and use at the table or a parent night.