European parliament calls for social media ban on under-16s
Children under 16 should be banned from using social media unless their parents decide otherwise, the European parliament says,MEPs passed a resolution on age restrictions on Wednesday by a large majority,Although not legally binding, it raises pressure for European legislation amid growing alarm about the mental health risks to children of unfettered internet access,The European Commission, which is responsible for initiating EU law, is already studying Australia’s world-first social-media ban for under-16s, which is due to take effect next month,In a speech in September, the commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said she would watch the implementation of Australia’s policy.
She spoke out against “algorithms that prey on children’s vulnerabilities with the explicit purpose of creating addictions” and said parents felt powerless against “the tsunami of big tech flooding their homes”,Von der Leyen promised a panel of experts would be set up by the end of the year to advise on the best approach to protecting children,Interest is growing in restricting children’s social media and smartphone access,An expert report commissioned last year by France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said children should not be allowed to use smartphones until the age of 13 and social media, such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, until they were 18,Christel Schaldemose, the Danish Social Democrat MEP who drafted the resolution, told reporters that politicians needed to act to protect children: “It is not just parents.
Society also needs to step up and make sure that platforms are a safe place for minors to be, but only if they are above a certain age,”Her report called for the default disabling of addictive features on internet platforms when used by minors, such as infinite scrolling (endless content as the user scrolls down), videos that automatically play, excessive push notifications and rewards for repeated use of a site,The resolution noted that “addictive design features are often inherent to the business model of platforms, notably social media”,An earlier draft of the Schaldemose report cited a study stating that one in four children and young people displayed “problematic” or “dysfunctional” smartphone use – behavioural patterns mirroring addiction,The resolution said children should be 16 before they could access social media, although parents could give consent from the age of 13.
The White House is urging the EU to roll back its digital laws and some supporters of a social media ban explicitly framed the vote in this context,At a meeting in Brussels on Monday, Howard Lutnick, the US commerce secretary, said EU rules on tech companies needed to be more “balanced” in exchange for lower US steel and aluminium tariffs,Referring to Lutnick’s visit, Stéphanie Yon-Courtin, a French MEP from Macron’s party, said Europe was not “a regulatory colony”,In a statement after the vote, she added: “Our digital laws are not for sale,We will not back down on children’s protections because a foreign billionaire or big tech tells us to.
”The EU already seeks to protect internet users from online harms, such as disinformation, cyberbullying and illegal content, via its Digital Services Act.But the resolution said this law had gaps and could do more to protect children from addictive design features and online exploitation, such as financial incentives to become influencers.Schaldemose said the act, which she co-authored, was strong “but we could go further, especially in areas of addictive design features and harmful dark pattern practices where we are not so specific, not so precise”.Sign up to TechScapeA weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our livesafter newsletter promotionDark patterns refer to app or website design features to influence decision-making, such as countdown timers to encourage users to make purchases, or nagging requests to turn on location trackers and notifications.Schaldemose’s resolution was adopted by 483 MEPs and opposed by 92, with 86 abstentions.
Eurosceptic MEPs criticised the plan, saying the EU would be overreaching if it banned social media access for children,“Decisions about children’s access must be taken as close to families as possible – in the member states, not in Brussels,” said Kosma Złotowski, a Polish member of the European Conservatives and Reformists group,The resolution was passed only one week after the commission announced delays to changes to its Artificial Intelligence Act and other digital laws in a push to lighten regulation on companies in the name of “simplification”,Schaldemose said she appreciated the need to avoid creating too many laws but added “there is a willingness to do more when it comes to kids and protection of our children in the EU”,
Consumers urged to watch out for Black Friday scams and bad deals – business live
My colleagues at The Filter have helpfully rounded up the best offers in the UK today, recommending good on products which they’ve tested or have been recommended by product experts.Australia’s consumer regulator has warned that artificial intelligence is making it even harder to identify deceptive retailers, as so-called “ghost store” operators take advantage of Christmas and Black Friday to lure shoppers to their websites….Researchers at cybersecurity firm NordVPN have discovered a sharp rise in fraudulent websites aimed at Black Friday shoppers.Their data shows a 232% rise in the number of fake Amazon stores appearing on the internet, and another 525% rise in the number of fraudulent eBay sites.NordVPN says:Many of these sites are almost indistinguishable from the real thing - complete with copied branding, AI-generated product listings and convincing checkout pages designed solely to harvest personal and payment information
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One in 10 UK parents say their child has been blackmailed online, NSPCC finds
Nearly one in 10 UK parents say their child has been blackmailed online, with harms ranging from threatening to release intimate pictures to revealing details about someone’s personal life.The NSPCC child protection charity also found that one in five parents know a child who has experienced online blackmail, while two in five said they rarely or never talked to their children about the subject.The National Crime Agency has said that it is receiving more than 110 reports a month of child sextortion attempts, where criminal gangs trick teenagers into sending intimate pictures of themselves and then blackmail them.Agencies across the UK, US and Australia have confirmed a rising number of sextortion cases involving teenage boys and young adult males being targeted by cyber-criminal gangs based in west Africa or south-east Asia, some of which have ended in tragedy. Murray Dowey, a 16-year-old from Dunblane, Scotland, killed himself in 2023 after becoming a victim of sextortion on Instagram and Dinal De Alwis, 16, killed himself in Sutton, south London, in October 2022 after being blackmailed over nude photographs
Small changes to ‘for you’ feed on X can rapidly increase political polarisation
Small changes to the tone of posts fed to users of X can increase feelings of political polarisation as much in a week as would have historically taken at least three years, research has found.A groundbreaking experiment to gauge the potency of Elon Musk’s social platform to increase political division found that when posts expressing anti-democratic attitudes and partisan animosity were boosted, even barely perceptibly, in the feeds of Democrat and Republican supporters there was a large change in their unfavourable feelings towards the other side.The degree of increased division – known as “affective polarisation” – achieved in one week by the changes the academics made to X users’ feeds was as great as would have on average taken three years between 1978 and 2020.Most of the more than 1,000 users who took part in the experiment during the 2024 US presidential election did not notice that the tone of their feed had been changed.The campaign was marked by divisive viral posts on X, including a fake image of Kamala Harris cosying up to Jeffrey Epstein at a gala and an AI-generated image posted by Musk of Kamala Harris dressed as a communist dictator that had 84m views
Chess: Sindarov, 19, becomes youngest World Cup winner as London Classic begins
Javokhir Sindarov, 19, became the youngest ever winner of the Fide knockout World Cup on Wednesday when the Uzbek teenager defeated China’s Wei Yi 2.5-1.5 in the final at Goa. Ukraine’s Ruslan Ponomariov had been a year younger in 2002, but that World Cup had also doubled as the Fide world championship in a period when the global title was disputed.Wei was the favourite, but handicapped himself by poor time management in the decisive game
Iga Swiatek: ‘I didn’t want to give any points for free – it’s a Wimbledon final and I wanted to win’
SW19 champion baffled by post-match suggestions she should have let Amanda Anisimova win one game in grand slam final as she turns focus to Australian Open in 2026In the coming months, if and when her schedule allows, Iga Swiatek will make a pilgrimage to London and the All England Club, the scene of her biggest and, she admits, most surprising triumph. In July, the 24-year-old won her first Wimbledon title and sixth grand slam title in all, crushing a hapless Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in the final.It was the undoubted highlight of an up-and-down year for the Pole, who struggled on her best surface of clay but who will end 2025 ranked No 2, her fourth year in a row finishing inside the world’s top two.It is a quirk unique to Wimbledon that the singles’ champions are given honorary membership to the All England Club, granting them access any time they choose. Like many before her, Swiatek is keen to experience the sport’s most storied venue when fans and her fellow players are not around
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