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A New Bill Would Ban Anyone Under 16 From Using Social Media
A growing number of U.S. policymakers and federal officials are angling to keep children and young teenagers off social media entirely, citing mounting concerns that the platforms may harm their well-being and mental health. It’s a notable escalation in the rhetoric around keeping kids safe online, which has largely focused on setting new digital protections.
The push gained traction after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told CNN on Sunday that he believes 13 is “too early” for kids to be joining apps like Instagram and TikTok, which he said can create a “distorted environment” that “often does a disservice” to kids.
Now the movement is fueling legislation on Capitol Hill: A House Republican on Thursday is introducing a bill to ban kids and teens under 16 from using social media. The bill represents one of the most stringent efforts yet to keep kids off major platforms, going far beyond more narrow bipartisan proposals to set up guardrails for kids online.
The measure, led by Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), would require companies to verify users’ ages and allow parents to sue them if they fail to keep those under 16 off their sites. It would also empower federal and state agencies to enforce the standards. Stewart likened the effect social media can have on children and teens to that of drugs, a refrain that’s becoming increasingly common in Washington.
Georgia Lawmakers Could Bar COVID Vaccine Rules for Good
Some Georgia senators want to permanently block schools and most state and local government agencies from requiring people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. In 2022, lawmakers put a one-year ban into law, part of a broad conservative nationwide backlash against mandates meant to prevent the spread of respiratory illness. But that ban expires on June 30 in Georgia if lawmakers don’t act.
On Wednesday, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee voted 7-2 to advance Senate Bill 1, which makes the ban permanent, to the full Senate. Sen. Greg Dolezal, a Republican from Cumming who is sponsoring the bill, said that when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine at least, the government shouldn’t be able to force anyone to get it.
The measure bars state agencies, local governments, schools and colleges from requiring proof of vaccination. But because governments and schools can’t require proof, they can’t enforce mandates.
Dolezal’s bill originally would have also made permanent the existing five-year ban on schools being able to require children to wear masks. However, Dolezal said he now plans to bring a separate bill on that issue.
California Ends Plans for Kids’ COVID Vaccine Mandate
California state leaders seem to be quietly closing the door on the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for school children.
The California Department of Public Health hasn’t made an announcement, but officials told EdSource that the end of the state’s COVID-19 State of Emergency on Feb. 28 effectively ends its current plan to add COVID-19 vaccinations to the list of ten vaccinations children are required to have to attend school in-person.
The statement went on to say that any changes to required K-12 immunizations are properly addressed through the legislative process. There are no bills mandating school vaccinations currently pending in the legislature.
Last year the state withdrew a mandate that school staff be vaccinated or tested to remain on campus and rescinded a requirement that everyone wear masks in classrooms.
Massive Peer-Reviewed Mask Study Shows ‘Little to No Difference’ in Preventing COVID, Flu Infection
A massive international research collaboration that analyzed several dozen rigorous studies focusing on “physical interventions” against COVID-19 and influenza found that they provide little to no protection against infection or illness rates.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, is the strongest science to date refuting the basis for mask mandates worldwide. According to the Cochrane study, which included the work of researchers at institutions in the U.K., Canada, Australia, Italy and Saudi Arabia, a total of 78 studies were analyzed. The most recent additions to the meta-analysis were 11 new randomized controlled trials.
As unlisted study author Carl Heneghan — who directs the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford noted on Twitter: “Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness (ILI)/COVID‐19 like illness compared to not wearing masks.”
Bottom line, mask-wearing “probably makes little to no difference,” when it comes to influenza-like or COVID-like illnesses, regardless of the type of mask used.
As the Bee Population Declines, This Startup Secures $8 Million to Apply AI and EVs to Pollination
Given our general reliance on something called “food,” you’d think the issue of pollination — and its general decline — might be higher up the world’s agenda. Over 80% of crops require insect pollination, but growers can no longer rely on the dwindling wild bee population.
But it’s a complex problem. Pollinating crops with honey bees can pose a threat to indigenous wild bees who are forced to compete with honey bees for food and are then exposed to new diseases. AgTech startups are addressing this by working on artificial pollination innovations, or on methods to make honey bees more efficient and less impactful on wildlife.
BeeWise and BeeHero are solutions that enhance honeybees and their pollination efforts, for instance. But honeybees are ineffective pollinators for most types of crops. And some startups are trying to artificially pollinate but their solutions are limited to greenhouse plants. What is to be done?
Israel-based BloomX is a startup that has an AI-driven “bio-mimicking technology” where it puts AI alongside mechanical devices to make the whole process more likely to succeed. It’s now emerged from stealth with an $8 million Seed round led by Ahern Agribusiness, a US-based vegetable seed distribution company. Also participating was Vasuki Global Tech fund, Bio Bee, the Israeli Innovation Authority (IIA) and Dr. Gal Yarden.
Get Used to Face Recognition in Stadiums
Last week, the New York Attorney General’s office sent Madison Square Garden Entertainment a letter demanding answers. The state’s top law enforcement agency wants to know more about how the company operating Radio City Music Hall and the storied arena where the NBA’s Knicks play uses a face recognition system to deny entry to certain people, and in particular lawyers representing clients in dispute with Madison Square Garden.
The letter says that because the ban is thought to cover staff at 90 law firms, it may exclude thousands of people and deter them from taking on cases “including sexual harassment or employment discrimination claims.”
The venue’s use of face recognition underscores the recent spread of the technology at sporting events. The trend is driven by a desire to quickly authenticate ticket holders’ identities and get them into stadiums and concert venues. But civil rights groups warn that face recognition installed with seemingly benign intent can be adapted to other, more concerning uses.
Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the nonprofit Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, envisions a biometric economy springing up in stadiums, powering things like personalized advertising akin to the kind seen in Minority Report. But once an entity gains the ability to track nearly anyone, the technology can also be used to control and monitor movement, powers ripe for abuse.
Big Brother Is Watching Me
About six months ago I was contacted by Big Brother Watch, the civil liberties campaign group, and asked if I wanted to help with an investigation into the surveillance of critics of the government’s pandemic response by state agencies. Would I submit subject access requests to different Whitehall departments to see if I was among the critics of the government’s pandemic response who’d been monitored by the Counter Disinformation Unit, the Rapid Response Unit, the Intelligence and Communications Unit and the 77th Brigade?
I thought it unlikely but decided to play along and on Monday night Big Brother Watch published its report revealing that I was one of the dozens of journalists, scientists and MPs who’d been spied on in this way.
Others included Peter Hitchens, Julia Hartley-Brewer, Carl Heneghan, Tom Jefferson and David Davis. It’s pretty extraordinary that members of Boris Johnson’s government managed to convince the people working in these agencies, some of them with a background in the security services, that those of us who questioned the wisdom of the lockdown policy and vaccine passports were potentially dangerous actors whom the state needed protecting from.
They did this by branding our skepticism ‘disinformation’ or ‘misinformation’ — or by squashing the two together under the heading of ‘mis/disinformation.’ The reason for merging these categories is that some of these agencies were originally set up to protect the integrity of British democracy from hostile state actors spreading false information to influence elections.
ChatGPT May Be the Fastest-Growing Consumer App in Internet History, Reaching 100 Million Users in Just Over 2 Months, UBS Report Says
ChatGPT may have become the fastest-growing app in history after it was estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users, or MAUs, by the end of January, a report by Swiss banking giant UBS said.
The OpenAI-owned chatbot has surpassed 100 million MAUs just over two months after its launch — comfortably beating the growth speeds of major apps like TikTok and Instagram, according to the UBS note, which Insider has viewed.
It took TikTok nine months to reach the same level of users; Instagram took two and half years; and Spotify only amassed 100 million MAUs after four and a half years, the report said, citing data from data analytics firm Similar Web.
Apple and Google Should Boot TikTok From Their App Stores, Democratic Senator Urges
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., urged the CEOs of Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their mobile app stores immediately in a letter Thursday, citing widespread concerns the Chinese government could access information on Americans using the app.
The request from Bennet, who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, highlights both the growing concern over TikTok’s potential national security risks and the power Apple and Google have to decide the sort of apps that Americans can access.
Bennet told the CEOs of both firms that TikTok is unique from other social media platforms because of its China-based parent company, ByteDance, which under Chinese law would be required to hand over internal data to the government to assist in intelligence work.
TikTok has repeatedly sought to reassure concerned American lawmakers and officials that it does not store U.S. user data in China. It has also been negotiating with the U.S. government about how it can mitigate potential national security risks while continuing to operate here.
