chatgpt

OpenAI Announces ChatGPT For Teenagers Amid Safety Concerns 

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This generation of teenagers are the first to have grown up in a world of smart technology and artificial intelligence. Having access to such advanced technology has created concerns over their safety, commitment to education, and desocialization from in person interactions and relationships. 

This week, OpenAI introduced a new version of ChatGPT designed specifically for teenagers. The company stated that ChatGPT for Teens is designed for kids aged 13 to 17 with stronger protections in place. Some of these protections include content restrictions around topics like suicide, self-harm, and romantic and/or sexual chats. It also will provide homework and study support that will help students learn, as opposed to laying out the entire answer for them. 

The company stated that the idea behind this new platform is to guide teens toward healthy AI use in an age-appropriate environment. 

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“We want to treat teens like teens, which means that we have to make sure that we’re showing up with the right developmental stage when we’re not either talking down to them or treating them like kids, but we’re also making sure that they’re not exposed to material that they shouldn’t be exposed to,” said Ann O’Leary, vice president of global policy at OpenAI.

Associate general counsel for AI and privacy at Fairplay, a children’s advocacy group, Brendan Bouffard, stated that the effectiveness of the safeguards remains to be seen, and it’s unclear whether OpenAI’s new platform is enough to “address young users’ compulsive use of and emotional dependence on chatbots.”

“Announcements like these can be seen as a step in the right direction, but I also would caution against parents being lured into this false sense of safety based on the announcement.”

The rise of AI chatbots within the past few years has created major concerns among parents, educators, and child development experts, specifically regarding cheating on schoolwork, and the overall influence these bots can have over a child’s mental health. 

AP reports that last year, research from a watchdog group found that ChatGPT would tell teenagers as young as 13 how to get drunk and/or high, instruct them on how to conceal eating disorders, and compose a suicide letter to their parents if it was prompted. 

The researchers posed as vulnerable teenagers, and found that ChatGPT would start by warning against any “risky” behavior, but would eventually go on to deliver detailed and personalized plans for using drugs, drinking, maintaining an unhealthy diet, and at the worst, how to self-injure or end one’s life. 

According to a 2025 study from Common Sense Media, in the US over 70% of teens turn to AI chatbots for companionship with half of them using them regularly. 

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that his company is “trying to study emotional overreliance” on the technology. 

The company also explained that ChatGPT for Teens is prevented from suggesting it has personal feelings towards a user or imply any type of consciousness and emotions. 

“We went through and identified what are the hypothetical cues that a model could give that might make a teenager kind of develop a relationship to it,” said Allison Mishkin, head of child development at OpenAI.

OpenAI in general doesn’t verify a user’s age, but it uses “age assurance” to estimate if someone is under 18 based on how they use the technology. If someone is identified as a minor, they are automatically placed into the teen version of the chatbot. 

 O’Leary stated that the whole idea behind the teen chatbot is “to make sure that this is safe, even if you don’t use parental controls.” Parents can also link to their kids accounts to set quiet hours when their child can’t access the platform, and receive notifications when involved in limited high-risk situations. 

“We are adding additional notifications related to eating disorders, while limiting what is shared and focusing on moments when offline support may matter most,” OpenAI said. 

Bouffard said that he would consider the most important safeguards would be restricting ChatGPT’s long-term memory, but as of right now they are not in place by default in teen accounts. 

“That creates a major gap in safety despite the default protections around content and other areas of concern,” he said.

“We continue to also invest in expanding interactive learning because research shows that people learn more effectively when they actively engage and struggle with concepts,” Mishkin said.

social media ban

UK To Ban Kids From Social Media, Ministers Lobby With US To Avoid Backlash 

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The UK has announced that they will be banning social media for kids under the age of 16. Some of the world’s biggest technology companies, including Meta, YouTube, and Snapchat, have spoken out against this decision, claiming that it will only work to push teenagers to more harmful platforms. The ban was announced by Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday. 

A spokesperson for Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said: “As we’ve seen in Australia, bans risk isolating teens from online communities and information, and driving them to unregulated alternatives that lack built-in protections and parental controls.”

YouTube echoed Meta’s sentiment in their own statement: “Blanket bans push kids out of such curated, supervised, beneficial experiences and towards anonymous, less-safe services.”

And Snapchat said: “Because the majority of time spent on Snapchat is in private messaging between friends and family, an outright ban that disconnects teens from those relationships doesn’t make them safer – it may simply push them to less safe platforms.”

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During Starmer’s announcement at a press conference this week, he said that “social media makes children unhappy, it’s making it easier for billies to harass and abuse them, and it could even be harming their mental health.” He then emphasized the argument that the ban was not anti-tech. 

“I do not accept, and I will never accept, that you can’t be both pro tech and AI, and at the same time say we must protect our children,” he said. 

The plan mimics the one enacted earlier this year in Australia, however, it includes both a ban on all main social media platforms, and separate restrictions on online services such as gaming apps such as removing the option to chat with strangers. 

Under this new ban, kids under the age of 16 will not be able to download Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok, X, Facebook, and Instagram. They also will not be able to livestream. Teenagers under the age of 18 will also not be able to use any romantic chatbots designed to simulate sexual relationships. 

“This is not something I do lightly, and I will not present it as cost-free, as if social media has [brought no] benefits to young people, because clearly that is wrong. But the government is always about choices, and it’s clear to me that a total ban is the right choice,” Starmer said.

In Australia, many teenagers have found ways around the bans, which has even led to lawsuits against certain social media platforms for not doing enough to enforce keeping young teens and children off their apps. While this can obviously happen in the UK as well and it is a concern, Starmer stated that it wasn’t the point behind this objective. 

“We don’t say: ‘Oh, look, a teenager managed to get a drink somehow, so let’s not bother banning alcohol sales for children.’ We don’t do that, do we? I just don’t accept that,” he said. 

“Our laws are rules, but they’re also an expression of our values. They shape the social contract, and so this will change the conversations that parents have, and the expectations of children over time.”

“It will make a huge difference. It will make our children safer. It will make our children happier. It will give them more time, more security, full freedom to grow up, more opportunity, and that, at the end of the day, is what this government is about,” he added. 

The other side to this is combating the giant companies that are widely against these bans, which is intertwined with talking to the US government and president and reassuring them that this isn’t a targeted ploy towards US tech companies. 

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UK ministers have been working on a lobbying operation to prevent backlash from the Trump administration. The administration had previously threatened the UK with “a big tariff” if the government does not drop its digital services tax, so they’re moving extra cautiously when it comes to this ban. 

“I honestly think that across world leaders there has always been a recognition that leaders have to take steps to protect children,” Starmer said. “In relation to President Trump, I spoke to him on Saturday, I’ll see him again this afternoon and, yes, of course, we’ll discuss this and many other issues, and lots of other leaders are very interested in it.”

Elon Musk, who owns X and has worked closely with the president, said “this censorship law is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The real goal is to enable the UK government to track everyone.” 

Ministers are working on every detail of this ban and what it will entail. They’ve announced late-night social media curfews for 16-and-17-year-olds. One of the workarounds that teenagers have used in Australia is using virtual private networks (VPNs) to circumvent geographical internet controls, so the UK is looking into regulating those networks as well. 

This move will have a major impact on young people. In the UK, among 13-to-15-year-olds about 90% have a social media account, and have stated that their main resource for getting the news is YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, according to reports from the Guardian. 

The UK’s technology secretary, Liz Kendall, echoed Starmer’s sentiment regarding the importance of protecting children and their mental health and not having such a focus on how teens can work around the bans. 

“I have no doubt children who are currently on social media, for whom it’s an integral part of their lives, will try and get around the ban, and many will succeed,” she said. 

“But we do think we need to draw this line in the sand, give greater clarity to parents and greater protections for children.”

“I’ve never thought that the ban will be a complete silver bullet … It will be as much about resetting expectations and social norms for children who are seven, eight, nine, 10, now that they won’t be going on social media until they’re 16,” she told the BBC.

“This is a huge statement of our values, who we are as a country, and it’s a way of actually bringing our country together,” Starmer said.

fitbit

Fitbit Air Launch Stumbles As Google Health App Backlash Grows

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Google’s Fitbit Air officially launches today, marking the company’s first new Fitbit device in years. But for some early users, the debut has already been complicated by a frustrating setup problem.

A handful of customers who received the screenless fitness tracker ahead of the wider rollout have reported trouble pairing the device with their smartphones. The issue appears to have affected Android users in particular, with some encountering an “app update required” message when attempting to connect the tracker.

The problem stems from certain Android devices not yet having access to version 5.0 of the Google Health app, which is needed to support the Fitbit Air. While the device is only just beginning to reach customers, the early complaints have already sparked a broader discussion on Reddit.

An official Google employee responded that the company is working to speed up the Android app rollout.

“We are doing our best today to accelerate the rollout of the updated app on Android via Play to accommodate early deliveries, and it should be available shortly. Anyone on iOS should be able to update via the App Store already.”

Some users in the Reddit thread said they were able to get around the problem by side-loading the Google Health app. Still, the expectation is that Google will have a more permanent fix in place before the Fitbit Air reaches most customers who pre-ordered the tracker.

The launch-day issue comes at a significant moment for Fitbit. The Fitbit Air is Google’s first new entry in the Fitbit line in several years, and its screenless design has immediately invited comparisons to the Whoop Strap 5.0, another wearable built around health and fitness tracking rather than smartwatch-style notifications or display features.

Price is one of the biggest differences between the two devices. At $99.99, the Fitbit Air is positioned as a much cheaper alternative to the Whoop Strap, which requires a minimum annual subscription costing at least $199 before the device can be used at all.

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The Fitbit Air does have its own optional subscription component through Google Health Premium, but Google is not requiring that paid tier for the tracker’s core features. Instead, the subscription is built around extras such as Health Coach, Google’s new AI-powered personal trainer, which can help users build workout routines, track calorie intake and manage other fitness goals.

The transition became official on May 26, when Google moved users away from the old Fitbit app after months of previews and beta testing. While the change had been announced in advance, some longtime users appeared caught off guard when the familiar Fitbit experience was replaced by the newer Google Health interface.

The backlash has quickly spilled into the Google Play Store, where users have posted large numbers of one-star reviews criticizing the redesigned app. Many complaints focus on inaccurate sleep and workout tracking, missing or harder-to-find data, bugs, layout changes and the app’s more prominent use of AI features.

That emphasis on AI appears to be one of the more sensitive parts of the rollout. Some users have criticized Google for giving AI-powered summaries and coaching tools a prominent place in the app while basic fitness-tracking features still feel less reliable or harder to access than they were in Fitbit.

One recent reviewer objected to how much space the AI assistant appears to take up in the app.

“Why is the biggest button on the screen for AI questions? You’re a fitness app; the biggest button should be to add an activity. Stay in that lane.”

There currently appears to be no official way to revert to the old Fitbit app, and some reviewers have said they are considering canceling subscriptions or switching to rival fitness-tracking platforms.

Version 5.0 is part of a wider cleanup effort aimed at improving tracking, summaries, data reliability and how fitness information appears in the app. But for some users, the fixes may not be coming fast enough.

The company’s roadmap includes several workout-related repairs, including fixes for runs that were incorrectly appearing as general workouts, the addition of run splits to workout summaries, faster map loading and easier access to maps after exercises. Google is also working on export reliability, including TCX export issues tied to Fitbit Air, connected GPS and workouts recorded across multiple devices or linked apps.

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Sleep and nutrition tracking are also being targeted. Planned updates include fixes for missing Sleep Scores, a 24-hour sleep view that combines main sleep and naps, and changes that make naps easier to find across current and previous days. Nutrition fixes are expected to address duplicate logs when the same third-party app is connected in multiple ways, handle meal-type issues from MyFitnessPal, Cronometer, and LoseIt, and address over-reported energy burn for Pixel Watch users.

Google is also refining Health Coach, the controversial AI-powered feature included with Google Health Premium. Planned changes include shorter, more visual messages in the Today tab, improved instruction recall, fewer unnecessary non-answers, and expanded logging support through Ask Coach.

The Reddit discussion also gave users a rare chance to ask Google directly about future Google Health features. One user asked whether data collected by Google Health would eventually be able to sync with Apple Health and Apple Fitness. The same Google representative confirmed that support for that feature is on the way.

That Apple Health integration appears to be part of a broader push toward more advanced data sharing, with Google’s roadmap also referencing Smart Health Links for medical records and support for tools such as command line interfaces and AI skills. Those additions could make Google Health a more ambitious hub for fitness, nutrition, sleep and medical information, but they also raise the stakes for getting the basics right first.

For longtime Fitbit users, the app’s ability to correctly label a run, show accurate sleep data, preserve workout history and avoid duplicate nutrition logs may matter just as much as its newer AI features.

For now, Google’s most urgent task is getting Android users past the setup screen. If the app update reaches users quickly, the early pairing problem may remain a small launch-day stumble. But the larger test will come over the next several weeks, as Google tries to prove that the Fitbit Air’s rough start is part of a broader reset rather than a sign of deeper trouble in the Fitbit-to-Google Health transition.

sony

New Class Action Accuses Sony Of Keeping Tariff Refunds After PS5 Price Hikes

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Sony Interactive Entertainment is facing a proposed class action lawsuit accusing the company of keeping tariff-related money that plaintiffs say should belong to PlayStation buyers.

The complaint, filed May 6 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, centers on price increases Sony made to PlayStation consoles after tariffs were imposed under the Trump administration’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Those tariffs were later deemed unlawful by the U.S. Supreme Court, opening the door for importers to seek refunds.

The plaintiffs in Walker et al v. Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC accuse Sony of “retention of a substantial windfall generated by unlawful tariffs imposed by the federal government under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.” They argue that the company raised prices to offset the tariff burden, but now stands to recover that money from the government without returning any of it to customers.

According to the lawsuit, that would amount to “a double recovery windfall.” The filing claims consumers effectively absorbed the tariff costs through higher console prices, meaning any refunds Sony receives should be passed along to them.

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Sony increased U.S. PlayStation prices twice during the period cited in the complaint. The first increase was announced on August 20, 2025, followed by another on May 27, 2026. The suit says that between August 21, 2025, and April 2, 2026, the PlayStation 5 “disc edition” rose by $150, the PlayStation 5 “digital edition” also increased by $150, and the PlayStation 5 Pro went up by $200.

The refund process became a major part of the dispute after U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched a tariff refund website on April 20, 2026, allowing affected importers to seek reimbursement for IEEPA tariff payments. The plaintiffs say Sony should not be allowed to benefit from that process while retaining the revenue generated from tariff-era price hikes.

The case is structured as a “Nationwide Class” action covering “all individuals” who purchased a PlayStation console from August 1, 2025, to the present. If the plaintiffs succeed, eligible buyers could potentially receive some form of reimbursement, though the amount remains unclear.

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The Sony suit also echoes a similar class action filed against Nintendo last month, suggesting that gaming hardware makers may face growing legal challenges over how they handled tariff costs and subsequent refund eligibility.

“Unless restrained by this Court, Nintendo stands to recover the same tariff payments twice – once from consumers through higher prices and again from the federal government through tariff refunds, including interest paid by the government on those funds.”

The complaint against Sony makes a nearly identical argument, alleging that consumers absorbed the cost of tariff-related PlayStation price increases while the company now stands to benefit from federal refunds tied to those same tariffs.

Because the complaint is still new, Sony has not yet had much time to respond in court, and it remains unclear how the company will defend its pricing decisions. The case will likely turn on whether plaintiffs can prove the console price increases were tied closely enough to the tariffs and whether any refund money Sony receives should legally flow back to consumers.

gambling

US Gambling Addiction Becoming A Major ‘Public Health Risk’

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According to a leading campaigner and policy expert, gambling addiction is “spiraling out of control” in the United States. Experts from all around the world are currently set to gather in Boston to push for more regulation of the industry.

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Harry Levant, director of gambling policy at the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI), said that the rapid expansion of online gambling, prediction markets, and sports betting platforms “demands a public health response.” 

“You regulate the distribution, the speed, the type, the access to the product, because the product is what’s dangerous,” he said, stating that gambling should be treated like alcohol and tobacco in terms of regulation.

“The problem is the product, not the people. We have a crisis here.”

The conference in which experts from around the world are meeting to push for more regulation was organized by PHAI, a US-based non-profit led by Richard Daynard. Daynard led litigation against big tobacco in the 1980s. 

Levant recently spoke to the Guardian regarding these issues and the upcoming meeting as well. 

“We’re seeing the evidence everywhere. The harm that is taking place to people, young men, families, people of all ages, it is simply out of control.”

The event will bring together scholars, researchers, public health professionals, and policymakers to discuss the rise in online gambling ever since the US supreme court lifted the federal sports betting ban in 2018. Once it was lifted sports betting has been legalized in 39 states and Washington DC. 

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“We firmly believe gambling should be regulated like any other addictive product,” said Mark Gottlieb, executive director of PHAI. 

Prediction market platforms have also risen in popularity in recent years. These platforms allow users to bet on practically everything including what color their favorite celebrity will wear on the red carpet, to songs performed at a concert. Kalshi is one of the most popular of these platforms, and on Super Bowl Sunday over $1 billion was traded on the site. 

Levant believes the “US is at a critical juncture. There’s a need to demonstrate – both to the people of America, and the political leaders in America – that there is a problem,” 

“We know what the cause of the problem is: the cause of the problem is the unregulated nature of a dangerously and effectively designed online gambling product.

“Once you know what the problem is, it seems to me, you have a binary choice. You maintain the status quo and accept harm, or you go back to honoring that vow to try and do something about it.”

The PHAI conference will bring the experts to the United States on gambling and public health. 

“This is not an anti-gambling conference. This is a pro-public health symposium with real solutions,” Levant said. 

AI music

Deezer Says AI-Generated Tracks Now Make Up 44% of Uploads

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Deezer says the flood of AI-generated music is accelerating at a pace that’s reshaping its platform, even as listeners remain largely disengaged.

On Monday, the streaming service revealed that nearly half of all tracks uploaded each day are now created using artificial intelligence. According to the company, about 44% of daily uploads fall into that category, amounting to roughly 75,000 AI-generated songs per day, or more than 2 million per month.

Deezer described itself as “the only streaming platform in the world transparently tagging AI-generated music,” positioning its approach as a potential industry standard amid growing concerns over disclosure and authenticity.

Despite that surge in supply, demand has not kept up. Deezer said AI-generated tracks account for just 1–3% of total streams on the platform. Of those listens, the streaming platform estimates that 85% are fraudulent and subsequently demonetized, underscoring concerns that much of the activity around AI music is being driven by manipulation rather than genuine audience interest.

The announcement reflects a steady climb in AI music uploads over recent months. Deezer reported receiving approximately 60,000 AI-generated tracks per day in January, compared to 50,000 in November and 30,000 in September. The growth is even more stark when measured against early 2025, when the platform first introduced its AI-detection tool and logged about 10,000 such uploads per day.

That detection system, which Deezer says is “patent-pending,” has evolved to identify content from leading generative models such as Suno and Udio, while also expanding toward more generalized detection that does not rely on training data from specific tools.

In response, Deezer has been tightening its handling of this content across its ecosystem. Tracks identified as AI-generated are excluded from algorithmic recommendations and do not appear in editorial playlists. Deezer also said it will stop storing high-resolution versions of these files, signaling a broader effort to limit their prominence and potential value within the platform.

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Deezer framed these measures as an effort to prevent AI tracks from “diluting the royalty pool in any significant way,” suggesting that unchecked uploads could undermine how artists are paid across streaming platforms.

“AI-generated music is now far from a marginal phenomenon, and as daily deliveries keep increasing, we hope the whole music ecosystem will join us in taking action to help safeguard artists’ rights and promote transparency for fans,” said Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier in a press release.

“Thanks to our technology and the proactive measures we put in place more than a year ago, we have shown that it’s possible to reduce AI-related fraud and payment dilution in streaming to a minimum. Since January, we have made our detection technology available for licensing, and we’re looking forward to seeing industry peers of all kinds join us in the fight for fairness in the age of AI.”

The company’s latest data arrives at a moment when AI music is beginning to break through in more visible ways. Last week, an AI-generated track reached the top of the iTunes charts across multiple countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and New Zealand. This milestone highlights both the technology’s reach and the difficulty listeners may have in distinguishing it from human-made work.

That confusion is showcased in Deezer’s own research. In a November survey, 97% of participants were unable to reliably distinguish between fully AI-generated songs and those created by human artists. At the same time, listeners expressed clear preferences around how such music should be handled; 52% said entirely AI-generated tracks should not be included alongside human-made songs in main music charts, while 80% said AI content should be clearly labeled.

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The survey, conducted with Ipsos across 9,000 participants in eight countries, also found that 73% of users want to know when a streaming service recommends fully AI-generated music, pointing to broader demand for transparency beyond simple labeling.

Deezer has positioned itself as one of the more proactive players in the streaming industry when it comes to transparency. It began tagging AI-generated tracks at the platform level in June 2025, becoming the first major service to do so. Over the course of that year, Deezer said it labeled more than 13.4 million AI-generated songs.

In addition, Deezer said it has applied for two patents related to its detection technology, focused on identifying “unique signatures” that distinguish synthetic audio from human-created recordings.

Other platforms are moving more cautiously. In February, French streaming service Qobuz announced plans to introduce its own labeling system for AI-generated content. Meanwhile, companies like Spotify and Apple Music have taken a more fragmented approach, relying on a mix of detection tools, quality filters, and distributor-led disclosures rather than a unified, platform-wide tagging policy.

The stakes extend beyond platform governance. A recent industry study cited by Deezer estimates that nearly 25% of creators’ revenues could be at risk by 2028 due to AI, potentially amounting to as much as  $4.7 billion in losses, a figure that underscores how rapidly the economics of music creation could shift.

As the volume of AI-generated music continues to climb, Deezer’s latest figures suggest the industry is entering a new phase in which the challenge is no longer identifying a niche trend but managing a rapidly expanding category that is already testing the boundaries of streaming economics, authenticity, and trust.

Meta, TikTok, YouTube, And Snapchat Not Complying With Child Social Media Ban In Australia 

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In December 2025, Australia enacted a law that banned kids under the age of 16 from having accounts on social media. Now, the continent is considering legal action against platforms Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube over allegations that they’re not making enough of an effort to keep children off of the sites. 

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Experts have stated, according to reports, that Australian courts can decide what steps the platforms can reasonably take in order to meet the requirements of the law. 

Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, released a compliance report that demands 10 platforms remove all Australian account-holders younger than the age of 16. 

With the law enacted, 5 million Australian accounts have been deactivated. However, a significant number of Australian children continued to maintain their accounts or created new accounts and bypassed each platform’s age assurance systems, according to the report. 

Inman Grant said in a statement her office had “significant concerns about the compliance of half of those 10 platforms.” Grant’s office was gathering evidence against five platforms that haven’t taken “reasonable steps” to prevent children from having accounts.

Courts could potentially order fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to comply. eSafety is the power deciding on whether to initiate court action against any of the platforms by the middle of the year. 

Reddit, X (formerly Twitter), Kick, Threads, and Twitch are age-registricted platforms that aren’t under investigation. Communications Minister Anika Wells stated that the five main platforms being looked into are allegedly not complying with the Australian law on purpose. 

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“Social media platforms are choosing to do the absolute bare minimum because they want these laws to fail.”

“This is the world-leading law. We’re the first in the world to do it. Of course they don’t want these laws to work because they want that to be a chilling effect on the dozen countries that have come out since Dec. 10 to follow Australia’s step,” Wells told reporters. 

eSafety has emphasized “poor practices” from these platforms. For example, they all allow unlimited attempts for a user to pass their age assurance methods, and even prompt the user to try to pass the age assurance methods. 

Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, told AP that they were “committed” to complying with Australia’s social media ban. “We’ve also been clear that accurately determining age online is a challenge for the whole industry.”

Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., said that they have locked 450,000 accounts to align with the law and are continuously doing so daily. “Snapchat remains fully committed to implementing reasonable steps under the legislation and supporting its underlying goal of improving online safety for young Australians,” they said in a statement. 

Lisa Given, information sciences expert at RMIT University in Melbourne, stated: 

“If a tech company has said: look, we put in age assurance, we’ve done all these steps. That’s reasonable. Even though the aged assurance technologies are flawed, whose fault is that? Should they be held accountable for a piece of technology that is not 100% and likely not going to be 100% foolproof any time soon?” 

“That’s really the crux of it: what the courts will deem reasonable,” she said.

smart glasses

New App Notifies Users When Someone Is Using Smart Glasses Near Them 

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Smart glasses have become more mainstream in recent years, making it harder to tell when someone might be secretly recording videos in public. Now, a new smartphone app called Nearby Glasses can notify users when they’re in the presence of smart glasses.

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The app scans Bluetooth signals and alerts the user when they pick up on a smart glasses signal. Smart glasses are packed with speakers, microphones, cameras, and AI features, but have begun looking more and more like regular glasses. Meta’s glasses, for example, are sold under the Ray-Ban and Oakley brands, two very popular eyewear companies. 

Last year, according to reports, the company sold over seven million units. Major tech giants like Apple, Google, and Samsung are also working on their own devices. 

The technology itself is also likely to become even more advanced. The New York Times reported earlier this month that Meta is working on facial recognition technology which would allow wearers to identify and pull up information about people through their AI assistant. 

“I consider it to be a tiny part of resistance against surveillance tech,” Nearby Glasses developer, Yves Jeanrenaud, told 404 Media.

Jeanrenaud also said that his team began developing the app after they reviewed reports about smart glasses owners using the technology to record people without their consent. Specifically, there have been many reports of men filming inside massage parlors as well as Customs and Border Protection agents using them on duty. 

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Jeanrenaud then explained that Nearby Glasses work by scanning for Bluetooth signals that are broadcast by devices using advertising frames. He used a directory of Bluetooth Low Energy manufacturers to identify the signals used by Meta, Snap, and Luxottica Group, a subsidiary of the company EddilorLuxottica which manufactures Meta’s glasses.

“This is a tech solution to a social problem exaggerated by tech. I do not want to promote techsolutionism, nor do I want people to feel falsely secure. It’s still imperfect,” Jeanrenaud said, explaining that the app can still produce false positives and mistakenly identify VR headsets as smart glasses. 

The app is currently only available to download on the Google Play Store and GitHub for Android devices, but an iOS port is currently in the works. 

“Smart glasses are becoming more and more a part of our daily encounters. However, they are often not easy to distinguish from regular eyewear,” the app’s description reads.

social media

French Lawmakers Vote To Ban Social Media Use For Kids Under 15 

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French lawmakers have now passed a bill that would ban social media use for kids under the age of 15. This move is fully supported by president Emmanuel Macron, citing it as an ideal way to protect children from excessive screen time, mental health problems birthed from social media, and addiction. 

In a long overnight session from Monday to Tuesday, the lower national assembly adopted the text by a vote of 130 to 21, according to reports. Now, the bill will move to France’s upper house, the Senate, before becoming an official law. 

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In an online post, Macron stated that the vote was a “major step” to further protect French children and teenagers. 

The legislation will also work to ban mobile phones in high schools. This major move follows Australia’s social media ban for all under-16s in December, and would make France the second nation to enact a ban of this precedent. 

All over the world, the growth of social media has had a major impact on children and teenagers throughout their developmental years.  In a video broadcast last weekend, Macron stated that the “emotions of our children and teenagers are not for sale or to be manipulated, either by American platforms or Chinese algorithms.”

According to the Guardian, French authorities want the social media limitations to be implemented from the beginning of the 2026 school year for newly made accounts. 

Former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who currently leads Macron’s Renaissance party in the lower house, is hoping that the Senate passes the bill by mid-February so that it will be implemented on September 1st. 

“Social media platforms will then have until December 31st to deactivate existing accounts that do not comply with the age limit.” 

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Attal also emphasized that this legislation would counteract a “number of powers that, through social media platforms, want to colonize minds.”

“France can be a pioneer in Europe in a month: we can change the lives of our young people and our families, and perhaps also change the destiny of our country in terms of independence.”

The French Agency for Food, Environmental, and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) said that this month, they have observed and recorded multiple negative effects on adolescents from social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. These risks, which were seen more in girls as well, included cyberbullying and exposure to violent/inappropriate content. 

If fully passed, this legislation will enforce that “access to an online social networking service provided by an online platform is prohibited for minors under the age of 15.” The draft of the bill also excludes the use of online encyclopedias and other educational platforms.

In order to enforce this, there needs to be an effective age verification system put into place, which is “under way at the European level,” reports state. 

Back in 2018, France banned children between the ages of 11 and 15 from using mobile phones at school, and now Macron wants to extend that ban to high schools as well.

spotify

Activist Group Says It Has Removed 86 Million Music Files From Spotify 

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An activist group called Anna’s Archive has claimed to have scraped millions of tracks from Spotify with the intention of releasing them online. Outside experts are stating that these leaks could boost AI companies looking for material to develop their technology. 

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Anna’s Archive said that they scraped 86 million music files from Spotify along with 256 million rows of metadata like artist and album names. Spotify confirmed that this leak doesn’t represent their entire inventory. The music streaming platform hosts over 100 million tracks. 

Spotify has more than 700 million users globally, and stated that they had “identified and disabled the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping.”

“An investigation into unauthorized access identified that a third party scraped public metadata and used illicit tactics to circumvent DRM [digital rights management] to access some of the platform’s audio files.”

Spotify also doesn’t believe that the music taken from Anna’s Archive has been released. The group is known for providing links to pirated books, and they stated in a blog that they want to create a “preservation archive for music.”

They also stated that the audio files represent 99.6% of all music listened to on Spotify by its users, and will be shared through “torrents,” which are a way of sharing large digital files online. 

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“Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start,” said Anna’s Archive, who describe their mission as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and culture.”

“With your help, humanity’s musical heritage will be forever protected from destruction by natural disasters, wars, budget cuts and other catastrophes,” said the group.

Ed Newton-Rex is a composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ copyright through the rise of AI. He recently stated that he believes these music leaks will likely be used to develop AI models. 

“Training on pirated material is sadly common in the AI industry, so this stolen music is almost certain to end up training AI models. This is why governments must insist AI companies reveal the training data they use,” he said.

Spotify has stated that they have put new safeguards in place “for these types of anti-copyright attacks” following the Anna’s Archive announcement so that they could be “actively monitoring for suspicious behavior.”