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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.

women

Afghan Women Lose Final Access to Education as Taliban Shuts Down Internet

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When the Taliban announced a nationwide internet shutdown this week, Afghans across the country watched their final connection to the outside world vanish. For many, especially women and girls already excluded from schools and universities, the blackout marked the collapse of their last hope for an education.

Fahima Noori (name changed for safety) told the BBC she once envisioned a future as a lawyer or midwife. She had studied both law and midwifery and even worked in a mental health clinic before the Taliban regained control in 2021.

Since then, her opportunities have narrowed with each new restriction. Girls were banned from classrooms after age 12, women were pushed out of most jobs, and recently, even books written by female authors were stripped from universities.

“I recently enrolled in an online university [and] I had hoped to finish my studies and find an online job. Our last hope was online learning. Now [even] that dream has been destroyed.”

For weeks, internet users in Afghanistan braced for the worst. Fibre-optic lines had already been severed in several provinces, officially to “prevent immorality.” By Tuesday, watchdog group Netblocks confirmed what many feared: a “total internet blackout.”

Flights from Kabul were disrupted, satellite TV signals faltered, and international news outlets reported losing contact with their offices inside the country. Local businesses and daily life came to a standstill.

“The cut in access has left Afghanistan almost completely cut off from the outside world, and risks inflicting significant harm on the Afghan people, including by threatening economic stability and exacerbating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises,” the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a statement.

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“Such a ban has immediate and far-reaching consequences, including severely impacting the functioning of critical banking and financial systems, further increasing the isolation of women and girls, limiting access to emergency services and medical care, disrupting the aviation sector, and limiting access to remittances for dependent families. The current blackout also constitutes a further restriction on access to information and freedom of expression in Afghanistan.”

Anas, a money changer in Takhar province, said his work has been slashed by 90%. “Yesterday, my brother, who is also my business partner, tried to send an email to a client. He couldn’t get it through,” he said.

“The night before, we heard the Taliban had cut internet access in Mazar, and my eldest daughter came to me with tears in her eyes and said she feared the same would happen here. Their last opportunity to study is now gone.”

Before the shutdown, the BBC spoke with students whose lives had already been reshaped by earlier restrictions. Shakiba, from northern Takhar, had once pursued midwifery. When that program was banned, she turned to online classes.

“We want to study. We want to be educated. We want to be able to help people in our future. When I heard that the internet had been cut, the world felt dark to me.”

For Fahima and her sisters in eastern Afghanistan, the feeling is much the same.

“My two sisters [and I] were studying online. We used to stay updated on news and technology through the internet, but now we cannot keep up or learn new skills. We dreamed of finishing our education and helping our father financially, but now… we all sit at home doing nothing.”

It’s not only students who have lost their lifeline. Zabi, an English instructor, says dozens of his pupils were in the middle of IELTS exams when the internet collapsed. IELTS is a standardized English test. There are no IELTS centers, he explained. Zabi, who once worked as a journalist in Pakistan, had shifted to online teaching when physical institutes were restricted.

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“I had men and women in my classes, up to 70 or 80 students at a time. My students were happy, and our lessons went smoothly. They were all preparing for the IELTS, and all their learning depended on the internet. The research, the practice tests, the official exams, everything. Two days ago, about 45 of my students were in the middle of an exam when the internet was cut off. They had been preparing for it for months, but they missed the opportunity. It was heartbreaking for them and for me as their teacher.”

Now his students are calling him, asking how to handle the situation.

“They keep calling me asking, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ For the boys, there are still some English centers open, but for my female students, this was their last chance. And now even that is gone.”

Even before the blackout, many Afghans struggled to afford mobile data, their only alternative when fibre lines were cut. A 100GB plan costs roughly $50 a month—untenable in a country where the average annual income was just over $300 in 2024, according to the UNDP.

Shared Wi-Fi had been far cheaper, but now even that option is no longer available. Zabi says he may be forced to leave the country. If the internet is not restored, he has no way to make a living.

The internet shutdown follows a steady tightening of rules since the Taliban’s return to power. Earlier this month, authorities banned subjects like human rights and sexual harassment from universities. Roughly 140 books by female authors, including science texts such as “Safety in the Chemical Laboratory,” were pulled from curricula as “anti-Sharia and Taliban policies.”

Officials continue to insist that women’s rights are respected within the Taliban’s interpretation of Afghan culture and Islamic law. But for students, parents, and teachers alike, the reality feels far different.

As Anas put it, “Their last opportunity to study is now gone. Seeing my children so helpless… [that was] the hardest for me. Only God knows what will happen to them and to me.”

internet

US Citizens With Privacy Concerns Want To Erase Their Presence On The Internet

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New research shows that people around the world, especially in the US, are increasingly worried about their online privacy, and want more control over how much information is freely available about them on the internet. Many internet users are even stating that they would like their information, and overall presence, to be completely removed from the World Wide Web.

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social

Children In Australia To Potentially Be Blocked From Social Media As A Part Of New Pilot Trial 

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In May, Australia’s federal government announced a $6.5 million pilot trial regarding “age assurance technology” as a means of preventing children from accessing harmful and adult content online. 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese initially announced that the pilot would work to “identify available age assurance products to protect children from online harm, and test the efficacy, including in relation to privacy and security.”

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“The outcomes will inform the existing work of Australia’s eSafety Commissioner under the Online Safety Act – including through the development of industry codes or standards – to reduce children’s exposure to age-inappropriate material,” he stated. 

Now, the Australian government has expanded the trial program to look into potentially blocking children from accessing social media altogether. They’re currently in discussions with Meta, who owns Facebook and Instagram. 

Multiple campaigns have started with the launch of this trial which worked to push the government to look into banning children under the age of 16 from social media. The government is now looking into how this could potentially be possible and what it would truly look like if it occurred, according to reports.

Communications department acting secretary for online safety, Bridget Gannon, stated that the government will be “consulting with experts, with children, with parents, to understand their concerns and their interests on this issue, and really pulling it together with some policy advice to the government on possible ways forward.”

“We want to understand how different technologies work at those younger ages for that social media work,” she said as reported by the Guardian. 

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Gannon also stated that the department has been speaking with multiple social media platforms like Meta, however, none of those companies are legally required to take part in the trial. In fact, Meta has already hinted that they are reluctant to take on the requirement of verifying the age of all of their users across their platforms. 

Instead, Meta believes that age verification should be the responsibility of app stores like Apple and Google. 

While individuals involved in the trial and within the committee have made the argument that these companies should feel obligated to comply with the trial, regardless of legal responsibility.

Gannon said it would be in these companies best interest to be involved in the trial as it will be informing them on how new codes will be developed and enforced as well. 

She also stated that the department will be working with technology experts to accurately assess how effective various technologies will work and what their impact may be. They will also work to analyze how easy it would be to regulate and distribute that technology over private networks.

protest

Iranians Navigate Internet Blackout Following Human Rights Protests In Response To Death Of Mahsa Amino

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Following the death in detention of Mahsa Amino, a 22-year-old woman apprehended by morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly, activists have flooded the streets in Iran to protest the human rights violations and violence against women in the nation.

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pride

Far-Right 4channers Launch Attack on the Trevor Project’s Suicide Hotline

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The far-right website 4chan launched a coordinated attack against The Trevor Project—a nonprofit organization focusing on suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth.

A post on the website called for users to inundate The Trevor Project’s hotlines with false phone calls for help and inaccurate location information. In a collective effort to use up as many of the organization’s resources as possible, users aimed to prevent at-risk LGBTQ youth from receiving assistance in their most critical moments.

The Trevor Project’s website lists grim statistics on suicide rates among LGBTQ youth. Nationally, suicide is the second leading cause of death among people aged 10-24. At least one young person in the LGBTQ community attempts suicide every 45 seconds.

“The Trevor Project’s 2022 Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found that 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth.”

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 4chan began as a messaging board in 2003 and quickly became known for its population of internet “trolls.” In recent years, the “alt-right” movement has taken over the website. The original post to mobilize was made on its most active board, “/pol/,” which stands for politically incorrect. In 2022 “/pol/” was the most active board on the website, serving as a primary platform for far-right extremists.

Real-world violence has been linked to the board. Racist, white supremacist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ commentary riddles its front page. In April, the gunman who shot four people in Washington D.C. posted a video of the shooting on 4chan. The perpetrator of the mass shooting in a Buffalo supermarket in May released a 180-page manifesto with language lifted directly from the website’s boards.

Users of the board referred to The Trevor Project as an organization of “groomers,” a term frequently used by the far right to equate the LGBTQ community and their advocacy with pedophilia.

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Due to the influx of calls, the nonprofit had to place a banner atop its website that listed there would be delayed wait times as they struggled to maintain the demand for assistance.

In a statement to The Daily Dot, the nonprofit spoke on the morality of this coordinated attack.

“The act of attacking a crisis services line intended to prevent suicide among young people is egregious. Our crisis counselors work around the clock to be there for LGBTQ youth who feel like they have nowhere to turn, and it’s harrowing that anybody would attempt to compromise our lifeline or encourage suicide.”

The Trevor Project intends to continue its advocacy work despite the attacks, vowing to protect its counselors and people seeking its service. It is the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis organization for LGBTQ youth.

Internet Explorer

Microsoft Officially Retires Internet Explorer Web Browser 

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This past week Microsoft confirmed that its well-known web browser, Internet Explorer, would be retired after years of declining user engagement. Initially launched in 1995, Internet Explorer was the standard for web browsing on all Windows computers. 

More often than not, Windows users opted not to upgrade from the traditional IE browsing format, but security researchers are emphasizing that IE and its many security vulnerabilities, that also contributed to its shut down, were still existent. 

Microsoft will begin disabling the IE application on all Windows 10 devices, prompting users to instead download its next-generation Edge web browser, which was initially released back in 2015. The original IE icon will remain on user devices, and Edge will be incorporating a service called “IE Mode” so users can preserve access to old websites that were specifically made for Internet Explorer. 

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Microsoft says it will support “IE mode through at least 2029. Additionally, IE will still work for now on all supported versions of Windows 8.1, Windows 7 with Microsoft’s Extended Security Updates, and Windows Server.”

Industry analysis shows that more than half a percent of total global browser market shares are held by Internet Explorer. 

“I do think we’ve made progress, and we probably won’t see as many exploits against IE in the future, but we will still have remnants of Internet Explorer for a long time that scammers can take advantage of,” says Ronnie Tokazowski, an independent malware researcher and principal threat advisor at the cybersecurity firm Cofense.

“Internet Explorer as the browser will be gone, but there are still pieces that exist.”

“We haven’t forgotten that some parts of the web still rely on Internet Explorer’s specific behaviors and features,” Sean Lyndersay, the general manager of Microsoft Edge Enterprise, wrote.

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“There was a real need to start over with Edge rather than trying to salvage IE. The web has evolved and so have browsers. Incremental improvements to Internet Explorer couldn’t match the general improvements to the web at large, so we started fresh,” he stated. 

Maddie Stone, a researcher for Google’s Project Zero vulnerability hunting team, wrote that hackers are still able to exploit vulnerabilities within the IE application, which is a problem, referring to previously unknown vulnerabilities as “zero-days.” 

“Since we began tracking in-the-wild 0-days, Internet Explorer has had a pretty consistent number of 0-days each year. 2021 actually tied 2016 for the most in-the-wild Internet Explorer 0-days we’ve ever tracked, even though Internet Explorer’s market share of web browser users continues to decrease. Internet Explorer is still a ripe attack surface for initial entry into Windows machines, even if the user doesn’t use Internet Explorer as their internet browser,” she wrote.

IE will begin to be phased out of Windows devices in the coming months, but its legacy will live on for the standard it set for optimal web browsing.

Internet

Microsoft And Land O’Lakes Are Teaming Up To Provide Internet Access To Rural Communities

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The CEO’s of Microsoft and Land O’Lakes are trying to bridge the gap among Americans with internet access and those without it.

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Internet

Sir Timothy Berners-Lee: Father of the World Wide Web

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While there are countless computer scientists to credit for developing the infrastructure that makes the Internet possible, one British scientist named Sir Timothy Berners-Lee is to thank for creating the World Wide Web, the foundation upon which much of our online activity is built.

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The Digital Nomad Lifestyle is Growing in Popularity

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Thanks to the widespread availability of high-speed Internet access, millions of Americans participate in a lifestyle that would have been impossible just a few years ago. So-called “digital nomads” make a living online, as their work requires only a computer and an internet connection, allowing them to travel for extended periods of time while supporting themselves financially. Although the lifestyle is certainly not for everyone, it is growing in popularity, as it becomes possible to do more work from a virtual office and people seek to reconcile their desires to travel the country, or indeed even the world, with the reality of having to work. According to MBO Partners, 7.3 million Americans described themselves as digital nomads in 2019, which is 2.5 million more people than the previous year. As time goes on, employers are becoming more comfortable with the idea of hiring remote workers, and technological advancements have vastly improved the efficiency with which remote work can be performed.

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As these trends are likely to continue, the digital nomad lifestyle is all but certain to keep growing in popularity, as this unique way of living allows for a degree of freedom that most Americans can only dream of. More than half of digital nomads are millennials, and most are male, though all genders and age groups participate in the lifestyle to some extent. One of the advantages of the digital nomad lifestyle is the flexibility it affords. Accordingly, digital nomads differ greatly in income, as some work part-time while others work full-time, and the type of work digital nomads do varies in earning potential. One distinct advantage of the digital nomad lifestyle is the money-saving opportunities it enables; while most of us think of travel as an expensive luxury, digital nomads can keep costs down by living in areas with a low cost of living while working for customers in high-wage labor markets, in a practice called “geoarbitrage.” In this way, digital nomads can spend less time working than they otherwise would have to, allowing them to greater immerse themselves in the environments they come across in their travels.

Given the opportunities for adventure and money-saving the lifestyle provides, it’s no wonder why almost 4 out of 5 digital nomads report being “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their work and income. To better accommodate the millions of people who choose to live as digital nomads, an entire industry has sprung up to offer products and services to this unique demographic. This includes companies like Roam and Hubud, which provide working and living spaces that cater specifically to digital nomads, offering temporary housing, a professional environment to work in, and an opportunity to network with a local community of like-minded individuals. Additionally, online services and marketplaces make it easier for digital nomads to find work, and tour services designed specifically around the digital nomad lifestyle have emerged to help people work and explore without worrying too much about the logistics.

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While the digital nomad lifestyle is attractive to a large number of people, it’s not a realistic option for most. For one, if you are married or have kids, it can be impossible to manage participating in family obligations with a nomadic lifestyle. Additionally, the type of work that can be performed remotely tends to be high-skilled, intellectual labor, making the lifestyle difficult to adopt for people who don’t have a college degree or other specialized training. That being said, the lifestyle can be appealing to young people, who are not yet tied down with obligations, and older people, whose children are adults and who wish to continue working past retirement age while seeing the world.