Technologies
Australia’s Bold Move: No Social Media Access for Those Under 16
Countries around the world will be watching to see how well the new ban works … or doesn’t.
Australia is going where no country has gone before, and many countries around the world are watching. On Wednesday, Australia institutes a social media ban for anyone under the age of 16.
Banned apps include TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Snapchat, YouTube, Reddit, Kick and Twitch. Exempt apps include the popular gaming platform Discord, Messenger Kids, WhatsApp, Pinterest, Kids Helpline, Google Classroom and YouTube Kids. AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, OpenAI’s Sora and Google Gemini are not included in the ban.
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Australia will be the first country to launch this kind of age-restricted social media ban. Several other countries, including China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Turkey, Uganda, Saudi Arabia and India have full or partial social media bans, typically for political and security reasons.
Other countries, including Denmark, France, Norway and Malaysia, are considering similar bans to Australia’s and will be monitoring the effectiveness of the Australian ban over the coming months.
Although many studies have been conducted worldwide about the psycho-emotional effects of social media usage on children, the idea for the Australian ban took its spark from The Anxious Generation, a book by US psychologist Jonathan Haidt. Annabel West, the wife of South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, encouraged her husband to consider a ban after reading Haidt’s book in 2024.
Tech companies must enforce it, or else
Apps can utilize age-assurance technology, such as facial and voice analysis, to verify that a consumer is at least 16 years of age. Social-media companies can also check how long an account has been active and assess age by language style and community memberships.
Kids being kids, they will find workarounds — such as one 13-year-old who held up a photo of her mother’s face to fool the age verification. The Australian government said it will prevent kids from using false identity documents, AI tools or VPNs to fake their age and location.
Tech companies will face a $33 million fine, as outlined in the legislation, if they fail to enforce the under-16 ban.
Two 15-year-old Australians, supported by the Digital Freedom Project, are challenging the social media ban, and the country’s High Court could hear their case as early as February. They argue, in part, that the ban «will have the effect of sacrificing a considerable sphere of freedom of expression and engagement for 13-to-15-year-olds in social media interactions (including communications on personal and governmental matters, and the benefits to those young people of such interactions).»
TikTok said it will comply with the new laws, although noting that the restrictions «may be upsetting» to customers. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has already begun removing accounts of users under 16. Snapchat is ready to boot nearly half a million Australian kids from their accounts. Not surprisingly, X boss Elon Musk has criticized the change, writing in 2024 that the law «seems like a backdoor way to control access to the Internet by all Australians.»
Some praise the ban
Donna Rice Hughes, president and CEO of Enough is Enough, a nonprofit with a mission to «make the Internet safer for children and families,» praised Australia for «taking a proactive stick approach to protect children from social media harms.»
Enough is Enough, which launched in 1992, has documented the myriad pitfalls of social media for children, including overuse, sexting, online exploitation, bullying, depression and more. The organization has published several internet safety guides and safety settings for social media apps.
«This ban should be an incentive for social media and other online platforms and services to be proactive in implementing safer-by-design technologies and default parental management tools before rushing to market with products that are potentially dangerous for children and teens,» Hughes told CNET.
Hughes added that Big Tech has only itself to blame for governmental intervention such as Australia’s.
«They’ve failed to do the right thing by our children from the start,» she said. «The carrot approach of voluntary industry efforts to prioritize child safety over profits hasn’t worked. A historic reality is that the first social media platforms to take off in the US and abroad, Facebook and Myspace, were developed for college-age students and older.»
The US does not have a sweeping age limit like Australia’s, but 12 states are working on laws to regulate and restrict teens’ access to social media.
Technologies
The Clicks Communicator Will Have Keyboard Layouts in Arabic, French, German, Korean
After debuting it at CES, Clicks is expanding the BlackBerry-like Communicator phone with localized options ahead of MWC 2026.
The Clicks Communicator created a buzz after its CES reveal, with its focus on offering a communications-forward Android phone that looks like a BlackBerry, complete with a physical keyboard, prioritizing messaging and typing over everything else. It turns out the keyboard phone may have made a bigger splash than anyone realized. Clicks will offer multiple versions of the Communicator, each with a keyboard that supports a different language, in response to the overwhelming demand for the unreleased phone.
The company is expanding the Communicator to include models with keyboard layouts for Arabic, French (AZERTY), German (QWERTZ) and Korean. Clicks said interest in the Communicator was higher than the company expected, especially globally.
It’s clear there are still plenty of people who yearn for compelling, straightforward devices with smartly designed hardware that aim to make texting and writing easier. The timing of Click’s news strikes a stark juxtaposition, coming just days after Samsung launched its Galaxy S26 series, which features updates heavily steeped in AI.
«The response from customers around the world sends a strong signal that Communicator fills a gap for a phone purpose-built for communicating and taking action,» Clicks CEO Adrian Li Mow Ching said in a press release.
But there’s more good news ahead of MWC if you’re interested in getting a Clicks Communicator. The early-bird window to reserve one now runs through March 15. The phone costs $499, but an early reservation gets you a $100 discount and, when paid in full, a bundle of the phone and two additional back covers.
Clicks also shared that the phone will have a Dimensity 8300 chip (MT8883), which is in phones like the Xiaomi Poco X6 Pro. The MT8883 lets the company offer OS updates to the Communicator through Android 20 and five years of security updates.
I’m definitely excited to see where Clicks is headed with the Communicator, but should note that we’ve yet to see a working version of the phone. The Clicks Communicator will be available in Smoke, Clover and Onyx. Reservations are open, and people can select their preferred keyboard layout closer to when the phone ships later this year.
Technologies
I Tested the New Circle to Search on the Galaxy S26 and It Nailed My Outfit
Samsung’s AI-powered visual search tool on its new phones is now dangerously good at helping me shop. RIP my bank account.
As a fashion lover who’s always hunting for outfit inspo, I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit trying to track down the exact pieces from a TV scene or red carpet look. So when Samsung unveiled an upgraded version of Circle to Search at its Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco that can identify multiple items from a single image, I made a beeline for the Galaxy S26 demo area to try it myself.
Circle to Search, which first appeared on the Galaxy S24 phones and then expanded to other devices as Google Lens, felt like magic: Circle anything on your screen and get instant results. The AI-powered visual search tool can identify objects, translate text and surface contextual results without ever leaving the app you’re on.
Now it’s gotten even smarter, and broader: Google says it’s now also on Pixel 10 devices.
Instead of just identifying a single item, it can recognize and surface information about multiple things you’ve presented it with, including an entire outfit. The feature can be used for just about everything, from identifying bird species to translating text, but Samsung says fashion and shopping are hands-down the most popular use case.
So of course I had to put it to the test by having it scan my outfit — and I was genuinely floored. In the crowded event space under harsh lighting, I was skeptical it could deliver. It did.
First, it pulled up an AI summary describing the scene: «The look features a vibrant blue structured blazer, white top, dark fitted leggings and classic black leather boots.» Right below that, I pressed the «Find the look» button and watched it do its magic.
Within seconds, I was staring at the exact same in-your-face cerulean blazer I was wearing, with a link to the online store I’d bought it from, along with a slew of strikingly similar shopping options ranging from upscale alternatives to budget-friendly picks. This level of stalking would’ve taken me at least 20 minutes to lock down.
Scrolling down revealed the same for my glossy black leggings. Despite being from many seasons ago and not available anymore, it returned convincing dupes from different retailers. It did the same for my decade-old knee-high boots and even pulled up a used pair from Postmark; a nod at the fact that mine are old AF. The only thing it failed to surface was the shirt I was wearing under the blazer that was clearly visible in the shot. Maybe layers is the next frontier for Circle to Search.
Surprisingly, the hardest part of the process was figuring out how to use the feature. I had to ask a Samsung employee to take a full-body picture of me. Once I had it on the screen, I long-pressed on the home button at the bottom of the screen, which triggered a Google overlay. I then had to circle myself from head to toe. It’s the kind of feature I’d program on an action button if I could — although my wallet would likely suffer the consequences.
In doing this, Samsung and Google have virtually removed the friction between liking someone’s outfit, and pressing the trigger on buying it. It wasn’t that long ago that the closest alternative involved screenshotting a look, posting it to Pinterest and attempting to track down similar pieces. This is faster, cleaner and almost dangerously good for fashion lovers like me.
If this gets any better, Samsung may need to add a few guardrails for those of us prone to a little too much impulse shopping.
Technologies
A New Mini Game Boy Collectible That Just Plays Pokemon Music? What a Tease
A surprise collectible on Pokemon Day looks just like a tiny Game Boy and plays music on swappable cartridges. Give us the real Game Boy again, come on.
Nintendo sure does love teasing us with Game Boy things. First, a collectible Lego Game Boy model last year that almost looked like a real Game Boy (but wasn’t). Now, for the 30th anniversary of Pokemon, Nintendo and the Pokemon Group are selling a collectible music player that looks like a tiny Game Boy and plays authentic original Pokemon Red/Blue songs on swappable cartridges, one per song. The Game Boy Jukebox is being sold on the Pokemon Center site later today, for a price that hasn’t yet been listed.
This level of absurdity is standard issue for Nintendo: Just in the last 18 months we’ve had Alarmo, a talking Super Mario flower and a Virtual Boy recreation. This new collectible is so tempting precisely because it looks like a little, even more pocketable Game Boy. Except it isn’t a Game Boy at all. It’s just a music player. Even the dot-matrix «screen» is fake — it’s just an overlay that the cartridges display when they’re slotted in.
The music this thing plays is Game Boy-accurate, down to the little boot-up ping. It just makes my skin itch for a new Game Boy (that isn’t one already made by several other companies).
But come on. Make a real Game Boy collectible, with actual preloaded games on it. You know you want to, Nintendo. It’s only a matter of time.
In the meantime, if you’re desperate for all 45 Pokemon Red and Blue songs on a little Game Boy music player, now’s your chance.
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