Kidfluencing, Snapchat Exposed, and More Top News

This week Instagram’s AI-driven efforts are encouraging, while a Snapchat exposé sheds light on what really goes on behind the scenes. Plus tips on erasing your digital footprint (something Ron Swanson would definitely approve of).

Teens Torn on Social Media: Connection vs. Concern

A Pew Research Center survey reveals that while 74% of U.S. teens feel social media strengthens friendships, 48% believe it negatively affects peers’ mental health. 

Notably, 34% use platforms for mental health information, demonstrating how digital spaces serve as both support and stressor.  

Meanwhile, parents express greater concern than teens about youth mental well-being, emphasizing generational differences in perception. ​

Teens, Social Media and Mental Health | Pew Research

Instagram Introduces AI to Spot Underage Users

Instagram is deploying AI to detect teens misrepresenting their age, converting such accounts to teen profiles with stricter privacy and content limits. 

New features include default private settings, messaging restrictions, screen time alerts, and a “sleep mode.” 

Parental supervision tools are available but require both teen and parent opt-in.

Instagram tries using AI to determine if teens are pretending to be adults | AP News

The Dark Side of Kidfluencers

Netflix’s new docuseries, Bad Influence, is exposing the exploitation and abuse of child influencers within YouTube collectives and family vloggers. 

Despite new laws like California’s updated Coogan Law, child content creators still face emotional and physical risks in an unregulated industry.

Advocates push for stronger protections for young influencers.

Kids, Inc. | The New York Times

The Impact of Masculinity Influencers 

A study by Movember reveals that 61% of young men in the UK engage with masculinity influencers, leading many to act on advice about fitness, relationships, and body image. 

While some benefit from motivation, others resort to risky behaviors like taking steroids or developing restrictive beliefs about men’s roles in society.

More than a third of young men who watch masculinity influencers act on their advice, research finds | The Independent

How to Disappear Online 

With personal data spread across the web, it’s essential to take action to protect your privacy. This article from The Wall Street Journal offers a comprehensive guide to reclaiming your digital privacy. 

Start out by checking what’s out there. Use Google’s “Results About You” tool to track your exposed data. To remove it, you’ll need to manually request removals from data brokers or enlist paid services to handle the legwork.

Further tips include deleting social media profiles, unsubscribing from newsletters, using burner email accounts, and turning on Do Not Track on your phone.

Go Delete Yourself From the Internet. Seriously, Here’s How. | The Wall Street Journal

Snapchat’s Dirty Secret

An exposé by Jon Haidt and Zach Rausch reveals that Snap Inc. has long known about severe harms to minors on Snapchat — including sextortion, cyberbullying, and child exploitation — yet failed to act. 

Internal documents and lawsuits show executives aware of rampant abuse, addictive design, and ineffective age controls, endangering millions of teens.

Snapchat is Harming Children at an Industrial Scale | After Babel

Article summaries created with help from AI

Other Headlines

• Judge strikes down an Ohio law limiting kids’ use of social media as unconstitutional | AP News

• My Son Has a Rare Syndrome. So I Turned to the Internet. | New York Times

• Saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to ChatGPT costs tens of millions of dollars, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admits | New York Post

• Google in an online advertising monopoly, judge rules | CNN

• Students are now using AI apps to create fraudulent nude images of classmates | Fox News

• Meta released its CapCut rival Edits globally | Tech Crunch

Did we miss anything?

Any other important tech news from this week? Let us know in the comments below.

Author Jackie Baucom

Jackie is a Gabb staff writer. She is the mother of four children and is passionate about keeping kids safe, happy, loved, and thriving. She has a degree in Mass Communication from the University of Utah.