A day after Snap tentatively settled with the plaintiff in a social media addiction lawsuit, leaving Meta as the only remaining defendant, the case has been dropped. In a statement, Meta said the plaintiff chose to drop his case against Meta without receiving any payment. The plaintiff, a Florida teenager known by the initials 'R.K.C.,' had sued the social media companies for creating addictive platforms. It was one of thousands of similar lawsuits from teens, schools, and state attorneys general that had accused the big tech companies of knowingly creating addictive platforms. The precedent that would have been set by this lawsuit and others could have impacted how the companies build their apps, known for features that keep people engaged, like the infinite scroll and their continual buzz of notifications. The plaintiff's decision to drop the case follows Meta's loss in a New Mexico case earlier this year, which marked its first courtroom defeat over social media harms. Meta was ordered to pay $375 million in penalties after the company was found to have misled consumers about the safety of its platforms and endangered children....

For years, social media giants controlled what users saw in their feeds. While people could follow accounts, like posts or hide content they didn't enjoy, recommendation algorithms controlled what was shown to them. Beyond traditional 'Not Interested' buttons, apps like Threads, Instagram, and TikTok have begun introducing tools that let people train their own algorithms and influence what appears in their feeds. The shift reflects an evolution in how recommendation systems work. Social media feeds are moving away from a one-size-fits-all TV channel and toward something more like a streaming service, where users can tune recommendations to their interests and have more control over what they see. For users, the advantage of customizable algorithms is a feed tailored to their interests. For social media giants, it's a way to boost engagement by displaying content that people are most likely to consume. On June 16, 2026, Threads launched a new 'Your Algo' feature that builds on the platform's 'Dear Algo' tool, which debuted in February. The 'Dear Algo' tool lets users influence their feed by publishing a public post, such as 'Dear Algo, show me more posts about podcasts,' to indicate the types of content they want to see more or less of in their feed. With the new 'Your Algo' feature, users can make those preferences privately, without having to post publicly....

U.K. prime minister Keir Starmer announced on Monday that his government will impose a ban on social media use for children under 16 years of age. The ban would apply to a range of social media platforms, including Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X. Messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal will not be included in the ban. There are also going to be limitations on AI tools, as AI 'romantic companion' chatbots will have to ensure they are only usable by people over 18. The U.K. joins a growing number of countries looking to safeguard kids online. Australia became the first to impose such a ban late last year, and other countries, including Canada, France, and Denmark, have started developing their own bans. 'Every parent can see it with their own eyes, social media is making children unhappy,' Starmer said during a press conference. 'It's making it easier for bullies to harass and abuse them, and it could even be harming their mental health, exposing them to content that is dangerous because that's what grabs the attention. It's designed to be addictive, of course it is. Features like the infinite scroll, they're designed to lock you in for hours.'...

While the government had previously revealed that it was studying options around a ban, both the Guardian and the Financial Times said that Starmer is now ready to unveil the policy in a speech on Monday. Government sources told the Guardian that the U.K. ban will cover a similar range of social platforms as Australia, where TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, Facebook, X, Threads, Snapchat, Twitch, and Kick are all banned for users under 16. Other products, such as gaming apps, would not be banned outright, but for their younger users, they'd need to remove features like the ability to chat with strangers. The policy would also prohibit users under 18 from accessing romantic and sexual chatbots and seek to prevent late-night scrolling. The U.K. is one of a number of countries following Australia's lead by considering bans on social media use by children. The U.K. already passed an age verification law that was similarly touted as protecting the safety of children online. These bans come amidst growing discussion around the effect of social media usage on teens and children ' for example, the mother of murdered teen Brianna Ghey has called for a teen social media ban in the U.K. and said her daughter's eating order and self-harming behavior were 'significantly exacerbated by the harmful content she was consuming online.'...