Lisa Nandy told MPs that the two firms' proposals do not meet the scale of the crisis. The draft law would also reach providers of apps used by children, turning on-device image classification into a compliance job for them too.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishers
- Builder
- Builder 32%
- Operator
- Operator 55%
- Investor
- Investor 13%
Reality
- Evidence72
- Adoption30
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives60
- Confidence65
California's under-16 feed ban starts on January 1, 2027, and the cheapest way to comply is an age signal built from a birth date the user typed at device setup. The EFF expects platforms to verify every adult instead.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishers
- Builder
- Builder 25%
- Operator
- Operator 42%
- Investor
- Investor 33%
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+30
- Incentives55
- Confidence50
Meta's $18bn settlement turns age estimation into an audited obligation
The longest section of the deal is about telling adults from children, and both available techniques collect more from everyone: behavioural inference on accounts already being logged, or a face scan before you can send a message.
Reality
- Evidence46
- Adoption64
- Hype gap+14
- Incentives72
- Confidence50
The remedy New Mexico won at trial is the one Meta's $18 billion settlement does not contain
New Mexico won about $942 million and a ban on romantic AI chatbot contact with minors in court. The 51-state deal pays up to $18 billion and, its own attorney general says, leaves that term out.
Reality
- Evidence60
- Adoption22
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives80
- Confidence58
The Online Safety Bill names Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook, permits facial age estimation and digital ID, and caps fines at 10 percent of global revenue. Nobody has said who keeps the face scans.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption14
- Hype gap+24
- Incentives66
- Confidence58
France's under-15 ban starts on 1 September with the clause naming a regulator removed, and New Zealand's 16-plus bill carries a 10 percent global revenue penalty it cannot pass. Product teams get both.
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption52
- Hype gap+38
- Incentives68
- Confidence62
TikTok's own review says the safety fix was withheld "by design," and that phrase is now evidence
Blackburn and Blumenthal want answers by September 1 on a control group of about 10% of users, including minors, that did not get an anti-rabbit-hole algorithm change.
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption42
- Hype gap+12
- Incentives70
- Confidence54
New Mexico moves to uncap consumer-protection penalties and pull chatbots into scope
Raul Torrez is drafting bills that would remove penalty caps and extend liability to AI chatbots, one day before 29 attorneys general opened against Meta in Oakland. States are setting the floor.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption32
- Hype gap+22
- Incentives68
- Confidence47