A São Paulo court has issued an emergency injunction requiring Apple to block minors from downloading Casino Roulette: Roulettist and to add age verification before users can buy virtual chips with real money. The order followed a July lawsuit from four child rights groups alleging minors could easily access the 18+ rated app and spend real money in it. Apple has five days to comply, must extend similar controls to other casino-style apps, and faces a daily fine of about $19,500 if it fails to act.
The European Commission unveiled a plan to bar children under 13 from social media, allowing parent-supervised accounts for ages 13 to 15. To enforce this, Brussels has built its own free, open-source age-verification app, being piloted in Cyprus, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain, with full EU rollout expected by end of 2026.
The European Commission unveiled the EU Kids Act, a proposal that would ban social media accounts for children under 13, mandate age verification, and force companies like Meta, Google, YouTube and Roblox to prove their platforms are safely designed. President Ursula von der Leyen said the law shifts the burden of proof onto platforms and gives parents more control over children's online experiences. The measure still needs to go through debate and a vote before becoming law.
The European Union is preparing the EU Kids Act, a proposed law that goes beyond social media to limit children's access to video platforms, chatbots and online games. Under the draft, minors would face tiered restrictions by age, ranging from no access for under-3s to parent-supervised accounts and eventual independent access at 15, with mandatory age checks before signup or download.
Anthropic has made its consumer chatbot Claude unavailable to anyone under 18, requiring users to confirm their age when creating an account. The company says it uses detection systems to flag possible underage users and will suspend accounts showing such signals until identity is verified through Yoti, a third-party age-verification service.
Starting September 9, Australian law requires online game and app storefronts to verify that buyers are over 18. Steam is meeting this requirement by asking users to link a bank card rather than submit government ID or biometric data, mirroring the approach it already uses in the UK. Credit cards work reliably since Australian issuers only give them to adults, but debit cards—often held by minors—only pass verification under narrower conditions tied to specific bank and network flags.
Microsoft is introducing new APIs in Windows 11 that let third-party apps check whether a user falls into a child, teen, or adult age category, without revealing the person's actual birthdate. Developers can use this signal to tailor content, features, or restrictions based on age group rather than requesting precise personal data.
Utah's Department of Commerce has agreed not to enforce SB 73, a law that took effect this week making adult websites liable for users who access them via VPN, while a federal judge weighs a legal challenge. The law treats anyone physically located in Utah as a Utah user regardless of VPN use, and bars sites with significant adult content from encouraging VPN use.
Meta has settled a child safety lawsuit brought by more than 40 states plus DC and several territories, agreeing to pay up to $17 billion over a decade. As part of the deal it will roll out teen-specific product changes, including a default two-hour daily usage cap, overnight app blocks from midnight to 6 a.m., muted notifications during school hours, hidden likes, disabled cosmetic filters, and an option for a non-algorithmic feed.
Utah has enacted Senate Bill 73, an age-verification law requiring adult websites to confirm users' ages regardless of whether they use a VPN or proxy to mask their location. The law, which had been delayed by a court injunction after a challenge from Pornhub owner Aylo, imposes fines up to $2,500 per violation and bars sites from telling users how to bypass verification with a VPN.
Meta has agreed to detailed commitments requiring more robust methods for identifying underage users, including AI tools and facial analysis, as part of a legal settlement over child safety. The company faces the technical challenge of accurately distinguishing minors from adults without overreaching into the privacy of all users, since safety protections only work if kids are correctly identified in the first place.
California's Assembly passed Bill 1856, amending the Digital Age Assurance Act to exclude operating systems and software meant to be freely copied, redistributed or modified from mandatory age-verification requirements. This shields most Linux distributions, though derivative projects with proprietary layers like Valve's SteamOS may still need to comply. The bill also fixes the DAAA's overly broad definition of 'user' and restricts sharing of age data to law enforcement requests.
GoKawiil