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Meta launches Instagram for teens to address social media concerns
Meta on Tuesday launched Instagram Teen Accounts, a more limited experience for younger users of the platform, in what is the technology company’s latest effort to assuage concerns about the impact of social media on kids.
Meta will automatically migrate all Instagram users under the age of 16 to the new service, which features built-in protections through settings controlled by their parents. The move is designed to address mounting criticism that social media can harm young people’s mental health, as well as put parents at ease about the kind of content their children are exposed to and who is able interact with them.
User profiles on Teen Accounts are automatically made private and can only be viewed if a request to access a teen’s information is accepted. The new tool also places restrictions on messaging, allowing parents to see who their kids are communicating with, and includes a feature that silences notifications at night. Such features may be deactivated, but only with a parent’s permission.
“We know parents want to feel confident that their teens can use social media to connect with their friends and explore their interests, without having to worry about unsafe or inappropriate experiences,” Meta said in a statement Tuesday. “We understand parents’ concerns, and that’s why we’re reimagining our apps for teens with new Teen Accounts.”
Beyond giving caregivers more control over a child’s Instagram usage, a new “Explore” feature lets teens select topics they want to see more of, according to Meta.
Facing legal pressure to change
Antigone Davis, global head of safety at Meta, told CBS News that Meta designed Teen Accounts in consultation with parents of teens and that the changes will affect tens of millions of Instagram users. Although Meta has made incremental changes over the years, the new service “standardizes the experience.” she said.
“It gives parents peace of mind. Their teens are in a certain set of protections,” Davis said, adding that Meta is seeking to “reimagine how parents and teens interact online.”
In 2023 dozens of states sued Meta, alleging the company deliberately engineered Instagram and Facebook to be addictive to young users in a bid to boost profits. The lawsuits also accused Meta of collecting data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent, a violation of federal law.
Meta has denied such allegations, saying that it is focused on providing teens with “positive experiences online” and that it has introduced dozens of tools aimed at making social media safer for teens.
How will Teen Accounts be enforced?
With Teen Accounts, users under 16 need their parents’ permission to roll back restrictions, according to Meta. An additional feature lets parents further shape their teens’ online experiences by showing who how they’re messaging and how much time they are spending on the platform. Parents can also block teens from accessing Instagram during certain times of day.
To keep teens honest, Meta is asking them to verify their ages by uploading an ID card and by using a tool called Yodi, which analyses a person’s facial features to determine if they appear to be under or over 18.
Teens will be notified that their accounts are being migrated into Teen Accounts. The transition is expected to take place over 60 days in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia.
—CBS News’ Jo Ling Kent contributed to this report
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
