Report Summary
1. Social media to be banned for under-16s in the UK: The United Kingdom plans to prevent social media platforms from serving children under 16, supported by safer age checks mechanisms and limits on livestreaming and contact with strangers. The regulations are expected on or before December 2026, with implementation planned for spring 2027 across covered services.
2. US directive suspends Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5: Anthropic says a United States export control directive requires suspension of Fable 5 and Mythos 5 access for foreign nationals, including employees. The company disputes the stated security basis, has disabled the models globally, and says other models remain available.
3. X in breach of Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act: Canada’s Privacy Commissioner found X Corp. and xAI breached PIPEDA after Grok generated sexualised deepfakes of identifiable people. The findings treat synthetic depictions as personal information and require consent, risk controls, independent audits, monitoring, and evidence that safeguards actually work.
4. Case Note [Drs Logistics (P) Ltd v. Google India Pvt Ltd]: The Delhi High Court dismissed DRS Logistics’ contempt application against Google, finding that earlier judgments required complaint based investigation of advertisements and did not impose proactive monitoring. Google must examine uses of the claimant’s trademarks under its advertising policy promptly.
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Lead Story
United Kingdom announces social media ban for children under 16
The United Kingdom government has announced plans to prevent social media platforms from offering their services to children under 16. The proposal covers user to user platforms whose main purpose is social interaction and which combine user posts with recommendation systems.
The government has identified services such as Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, and X as examples that may fall within the regime. Messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal are not intended to be included.
The announcement goes beyond account access. Livestreaming and communication from strangers would be restricted for children under 16 across a wider group of online services, including gaming services.