Schoolroom AI and Age-Gated Platforms Enclose Youth Agency
June 22, 2026
Legislatures in the UK, Ohio, and Australia are codifying moral panics into age-gated digital borders, replacing open internet access with state-mandated identity verification. While China integrates AI directly into classroom surveillance to optimize human capital, Western states are shuttering physical youth services and substituting social infrastructure with restrictive algorithmic filters. This pincer movement between automated pedagogy and platform exclusion forces young people into a new hierarchy where influence is the only remaining path to economic participation.
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Moral Panic Beats First Amendment In Sixth Circuit’s Ohio Social Media Ruling
The Sixth Circuit just handed Ohio a win on its social media law restricting minors, and reading the majority opinion, it’s immediately obvious why: the court fell hook, line, and sinker for the moral panic that social media is inherently poisonous to children. The first few pages of the decision ar…
- media and technology
- AI governance
- structural power
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The UK’s New Under-16 Social Media Ban Will Cause More Harm Than It Prevents
This week, politicians in the UK pushed forward with plans to eviscerate privacy and free speech on the internet by announcing a ban on social media for users under 16 that is set to take effect in Spring 2027. The UK government continues to falsely characterize this policy as a necessary response t…
- AI governance
- structural power
- media and technology
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Internet Age-Gates Are A Growing Global Threat
The internet is an essential resource for young people and adults to access information, explore community, and find themselves—both inside countries and across continents. Yet governments around the world continue to introduce and implement legislation requiring all online users to verify their age…
- media and technology
- AI governance
- structural power
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How is China using AI in the classroom?
How will teaching artificial intelligence help China take on a high-tech future?
- geopolitics
- structural power
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‘We need better’: Our readers’ thoughts on social media ban for under-16s
Plus, readers discuss Andy Burnham’s promises of growth and the sentencing of Palestine Action activists
- structural power
- geopolitics
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We can ban social media, but we still need to rebuild society
If ministers are serious about reducing screen time, they must rebuild the youth spaces and services they’ve shuttered
- structural power
- geopolitics
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Is Australia’s social media ban for under 16s working?
Bricolage/Shutterstock When Australia banned under 16-year-olds from using social media in December 2025, it became a test case for a policy now being pursued by governments around the world. Six months on, the UK has announced plans to introduce its own social media ban in 2027, with France, Malays…
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From Norway to Wisconsin, children want to be social media influencers when they grow up
Children are often asked in school and other places what they want to be when they grow up. Jamie Grill/Stock Photos A second grader in Norway drew a YouTube logo when my colleagues and I asked what they wanted to be when they grow up. When we asked why, the child explained that YouTubers are famous…
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