News

Nebraska is the latest state to crack down on how kids can use social media. The state's governor, Jim Pillen, recently signed into law a package of bills aimed at restricting certain social media features that keep kids hooked on the platform. The final bill signed, called the Age-Appropriate Online Design Code Act, will require companies to offer time limits on usage, restrict certain categories of content and provide chronological feeds instead of algorithmic ones that promote infinite scrolling.

The Age-Appropriate Online Design Code Act, also known as LB504, details that social media companies can only collect the minimum amount of personal data from younger users, and offers parents more tools to limit how their children use their accounts. Along with those restrictions, the law prohibits any ads related to gambling, alcohol, tobacco or drugs from reaching kids on social media.

Alongside LB504, the signed package of bills includes LB140 that limits student use of smartphones in schools, LB383 that requires social media companies to verify the age of its users and require parental consent for creating accounts, and LB172 that creates criminal penalties for AI-generated pornography.

"Collectively, all these bills have an incredible impact on helping our teachers and giving our schools the opportunity to teach our kids, instead of being disrupted in the classroom," Pillen said in a press release. "They also provide parents with the tools they need to protect our kids from big tech online companies and predators."

The law is set to go into effect January 1, 2026, and any companies that violate these new regulations will face civil penalties. Nebraska is the latest state to restrict social media usage for minors, but Texas is also trying to pass a similar ban. With more efforts to regulate social media, NetChoice, an Internet advocacy organization whose members include Google, Meta and X, has voiced criticism of these states' efforts, arguing that they infringe on First Amendment rights and user privacy. In 2022, California signed a similar law meant to protect underage users, but it has since been in a legal battle following a lawsuit filed by NetChoice that claims a violation of free speech rights.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/a-new-nebraska-law-wants-to-make-social-media-less-addictive-for-kids-171510432.html?src=rss

Seagate quietly ships 40TB HAMR drives, setting the pace for the next storage nextMozaic HAMR tech crams 4TB per platter, promising massive boosts in storage efficiencyData center expansion will dictate how fast these record-breaking 40TB drives hit the mainstreamAt the recent Seagate’s Investor and Analyst Conference, the company revealed it has delivered limited units of its new 40TB hard drives based on its Mozaic HAMR platform.These 40TB drives use Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) to achieve 4TB per platter across ten platters, marking a shift toward Seagate’s Mozaic 4+ platform.While these are not yet broadly available, full-scale production is slated to begin in the first half of 2026 following extensive customer qualification testing.Full-scale production to commence next year“We have shipped limited 40 terabyte engineering samples to our customer already. We do plan to initiate quals next quarter, and we'll continue quals into 2026, where we'll be bringing over a wide portion of our customer base to the Mozaic 4 platform,” said Dr. John Morris, Seagate’s CTO.Volume readiness will depend on how data centers integrate and validate the drives. However, the goal is to move a significant share of Seagate’s exabyte shipments to HAMR-based drives, which promise higher capacity and data center efficiency.As CEO, Dr. Dave Mosley explained, “10 disks would get you to 40 terabytes... this gives better efficiencies in the data center. At the fleet level, this is how our customers think.”Seagate's long-term plan involves rolling out even larger capacities, including 44TB drives by 2027 and 50TB drives by 2028.The delay from its original 2017 projection for 50TB drives by 2026 underscores the complexities of scaling HAMR technology. Yet, the 40TB development still positions Seagate in the race to offer the largest HDD on the market.Rival companies are following different strategies. Western Digital (WD) continues to expand capacity through ePMR and OptiNAND, reserving HAMR for its own 40TB launch expected in late 2026.“Other companies have started adopting HAMR with 30TB HDDs, but we believe HAMR’s true potential begins at 40TB. Until then, we'll continue using technologies like OptiNAND and UltraSMR to increase the capacity of existing HDDs up to 40TB,” said Kimihiko Nishio, WD's sales manager in Japan.Toshiba, another key player, has been developing its technologies, such as Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording (MAMR).The company aims to release its first 35TB HDD based on HAMR before 2026. Toshiba's strategy involves combining MAMR with future HAMR implementations to achieve these capacities.These drives won’t appeal to average consumers looking for the fastest HDD or even the best HDD for home use, their development is closely tied to the AI-driven cybersecurity arms race.Seagate’s early shipments of 40TB drives suggest technical leadership in the race to develop the largest HDD, but the path to commercial reality is winding, and the cautious stance of competitors implies the challenges are considerable.You might also likeThese are the largest SSDs and hard drives in the marketHere are the best microSD cards for your microstorage needsMac users beware - fake Ledger apps are being used by hackers to steal seed phrases and hack accounts

Just a day after its release, FromSoftware announced a crucial patch for Elden Ring Nightreign players who prefer to solo queue. The game's developer posted on X that Patch 1.02 will be released next week, delivering some bug fixes and "improvements for solo expeditions."

More specifically, FromSoftware will add the effect of “Automatic Revival Upon Defeat” that allows a self-revival once per night boss battle for solo expeditions. Players will also get more runes, which should provide a more balanced gaming experience when venturing alone. This news of this patch follows several criticisms of the game being poorly optimized when playing solo, versus in a party of three as it was designed for.

FromSoftware's titles have a reputation for being difficult, but early reviews pointed out that Nightreign offers poor scaling with certain mechanics, abilities and boss fights that cater towards a full party. Despite the millions of copies sold on the first day, Nightreign holds a "mixed" Steam user review rating thanks to the solo queue issues, along with a lack of communication tools, cross-platform play and less replayability than other Souls titles.

For FromSoftware, Elden Ring Nightreign represents a stylistic shift into the roguelike genre based on its best-selling predecessor and it might still be working out some of the kinks. The game's director, Junya Ishizaki, told IGN in an interview that jumping into an expedition as a duo was “overlooked during development” but is something that the developer is looking at and considering for post-launch support. Some players are also having issues with matchmaking itself, where FromSoftware recommends restarting the process to get into an expedition. As for rebalancing for solo play, FromSoftware said that more details about this upcoming patch will come next week.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/elden-ring-nightreigns-next-patch-will-make-gameplay-easier-for-solo-players-183644323.html?src=rss

In our list of the best streaming services we crowned Paramount+ as the best platform for classic movies, and it still is – however, it's broadening its library of 21st century features in its list of new titles for June 2025.With over 80 new movies landing on June 1, among the list of new Paramount+ movies lies modern titles that over time have earned modern classic status, starting with No Country for Old Men (2007) – a western thriller from the Coen brothers starring Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin.But that's not all and, if anything, the drama never ends. Joining the Coens' thriller is Steve McQueen's Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave (2013), Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994), and four movies from the Indiana Jones franchise. The thrills are endless.Everything new on Paramount+ in June 2025 Arriving on June 1 3:10 to Yuma (movie)12 Years a Slave (movie)Bad News Bears (movie)BlacKkKlansman (movie)Boogie Nights (movie)But I'm a Cheerleader (movie)Call Me By Your Name (movie)Carol (movie)Carriers (movie)Center Stage (movie)Changing Lanes (movie)Chasing Amy (movie)Cloverfield (movie)Crawlspace (movie)Daddy Day Camp (movie)Dance Flick (movie)Dog Day Afternoon (movie)Double Jeopardy (movie)Eagle Eye (movie)Elf (movie)Enemy at the Gates (movie)EuroTrip (movie)Everybody's Fine (movie)Extract (movie)First Blood (movie)Heatwave (movie)How She Move (movie)How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (movie)Imagine That (movie)In & Out (movie)Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (movie)Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (movie)Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (movie)Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (movie)Jawbreaker (movie)Kinky Boots (movie)Law of Desire (movie)Layer Cake (movie)Light of My Life (movie)Like a Boss (movie)Marathon Man (movie)Masterminds (movie)Military Wives (movie)Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (movie)No Country for Old Men (movie)Orange County (movie)Overdrive (movie)Pretty In Pink (movie)Pulp Fiction (movie)Racing with the Moon (movie)Rambo III (movie)Rambo: First Blood Part II (movie)RED (movie)Reservoir Dogs (movie)Risky Business (movie)Road Trip (movie)Run & Gun (movie)Saturday Night Fever (movie)Save the Last Dance (movie)School Ties (movie)Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (movie)She's All That (movie)Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (movie)Stand By Me (movie)Teen Titans GO! To the Movies (movie)The Autopsy of Jane Doe (movie)The Crossing Guard (movie)The Dictator (movie)The Fighting Temptations (movie)The Gambler (movie)The General's Daughter (movie)The Girl Next Door (movie)The Godfather (movie)The Godfather Part II (movie)The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (movie)The Hunt for Red October (movie)The Ides Of March (movie)The Kings of Summer (movie)The Last Samurai (movie)The Lovely Bones (movie)The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (movie)The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (movie)The Nice Guys (movie)The Other Woman (movie)The People vs. Larry Flynt (movie)The Running Man (movie)The Shootist (movie)The Space Between Us (movie)The Untouchables (movie)Tigerland (movie)Tommy Boy (movie)Tootsie (movie)Total Recall (movie)True Grit (movie)Whiplash (movie)Without a Paddle (movie)xXx (movie)Zola (movie)Arriving on June 4 SpongeBob SquarePants season 14 (TV show)Arriving on June 5 Lions for Lambs (movie)Arriving on June 8 The 78th Annual Tony Awards (TV show)Arriving on June 11The Really Loud House season 2 (TV show)Arriving on June 15 In Bloom: Everybody’s Fight (TV show)Arriving on June 22 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards (TV show)Arriving on June 25 The Patrick Star Show season 3 (TV show)Ice Airport Alaska season 5 (TV show)The Last Cowboy season 5 (TV show)You might also like Yellowjackets season 3 finale made me shocked, surprised and sad – here are 3 things you may have missedHBO Max might hog the 'premium streaming' spotlight, but lately I've gotten way more value from my Apple TV+ subscription – here's whyEverything new on Netflix in June 2025 – stream all episodes of Squid Game season 3 on June 27

The Women-Led Games Showcase will be returning for its second year at the Summer Game Fest 2025. It will feature 39 titles from women-led and majority women development teams, and viewers can expect to see deep dives, release announcements and information on DLCs during the event. The Showcase will take place on June 7 at 1PM Eastern time and will be streamed live on Twitch and YouTube, which is embedded below. You can also watch the stream through various co-streamers' Twitch channels that you can find from the Women-Led Games' X account. Take note that the team will also be running a Steam sale event from June 6 to 13 for women-led titles.

In addition to this showcase, Summer Game Fest 2025 will also feature several other events, such as Day of the Dev for indie titles and Wholesome Direct for cozy games. There will be a showcase for titles created by Latin American developers, a Green Games event for titles that make direct contributions to green initiatives and an Xbox Games Showcase for updates on titles from across Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda and Activision Blizzard. You can also watch the live premiere for Death Stranding 2: On The Beach on June 8 at 10PM Eastern time.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/how-to-watch-the-women-led-games-showcase-at-summer-game-fest-2025-190005489.html?src=rss

According to a report from NPR, Meta plans to shift the task of assessing its products' potential harms away from human reviewers, instead leaning more heavily on AI to speed up the process. Internal documents seen by the publication note that Meta is aiming to have up to 90 percent of risk assessments fall on AI, NPR reports, and is considering using AI reviews even in areas such as youth risk and "integrity," which covers violent content, misinformation and more. Unnamed current and former Meta employees who spoke with NPR warned AI may overlook serious risks that a human team would have been able to identify.

Updates and new features for Meta's platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp, have long been subjected to human reviews before they hit the public, but Meta has reportedly doubled down on the use of AI over the last two months. Now, according to NPR, product teams have to fill out a questionnaire about their product and submit this for review by the AI system, which generally provides an "instant decision" that includes the risk areas it's identified. They'll then have to address whatever requirements it laid out to resolve the issues before the product can be released.

A former Meta executive told NPR that reducing scrutiny "means you're creating higher risks. Negative externalities of product changes are less likely to be prevented before they start causing problems in the world." In a statement to NPR, Meta said it would still tap "human expertise" to evaluate "novel and complex issues," and leave the "low-risk decisions" to AI. Read the full report over at NPR.

It comes a few days after Meta released its latest quarterly integrity reports — the first since changing its policies on content moderation and fact-checking earlier this year. The amount of content taken down has unsurprisingly decreased in the wake of the changes, per the report. But there was a small rise in bullying and harassment, as well as violent and graphic content.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-will-reportedly-soon-use-ai-for-most-product-risk-assessments-instead-of-human-reviewers-205416849.html?src=rss