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Georgia joins states seeking parental permission before children join social media



ATLANTA — Georgia could join other states in requiring children younger than 16 to have their parents’ explicit permission to create social media accounts.

Lawmakers on Friday gave final approval to Senate Bill 351, which also would ban social media use on school devices and internet services, require porn sites to verify users are 18 or over and mandate additional education by schools on social media and internet use. The House passed the measure 120-45 and the Senate approved it 48-7.

The bill, which Republican Sen. Jason Anavitarte of Dallas called “transformative,” now goes to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature or veto.

A number of other states including Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Utah passed laws last year requiring parental consent for children to use social media. In Arkansas, a federal judge in August blocked enforcement of a law requiring parental consent for minors to create new social media accounts.

Some in Congress also are proposing parental consent for minors.

State Rep. Scott Hilton, a Peachtree Corners Republican, argued the state should do more to limit social media use by children, saying it’s causing harm.

“Every rose has a thorn, and that’s social media in this generation,” Hilton said. “It’s great for connectivity and activism, but it has reared its ugly head on mental health.”

But opponents warned the bill would cause problems. For example, Rep. David Wilkerson, a Powder Springs Democrat, said that the ban on use of social media in schools could ban teachers from showing educationally valuable YouTube videos.

“If we do pass this, we’ll be back fixing this next year, because there are too many issues with this bill,” Wilkerson said.

The bill says social media services would have to use “commercially reasonable efforts” to verify someone’s age by July 1, 2025.

Services would have to treat anyone who can’t be verified as a minor. Parents of children younger than 16 would have to consent to their children joining a service. Social medial companies would be limited in how they could customize ads for children younger than 16 and how much information they could collect on those children.

To comply with federal regulation, social media companies already ban kids under 13 from signing up to their platforms, but children have been shown to easily evade the bans.

Up to 95% of teens aged 13 to 17 report using a social media platform, with more than a third saying they use them “almost constantly,” the Pew Research Center found.

The Georgia bill also aims to shut down porn sites by requiring submission of a digitized identification card or some other government-issued identification. Companies could be held liable if minors were found to access the sites, and could face fines of up to $10,000.

“It will protect our children,” said Rep. Rick Jasperse, a Jasper Republican who argues age verification will lead porn sites to cut off access to Georgians. In March, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Texas law, leading Pornhub to cut off access to Texans.

The Free Speech Coalition, which represents adult film makers, says the bill would be ineffective because users could mask their location and because people would be forced to transmit sensitive information. They also argue it’s unconstitutional because there are less restrictive ways to keep children out and discriminate against certain types of speech. The coalition has sued multiple states over the laws.

The ban on school social media excludes email, news, gaming, online shopping, photograph editing and academic sites. The measure also requires a model program on the effects of social media and for students in grades 6-12, and requires existing anti-bullying programs to be updated.

The move comes after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned in May that social media hasn’t been proven to be safe for young people.

Murthy called on tech companies, parents and caregivers to take “immediate action to protect kids now” and asked tech companies to share data and increase transparency and for policymakers to regulate social media for safety the way they do car seats and baby formula.

Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instragram, announced in 2022 it was taking steps to verify ages. Meta says it provides “age-appropriate experiences” for teens 13-17 on Instagram, including preventing unwanted contact from unknown adults.

Dozens of U.S. states, including California and New York, also are suing Meta Platforms Inc., claiming the company harms young people and contributes to a youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms.

Florida recently passed a law banning social media accounts for children under 14 regardless of parental consent and require parental permission for 14- and 15-year-olds.



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Estonia thankful for decision to join NATO 20 years ago


Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna has said the Ukraine conflict has shown what might have happened to his country had it not joined NATO 20 years ago.

“It cannot be ruled out that without NATO membership our independence would now be at risk,” Tsahkna said on Friday on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of joining the transatlantic defence alliance.

“If Estonia had remained in the so-called grey zone, what we are currently seeing in Ukraine could possibly have happened on our territory,” he said.

In addition to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Slovakia also joined NATO on March 29, 2004.

“Because we made the necessary decisions back then, we now live in a free and secure Estonia,” Prime Minister Kaja Kallas in a video message.

Estonia borders Russia to the east and feels the threat of Russian force since the invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, she said.

Estonia now spends more than 3% of its gross domestic product on the military, said Kallas, as she urged NATO allies to spend more money on defence.



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Mother and daughter polar bears join wildlife park


A wildlife park has welcomed two new polar bears as part of its conservation work.

Flocke, 16, and her daughter Tala, four, have been welcomed at Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park near Ipswich.

They will join polar bear Ewa, who was previously saved from a disbanded zoo in Sweden in October 2023.

The park’s founder and CEO Jimmy Doherty said they were “settling in incredibly well”.

“We are so proud to be their guardians and celebrate the contribution we, and other worldwide organisations are making, in one of the most important international conservation efforts of our generation,” Mr Doherty said.

Park director Stevie Sheppard added: “Polar bears are the flagship animal of climate change and by housing them here in Suffolk, we can educate visitors on the devastating effects on our planet.”

The two polar bears, hand-reared at Nuremberg Zoo in Germany, have joined the park as part of a European programme to conserve and safeguard populations of threatened species.

They have been placed in the Lost Lands of the Tundra enclosure, which also has reindeer, arctic wolves and arctic foxes.

This enclosure, with three large lakes, “intertwines with the existing natural landscapes and incorporates woodland and natural springs”, according to the park.

The two new bears will slowly be introduced to Ewa.

Mr Doherty previously said the enclosure cost nearly £1m and was now the largest polar bear reserve in Europe.

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Largest U.S. sportsbooks join forces to tackle problem gambling



Seven of the nation’s largest gaming companies are joining forces to create a trade group to promote responsible gaming, and for the first time ever, will share information about problem gamblers.

The seven operators — FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, Penn Entertainment, Fanatics Betting & Gaming, Hard Rock Digital and bet365 — will form the Responsible Online Gaming Association, or ROGA, the group announced Wednesday.

The members account for more than 85% of the legal online betting market in the United States. Collectively they have pledged more than $20 million to fund ROGA.

“I’m incredibly excited to move this forward and to really do some impactful things and to really expand the knowledge through the research and to create these evidence-based best practices and to really empower players with information,” said Jennifer Shatley, executive director of ROGA.

ROGA members commit to work together on issues ranging from education, responsible gaming best practices, conscientious advertising and marketing across the industry.

The new group will also create an independent clearinghouse, or database, that will allow them to share key information related to protection of consumers, though the details on how it would work aren’t yet clear.

ROGA says it will create a certification program to assess members’ responsible gaming efforts and provide an incentive for operators to participate.

The new consortium comes as sports betting, both online and in retail outlets, has seen dramatic growth across the nation since 2018. Thirty-eight states and Washington, D.C., now offer legal sports wagering.

This year, a record number of Americans bet on the Super Bowl. Online transactions totaled nearly 15,000 per second, doubling last year’s peak, according to geolocating platform GeoComply.

But as gambling has become more mainstream — and as advertising for sportsbooks spans television, streaming and social feeds — so, too, have headlines involving betting scandals and sports.

In recent days, Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani has found himself at the center of a $4 million betting scandal involving his interpreter and an illegal bookie. Ohtani insists he’s never bet on sports. The NBA is investigating Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter for irregularities around wagering. And U.S. Integrity, a tech firm working to combat illicit betting in college sports, flagged anomalies around the betting lines for Temple University men’s basketball games.

A result of those claims: The potential to provoke outrage and public criticism that could become an inflection point for the U.S. gambling industry. There’s also the potential for gambling’s explosive growth to undermine integrity in sports and entice bettors into addiction.

An estimated 2 million U.S. adults meet the criteria for a severe gambling problem, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling. Another 5 million to 8 million U.S. adults are considered to have a mild or moderate gambling problem.

Problem gambling prompted regulatory crackdowns in Europe and especially in the United Kingdom over the last couple years, impacting sportsbooks’ profitability and changing the way they conduct business.

There has been a concerted effort in the United States for the gambling industry to police itself and ward off harsher regulatory frameworks.

U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko of New York is introducing national legislation that would crack down on what he calls “a public health crisis.” Tonko’s “Supporting Affordability and Fairness with Every Bet Act,” which he introduced last week, would regulate gambling advertising, limit the number and size of deposits, and restrict how artificial intelligence is deployed to acquire customers.

“Your going to have a lot more people saturated with this opportunity, with all these clever concepts of bonus bets, free bets and celebrity spokespersons,” Tonko told CNBC.

An influx of gamblers will result in a dramatic increase in the number of people struggling with addiction, he said.

Some states have slapped operators with fines over gaming violations. In August, Maryland fined DraftKings $94,000 for marketing to underage players. PrizePicks reached a $15 million settlement in New York for operating illegally. In Indiana, the gaming commission fined FanDuel after eight people used illegally obtained debit cards to fund their betting accounts, causing “great harm” to partners on shared bank accounts, according to the Indiana Gaming Commission Chairman Milton Thompson.

Some gambling insiders are skeptical of ROGA, suspicious of what they consider a marketing stunt to address a public relations problem.

Caesars, which is noticeably absent from the group founding ROGA, told CNBC it’s learned best practices from 35 years grappling with responsible gaming.

“While we applaud all efforts to ensure online gaming is both operated and marketed in a responsible manner, we are confident in our [own] Responsible Gaming approach,” the company said in a statement.

Caesars said it’s solely focused on the 21-and-older crowd and does not permit anyone younger than that to sign up for a Caesars rewards account, even in states like Rhode Island or Kentucky where 18-year-olds are permitted to wager.

Many fantasy sports and social betting platforms that operate on a sweepstakes model permit players 18 and older, and many of Caesars’ competitors allow 18-and-up customers to play fantasy sports. Some, too, allow sports betting in that age group in the few states that permit it.

But the industry is working to better insulate its youngest and most vulnerable customers.

The American Gaming Association launched last March an agreement aimed at providing college-aged students protections against the marketing and advertising of sports betting.

Peter Jackson, CEO of Flutter, the parent company of FanDuel, said responsible gaming comes down to good business. Yet, he warns that as legal operators come together to improve responsible gambling, the illegal marketplace will always be willing to take wagers from problem gamblers.

“I urge the state regulators to help us by clamping down on some of those black market operators,” Jackson told CNBC.



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South Korea’s medical professors join protests, reduce hours in practice


By Hyunsu Yim

SEOUL (Reuters) – Medical professors in South Korea said they will cut back on the hours they spend in practice starting on Monday to support trainee doctors on strike for more than a month over a government plan to boost medical school admissions.

“It is clear that increasing medical school admissions will not only ruin medical school education but cause our country’s healthcare system to collapse,” Kim Chang-soo, the president of the Medical Professors Association of Korea, told reporters.

He said the professors will start scaling back outpatient treatment to focus on emergency and severely ill patients, while some will submit their resignations.

The strike by the trainee doctors over a plan to increase the number of students admitted each year to medical school from 2025 has forced several hospitals to turn back patients and delay procedures.

The government says the plan is vital to remedy a shortage of doctors in one of the world’s fastest-ageing societies, but critics have said the authorities should focus on improving the working conditions of trainee doctors first.

The trainee doctors have been on strike since Feb 20, and President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has made healthcare reforms one of his signature policy initiatives, has vowed not to back down on implementing the admissions plan.

The government has also threatened to suspend the licences of the doctors who have walked off their jobs but on Sunday, Yoon appeared to seek a more conciliatory approach and urged Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to seek “flexible measures” in dealing with the suspension.

Yoon’s office said he also ordered the prime minister to form a “constructive consultative body” to speak with all medical professionals.

According to a Gallup poll released on March 15, 38% said the government was doing a good job dealing with backlash from doctors and the medical void amid the doctors’ strike while 49% said “not a good job”.

(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim; editing by Miral Fahmy)



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Georgia kids would need parental permission to join social media if Senate Republicans get their way


ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia could join other states requiring children to have their parents’ explicit permission to create social media accounts.

Two top Republicans in the Georgia state Senate — Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Sen. Jason Anavitarte of Dallas — said in a Monday news conference they will seek to pass such a law in 2024. The proposal could also restrict accounts on other online services.

“It’s important that we empower parents,” Anavitarte said. “A lot of parents don’t know how to restrict content.”

Anavitarte said Georgia’s rules would be modeled on a law Louisiana passed this year. That measure, which takes effect in 2024, says social media services must verify an account holder’s age and can’t let someone younger than 18 join without parental consent.

Arkansas, Texas and Utah also passed laws this year requiring parental consent for children to use social media. Some in Congress are also proposing parental consent for minors.

California last year enacted a law requiring online services to do more to protect children’s privacy and safety.

Anavitarte said he has briefly been in contact with Meta Platforms, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram. He and Jones said they would discuss plans with the social media giant.

The move comes after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned in May that social media hasn’t been proven to be safe for young people. Murthy called on tech companies, parents and caregivers to take “immediate action to protect kids now.” He asked tech companies to share data and increase transparency and for policymakers to regulate social media for safety the way they do car seats and baby formula.

To comply with federal regulation, social media companies already ban kids under 13 from signing up to their platforms, but children have been shown to easily evade the bans.

Up to 95% of teens aged 13 to 17 report using a social media platform, with more than a third saying they use them “almost constantly,” the Pew Research Center found.

Anavitarte also said he wants to strengthen Georgia’s law on cyberbullying. Existing law requires any student found to have engaged in bullying three times be sent to an alternative school. Anavitarte said he wants to revive his 2022 proposal requiring schools to warn students and parents that some acts of bullying could lead to criminal stalking penalties.

Meta announced last year that it was taking steps to verify someone’s age, including letting people upload their ID or record a video selfie; and partnering with an age verification company. Meta says it provides “age-appropriate experiences” for teens 13-17 on Instagram, including preventing unwanted contact from unknown adults.

Anavitarte this year sponsored a new law that bans TikTok, Telegram, WeChat and other applications from being installed or used on state-owned computers.

Free speech advocates warn the measures could lead sites to wall off information and even make it harder for adults to reach it.

The new laws could also lead platforms to require people to use government ID to verify age.

That’s already happening on some pornography sites targeted by laws in Louisiana, Utah and Virginia. The Free Speech Coalition sued Utah and Louisiana on behalf of adult entertainers, erotica authors, sex educators and casual porn viewers, saying those laws were unconstitutional because they discriminate against certain types of speech. A Utah judge dismissed the suit there last week, saying the challengers couldn’t sue because of how the law is designed.



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Here’s how much you need to earn annually to join the 1% in your state


The top 1% may seem like an exclusive and unattainable income level for most Americans, but joining the ranks of the nation’s highest earners is at least a slightly more achievable goal in some states than others, according to a new SmartAsset report. 

Nationally, it takes an annual income of $652,657 to cross the threshold into the so-called 1% level of wealth, SmartAsset calculated, based on data from the IRS and Bureau of Labor Statistics. By comparison, the median U.S. household brings home about $75,000 annually.

But that 1% threshold varies from state to state, ranging from as high as $953,000 to as low as $368,000, the analysis found.

The top 1% of income earners may be small in number, but they control a greatly disproportionate 21% of the nation’s household income, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. That share has roughly doubled since the 1970s, thanks to rapid income growth among America’s top earners and tepid income growth among middle-class workers, data from the Pew Research Center shows.

The state with the highest threshold for entering the 1% is Connecticut, where one would need to earn at least $952,902 per year to become one of its top earners. Neighboring Massachusetts has the second-highest base for 1 percenters, at $903,401, followed by California with $844,266. 

High earners in those states also face some of the nation’s steepest effective tax rates, which is the percentage of income paid in  federal income taxes, SmartAsset noted. The typical 1% earner in Connecticut pays an effective rate of 28.4%, the highest in the nation.

On the other hand, it takes the least amount of money to join the 1% in Appalachia and the South, where six of the 10 states with the lowest 1% income thresholds are located. It’s easiest to enter the 1% crowd in West Virginia, where the threshold is $367,582 — the lowest in the country. 

Many Southern states also have the lowest tax rates in the nation. In Arkansas, the effective tax rate for 1 percenters is 21%, the lowest of any state. 

The nation’s top threshold for entering the 1% isn’t actually found in a state, but in Washington, D.C., where the highest earners take home well over $1 million a year.

Sanvi Bangalore

Sanvi Bangalore is a business reporting intern for CBS MoneyWatch. She attends American University in Washington, D.C., and is studying business administration and journalism.



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Bahamas promises to join Kenya in security force in Haiti as support grows


(Reuters) -The Bahamian government on Tuesday welcomed Kenya’s decision to lead a multinational force in Haiti and committed 150 people to support the effort if the United Nations authorizes the force.

The announcement from the Bahamas’ foreign ministry follows a request on Monday from U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres that Haiti’s neighbors join forces with Kenya, which last week said it was willing to send 1,000 police officers to Haiti to help stem gang violence.

“The Bahamas has committed 150 persons to support the multi-national force once authorized by the United Nations Security Council,” the ministry said in a statement.

The Bahamas’ statement echoed comments from Kenyan Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua, who described the security intervention as an opportunity to stand “with persons of African descent across the world.”

It added the Bahamas looks “forward to cooperating with hemispheric partners including the United States and Canada.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday commended Kenya for “considering to serve as the lead nation” for the multinational force and expressed support for its authorization from a UN Security Council Resolution.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Washington-based Organization of American States said the group’s general secretariat “welcomes with appreciation” Kenya’s announcement.

Haiti’s government requested international security assistance last year, attracting the UN’s support for a security force to be deployed by member states, but no country had been willing to lead such an effort until Kenya’s commitment.

Regional governments have been reluctant to support the unelected administration of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who has said fair elections cannot be held with the current insecurity.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Boyle and Jasper Ward; Editing by Anthony Esposito and Chris Reese)



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