Pornhub Loses, Social Media Abuses, and Congress Gets Something Right

A recent study released in May links social media use to a rise in depressive symptoms among preteens. Led by Jason Nagata, the study tracked 12,000 kids aged 9 to 10 for three years starting in 2016.

• 🎙️ The study isn’t a smoking gun, but it’s notable because it’s not correlational research. A lot has changed since the study began, as society attempts to shift the minimum age for social media from 13 to 16 (read What Australia's Under-16 Social Media Ban Fails to Address).

Join us LIVE!! Jill and I will be live on Substack on July 8th at 8:00pm talking about Know Curtains… news, trends, where we’re at, and where we’re going.

The moratorium on state laws regulating AI was stripped from the “One Big Beautiful Bill” this week by a 99-1 vote in the Senate.

• 🎙️ This was originally included under the guise of passing future AI legislation at a federal level, but the language was ridiculously vague. Recent failures to update 27-year old online privacy laws tell us passing federal AI regulation any time soon is fantasy.

Last week the Supreme Court upheld a Texas age verification law opposed by the a trade association of adult entertainment industry clients including Pornhub.

• 🎙️ We wrote about this under-reported case in February (read The Supreme Court Case Overshadowed by TikTok). Protecting kids and teens from online harms is important, but remember these laws will at best only minimize exposure. The reality is that digital media can easily be captured, stored locally, and shared outside of adult content providers.

In case you missed it, Jill offers encouraging words on screen time (Screen Time: Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself) and creating meaningful offline experiences for yourself and family this summer.