News

NC Senate committee revives stalled social media bill for minors

The NC Senate Education/Higher Education Committee voted April 29 to advance House Bill 301, the Social Media Protections for Minors Under 16 Act, reviving a measure that passed the House 106-6 last May but stalled in the Senate. The committee also adopted an AI-in-schools amendment and heard testimony from a Meta attorney backing the bill while pushing to shift age verification onto Apple and Google's app stores.

David N. Bass
News

Chapel Hill-Carrboro parent group pushes back on classroom tech as state tightens rules

Claude responded: A new state law banning smartphones during instructional time took effect Jan.A new state law banning smartphones during instructional time took effect Jan. 1 in North Carolina, but a Chapel Hill-Carrboro parent group of more than 300 members says the bigger problem is the school-issued Chromebooks kids bring home. Founder Mary Beth Roche and UNC public health professor Karl Johnson argue district policy is moving too slowly and too narrowly, while a new UNC study shows uneven enforcement of the cellphone ban statewide and growing distraction from school-issued devices.

David N. Bass
News

Phone carriers slapped with fines for selling location data – a political commodity

Four of the nation’s largest phone carriers must pay a combined total of nearly $200 million for selling customers’ location data to third parties unlawfully, sparking conversations around privacy and technology policy.  The Federal Communications Commission said on Monday that AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon illegally shared access to customers’ location information without consent and...

Brianna Kraemer
Opinion

Survey says? Media is kids’ world   

“It’s a media-mad world.”   This was a tagline from a parenting book I co-authored — eight years ago. Now, kids aren’t just mad for media in their world; media is their world. That’s the takeaway from a new survey of nearly 1,700 teens and tweens, conducted by Common Sense Media. There’s much more we need to know, then, about impacts on development and...

Kristen Blair
Opinion

This is your brain (drain) on smartphones 

Anyone with a smartphone knows these devices are devilishly distracting. But can taking a break with smartphones cause brain drain? A new study shows it might, depleting cognitive capacity for challenging work. This is significant news for educators and parents, since most tweens and teens own smartphones; many are on them constantly. If there’s a...

Kristen Blair

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Opinion

Are smartphones making teens dumb and dumber?

Smartphones are teenagers’ constant companions. The last thing teens check at night before drifting off to sleep, phones occupy pride of place in the morning routine, too. Even pillow talk — the digital kind — is common:  Many teens sleep with their phones, maintaining 24/7 accessibility for Snapchats, texts, and status updates. Electronic blue light...

Kristen Blair
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