Social Media

Effective Jan. 1, 2026, a new state law in North Carolina will require school districts to enact policies and measures to prevent students from accessing social media on school devices and networks.

North Carolina's Child Fatality Task Force recently endorsed legislation to limit how companies can use data on minors, and it will continue studying the impacts of AI companions and chatbots.

Many professors cite the rising impact of AI and the speech of some prominent politicians as reasons to inoculate students against propaganda and falsehoods being mass produced and spread on social media.

Under the legislation, social media companies with more than 5 million users would be required to verify that new and current users are 18 or older.

Georgia's third largest school district said in a recent court filing that costs directly associated with social media addiction included more than $400,000 in the past year for cellphone lockers and lockable pouches.

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and some groups in the public sector have already announced plans to address a range of topics, including password protection, phishing and social media safety.

A lawsuit involving several local governments, boards of education and other public entities alleges that social media companies knowingly caused harm to children and necessitated costly responses.

A school district in Maryland is among among hundreds of districts and state officials seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in compensatory damages for years of dealing with the harm caused by social media companies.

The bill would ban Wisconsin employees from downloading and using apps on state-owned devices that are owned by foreign companies in countries deemed to be adversaries of the U.S.

In separate interviews, representatives from the Massachusetts Coalition for Phone Free Schools and the Johns Hopkins Center for Safe and Healthy Schools discuss their views on competing ideas behind phone restrictions.

A measure being considered by state lawmakers would require anyone in Louisiana to verify their age before downloading an app. If approved, it would also require minors to secure parental permission for downloads.

The nonprofit AI Education Project recently posted the first several episodes from aiEDU Studios, a platform for long-form, in-depth conversations with experts on artificial intelligence and education.

Sixty-three percent of teachers say that the amount of time students spend on their cellphones has a very negative impact on their learning, compared with just 2 percent of middle and high schoolers who agree.

A movement that started at Harvard University aims to help students wean themselves off smartphones incrementally, recommending that they delete their social media accounts one by one.

If recent legislation passes, TikTok would be blocked from school networks and devices, and employees would be barred from using it for classroom instruction or to communicate or promote any school-sponsored activities.

Gale In Context databases provide vetted content for K-12 students and teachers on topics that range from world history to science. One high school librarian is using them to show students how to root out misinformation.

School districts across Connecticut are monitoring how students access videos on YouTube, with some banning certain grades from accessing YouTube completely and others restricting content for specific age groups.

Through separate partnerships with the two companies, the education nonprofit ISTE+ASCD hopes to make social media more accountable and students more knowledgeable about healthy tech use.