YouTube talks up safety credentials, Turkey talks regulation and Britta's testimony
Hello and welcome to Everything in Moderation's Week in Review, your need-to-know news and analysis about platform policy, content moderation and internet regulation. It's written by me, Ben Whitelaw and supported by members like you.
Today's newsletter is hitting your inbox later than usual because there's only so many hours to read about the variously far-fetched news lines coming out of the Swiss mountains. I've done my best to parse through the big safety-related ones but drop me a line if I missed anything.
Mike and I went deep into the implications of Anthropic updating its model Constitution in this week's Ctrl-Alt-Speech. I'd say it's a broadly interesting episode (geddit?). And you can still get in touch if you have ideas for our 2026 bingo card.
Welcome to all new EiM subscribers including folks from The Economist, Spotify, JP/Politikens, Harvard University, Meta, Aiba.ai, Technology Coalition, the ICO, Microsoft, the Department of Science Innovation and Technology and one of my favorite media organisations, Maldita.es.
Here's everything worth knowing this week — BW
Online child sexual exploitation and abuse evolves quickly, so cross-platform detection must keep pace. The Tech Coalition’s Lantern program is expanding industry signal sharing to disrupt harmful activity faster.
As participation grows across the tech and financial sectors, Lantern is helping uncover patterns earlier, strengthen investigations, and drive coordinated action to protect children across the digital ecosystem.
Policies
New and emerging internet policy and online speech regulation
Turkey is cranking up the pressure on Big Tech platforms after separate government ministers called for both an under 15 social media ban and stronger overall tech regulation in the space of a few days It comes a week after two relevant and related reports were published: a 200-pager from MPs that highlighted 82 proposals designed to protect children online (including some rather farfetched ideas) and another from a Turkish non-profit warning about social media platforms' widespread compliance with government takedown demands. The two together should be cause for concern in a country that already scores poorly for internet freedom.
The teen social media ban news (EiM #320) continues to gather pace:
- UK: Before the Labour government could get started on its newly announced consultation on a social media ban, the House of Lords (the unelected chamber, for EiM’s US readers) resoundingly voted to update a schools bill currently going through parliament — meaning a ban could be in place within months. This is despite Ian Russell, father of Molly Russell, and academics cautioning against moving too quickly to decide.
- Netherlands: Like many countries, impetus is growing for a ban, with two thirds of people in a 6,000-strong survey in favour.
- Australia: Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, told the BBC that social media platforms had communicated with the regulator “very, very reluctantly” and that Snapchat had become a focus for further investigation after reports that children had got around age verification measures.
If you’re looking for a smart take on smartphone/social media bans, enjoy digital policy expert (and friend of EiM) Heather Burns’ idea for a Darnella test, after the young woman who filmed the killing of George Floyd.