A Million Teenagers Just Got Barred From Social Media, and Trump Calls Affordability a ‘Hoax’

0:02From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Traci Mumford. Today's Wednesday, December 10th. Here's what we're covering.

0:13As of this morning, Australia has become the first country in the world to ban social media for children under the age of 16. Today, hundreds of thousands of teenagers there woke up to find they'd been kicked out of their accounts. Australia's law applies specifically to TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, and a handful of other sites. And the companies face tens of millions of dollars in fines if they don't remove underage users. Our social media laws are not a cure, but they are a treatment plan. We want children to have their childhood, and we want parents to have peace of mind. Australian officials here are incredibly proud of this, what they call world-leading legislation, to try and really do something about the harms of social media, the negative mental health impacts, and the cyberbullying and the online exploitation that have been associated with it.

1:08But in all the conversations I've been having with Australian teenagers and their parents, there's a lot of skepticism that it will actually work on a practical level. Victoria Kim is The Times' Australia correspondent, based in Sydney. In talking to these teenagers, they're very much digital natives. Many of them have lied about their age in the first place when they signed up. Many of them know how to use VPN. Today, a lot of the alternative apps that are not currently banned are trending and being downloaded actively. So many 14-, 15-year-olds seem to have no doubt that they can get around this ban and outsmart it.

1:42Victoria says Australia's new law is something of a test case. Officials in other places, including the European Union and Malaysia, are making their own plans to put in place similar restrictions, and we'll be watching to see what, if any, effect Australia's ban has on young teenagers. Meanwhile, a new report from the Pew Research Center gives a snapshot of how American children are spending their time online. The survey, which was released yesterday, found that most 13 to 17-year-olds use YouTube and TikTok daily, and that roughly 20 percent say they are on one of those platforms almost constantly.

2:19One psychologist the Times talked with about the report, said that one of her primary concerns is that children who use the apps for hours a day could be losing the opportunity to build in-person connections and friends, saying, quote, it's not that watching any one YouTube video is going to turn them into a pumpkin, but if they are on it almost constantly, what are they missing?

2:47In Pennsylvania last night. Our country has become so strong in such a—10 months! Think of it! It's not even a year! President Trump kicked off the first in a series of events intended to address Americans' concerns about the cost of living. Since returning to office, he's promised that his overhaul of U.S. trade policies would bring jobs roaring back and lower prices. But that hasn't happened yet. And with many people feeling pessimistic about the economy, it's put the White House on damage control. But they have a new word. You know, they always have a hoax. The new word is affordability. Trump claimed that the idea of an affordability crisis is a hoax pushed by Democrats and that, quote, inflation has stopped under his administration, though according to recent government data, it's almost exactly where it was at the end of Biden's term, running close to 3 percent.

3:41In all, Trump's speech ran for about 90 minutes. I have fun. I have fun. I haven't read practically anything off the super teleprompter. During that time, he frequently veered off topic from the event's intended economic focus, attacking transgender Americans and immigrants from what he called hellhole countries.

4:06Now, two more updates on the Trump administration. Most European nations, they're decaying. They're decaying. In an interview with Politico that was released yesterday, President Trump doubled down on his criticism of Europe. They should be freaked out by what they're doing to their countries. They're destroying their countries. The president blasted European leaders for their immigration policies just days after the White House put out a strategy paper saying the continent's on the path to becoming unrecognizable and that it faces the possibility of civilizational erasure. The document said the U.S.

4:45should support European political parties that fight migration and promote nationalism. The paper also seemed to suggest that the U.S. should no longer guarantee Europe's security, a stark shift in decades of post-World War II policy. One Italian official called it a frontal attack on the EU. Also, a federal judge cleared the way for the Justice Department to release more files related to Jeffrey Epstein, specifically those from the investigation into his longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of helping Epstein traffic minors. The files are part of a broader trove of evidence that the government is required to make public by next Friday, after Congress passed a law ordering their release.

5:32That could include bank records, arrest reports, interview notes, and flight logs, though some files still might be redacted since the law requires victims' names to be shielded and says the government can withhold information that could jeopardize any active investigations.

5:53Over the last few years, there's been a flurry of cold cases suddenly getting solved thanks to genealogy websites. Both police and amateur sleuths have used the sites to trace family trees and find close matches for DNA profiles based off evidence collected at crime scenes. A main tool in this has been Ancestry.com. But Ancestry recently updated its terms and conditions to make clear that it's off-limits for what it called law enforcement purposes, unless there's a legal order or warrant, which can be hard to get. A spokeswoman for the company said it was merely clarifying a long-standing policy that the site is intended solely for family history research, not crime solving.

6:38But some investigators are worried that Ancestry's new terms could slow down or stall their work. For example, one organization based at a college in New Jersey, which has helped solve dozens of cases using DNA research, said it got an email last month canceling the group's Ancestry account for violating the site's rules. Overall, the situation highlights a thorny question about genealogy sites, where millions of people have willingly submitted their DNA. Who should have access to that sensitive data?

7:15And finally. These are five bucket list destinations that should definitely be on your list. The first is Las Salinas. People out there planning their vacations increasingly get their recommendations from travel influencers. But I feel like everyone needs to visit Matera at least once in their life. It's the oldest city in Italy. According to data from Expedia, 75 percent of consumers said they'd taken an influencer's recommendation for a destination, a hotel or some other aspect of a trip. But travel companies and other businesses are now turning to AI-created influencers instead of human ones.

7:49They look like real people, but despite the videos filling your feeds, they've never traveled anywhere, eaten anything, or enjoyed that perfect sunset. For the companies, using the fake AI influencers allows them to lower costs. They don't have to pay a human to make a post. They don't have to comp a free meal or a room. They can also control the messaging, getting exactly the review they want. And they can create content more quickly. But for consumers, it just blurs who and what to trust even more. One traveler told The Times, quote, This stuff is even more inauthentic because it's not even connected to someone's real-life experience.

8:31Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, Times investigative reporter Jodi Kantor explains the growing tensions between the liberal justices on the Supreme Court. You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.