Tech
These are the countries moving to ban social media for children
Over the past few months, several countries have announced plans to restrict social media access for children and teens. Australia became the first to implement such measures at the end of last year, setting a precedent that other countries are now closely watching.
Australia’s regulations, along with other countries’ proposals, aim to reduce the pressures and risks that young users may face on social media, which include cyberbullying, addiction, mental health issues, and exposure to predators.
Of course, there are concerns about privacy regarding invasive age verification and excessive government intervention. Critics, including Amnesty Tech, have said such bans are ineffective and that they ignore the realities of younger generations. Despite this, many nations are moving ahead with proposed legislation.
We’ve compiled a list of countries that are considering or have already moved forward with bans on social media for young users.
Australia
Australia became the world’s first country to ban social media for children under 16 in December 2025. The ban blocks children from using Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, and Kick. It notably doesn’t include WhatsApp or YouTube Kids.
The Australian government has said these social media companies must take steps to keep children off their services. Companies that fail to comply may face penalties of up to $49.5 million AUD ($34.4 million USD).
The government says these platforms should use multiple verification methods to ensure that people using their services are older than 16. It also notes that they can’t rely on users simply entering their own age.
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Denmark
Denmark is set to ban social media platforms for children under 15. The Danish government announced in November 2025 that it had secured support for the ban from three governing coalition parties and two opposition parties in parliament.
The government’s plans could become law as soon as mid-2026, according to the Associated Press. The Danish digital affairs ministry is also launching a “digital evidence” app that includes age verification tools that may be used as part of the ban.
France
In late January, French lawmakers passed a bill that would ban social media for kids under 15. President Emmanuel Macron has supported the measure as a way to protect children from excessive screen time.
The bill still has to get through the country’s Senate before a final vote in the lower house.
Germany
In early February, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives discussed a proposal to bar children under 16 from using social media, Reuters reported. However, there were signs that his center-left coalition partners were hesitant to support an outright ban.
Greece
Greece is said to be close to announcing a social media ban for children under 15, Reuters reported in early February.
Malaysia
The Malaysian government said in November 2025 that it plans to ban social media for children under 16. The country plans to implement the ban this year.
Slovenia
Slovenia is drafting legislation to prohibit children under 15 from accessing social media, the country’s deputy prime minister announced in early February. The government wants to regulate social networks where content is shared, citing platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram.
Spain
Spain’s prime minister announced in early February that the country plans to ban social media for children under the age of 16. The ban still needs parliamentary approval. The Spanish government is also seeking to create a law that would make social media executives personally accountable for hate speech on their platforms.
UK
The United Kingdom is weighing a ban on social media for children under 16. The government says it will consult parents, young people, and civil society for their views to determine whether a ban would be effective.
It will also consider whether to require social media companies to limit or remove features that drive compulsive use, such as endless scrolling.
Tech
Cohere launches a family of open multilingual models
Enterprise AI company Cohere launched a new family of multilingual models on the sidelines of the ongoing India AI Summit. The models, dubbed Tiny Aya, are open-weight — meaning their underlying code is publicly available for anyone to use and modify — support over 70 languages, and can run on everyday devices like laptops without requiring an internet connection.
The model, launched by the company’s research arm Cohere Labs, supports South Asian languages such as Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, and Marathi.
The base model contains 3.35 billion parameters — a measure of its size and complexity. Cohere has also launched TinyAya-Global, a version fine-tuned to better follow user commands, for apps that require broad language support. Regional variants round out the family: TinyAya-Earth for African languages; TinyAya-Fire for South Asian languages; and TinyAya-Water for Asia Pacific, West Asia, and Europe.

“This approach allows each model to develop stronger linguistic grounding and cultural nuance, creating systems that feel more natural and reliable for the communities they are meant to serve. At the same time, all Tiny Aya models retain broad multilingual coverage, making them flexible starting points for further adaptation and research,” the company said in a statement.
Cohere noted that these models, which were trained on a single cluster of 64 H100 GPUs (a type of high-powered chip by Nvidia) using relatively modest computing sources, are ideal for researchers and developers building apps for audiences that speak native languages. The models are capable of running directly on devices, so developers can use them to power offline translation. The company noted that it built its underlying software to suit on-device usage, requiring less computing power than most comparable models.

In linguistically diverse countries like India, this kind of offline-friendly capability can open up a diverse set of applications and use cases without the need for constant internet access.
The models are available on HuggingFace, the popular platform for sharing and testing AI models, and the Cohere Platform. Developers can download them on HuggingFace, Kaggle, and Ollama for local deployment. The company is also releasing training and evaluation datasets on HuggingFace and plans to release a technical report detailing its training methodology.
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The startup’s CEO, Aidan Gomez, said last year that the company plans to go public “soon.” According to CNBC, the company ended 2025 on a high note, posting $240 million in annual recurring revenue, with 50% growth quarter-over-quarter throughout the year.
Tech
As AI jitters rattle IT stocks, Infosys partners with Anthropic to build ‘enterprise-grade’ AI agents
Indian IT giant Infosys said on Tuesday it has partnered with Anthropic to develop enterprise-grade AI agents, as automation driven by large language models reshapes the global IT services industry.
Under the partnership, Infosys plans to integrate Anthropic’s Claude models into its Topaz AI platform to build so-called “agentic” systems. The companies claim these agents will be able to autonomously handle complex enterprise workflows across industries such as banking, telecoms, and manufacturing. The tie-up was announced at India’s AI Impact Summit in New Delhi this week, which will see top executives from AI companies and Big Tech alike in attendance.
The deal comes amid fears that AI tools, especially those built by major AI labs like Anthropic and OpenAI, will disrupt India’s heavily-staffed, $280 billion IT services industry, raising questions about the future of labor-intensive outsourcing business models. Earlier this month, shares of Indian IT companies went into freefall after Anthropic launched a suite of enterprise AI tools that claimed to automate tasks across legal, sales, marketing and research roles.
The partnership would give Infosys, one of the world’s largest IT services businesses, access to Anthropic’s Claude models and developer tools for building AI agents tailored for large enterprises. Infosys said it would use Anthropic’s Claude Code to help write, test and debug code, and said it is already deploying the tool internally to build expertise that will be applied to client work.
Infosys also detailed how AI is contributing to its business: AI-related services generated revenue of ₹25 billion (around $275 million), or 5.5% of the company’s total revenue of ₹454.8 billion (about $5 billion) in the December quarter. Rival Tata Consultancy Services previously said its AI services generate about $1.8 billion annually, or around 6% of revenue.
For Anthropic, the partnership offers a route into heavily regulated enterprise sectors where deploying AI systems at scale requires industry expertise and governance capabilities.
“There’s a big gap between an AI model that works in a demo and one that works in a regulated industry,” said Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei. Infosys’ experience in sectors such as financial services, telecoms, and manufacturing helps bridge that gap, he said.
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Anthropic this week also opened its first India office in Bengaluru, as it seeks to expand further into the country, which has grown into the company’s second-largest market. Anthropic said India now accounts for about 6% of global Claude usage, second only to the U.S., and much of that activity is concentrated in programming.
Infosys did not disclose the timeline for deploying Claude-powered AI agents or the financial terms of the deal.
The partnership is similar to other moves by Indian IT services firms. HCLTech and OpenAI last year partnered up to help enterprises deploy AI tools at scale.
Tech
Airbnb expands its “Reserve Now, Pay Later” globally
Airbnb said on Tuesday that it is launching its “Reserve Now, Pay Later” feature — which lets users secure bookings without immediate payment — globally. This allows users to cancel their bookings if there is a change of plans without losing money upfront.
The company launched the feature in the U.S. last year for domestic travel. Airbnb said that properties with a “flexible” or “moderate” cancellation policy are eligible for the upfront reservation. With this option, users get charged closer to their check-in date rather than at the time of booking. The feature mirrors “buy now, pay later” payment plans that have become popular in e-commerce, making expensive travel more accessible by spreading out costs. The company noted that since the launch, the feature saw 70% adoption for eligible bookings.

During its earnings calls for Q4 2025, Airbnb said that the feature helped grow nights booked in the quarter.
“Reserve Now, Pay Later saw significant adoption among eligible guests in Q4. It’s also led to longer booking lead times and a mix shift towards larger entire homes, especially those with four or more bedrooms, contributing to the increase in average daily rate,” Ellie Mertz, CFO of Airbnb, said during the call.
Mertz noted that Airbnb’s overall cancellation rate jumped from 16% to 17% for the quarter, and it was higher among customers who use the upfront booking product. However, she said that this was “not hugely material relative to the broader cancellations on the platform.”
Last year, the company surveyed U.S. travelers along with Focaldata, a London-based market research and polling company. Of those surveyed, 60% of participants said that a flexible payment option is important while booking a holiday, and 55% said that would use a flexible payment option.
The company has been experimenting with pay-later products for years now. Back in 2018, Airbnb launched a product that allowed users to book a property by paying 20% or 50% of the total charges. upfront, with the rest due later. In 2023, the company partnered with fintech firm Klarna to let users pay for their stays in four installments over six weeks.
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