Meta’s $18B child-safety deal hinges on age verification tech that doesn’t work well

https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/GettyImages-2267997264.jpg?resize=1200,800

Meta reached an $18 billion settlement on Wednesday over a lawsuit brought by 29 U.S. states concerning children’s safety. The settlement is historic in scale as Meta agrees with a group of 52 attorneys general to implement sweeping changes to how minors use Instagram and Facebook.

The settlement “gives the AGs what they want, which is the political story that they’ve extracted a huge amount of benefit for the public from this settlement, including the platform changes,” Jessica Nall, a technology litigator at Withers, told TechCrunch. But Nall noted the settlement’s real-dollar impact is softer than the headline number suggests. “The fact that it’s being paid over 10 years really does blunt the financial impact of the large number, especially compared to Meta’s annual revenue… We’re talking about one of these tech companies where their annual revenue is larger than the GDP of most European countries.”

Indeed, Meta reported...

Copyright of this story solely belongs to techcrunch.com. To see the full text click HERE

Read more

https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/261016_LLMsNotcomplicated_V2.jpg?resize=1200,600

An interview with Goodfire researcher Nick Cammarata, whose viral blog post claimed LLMs are easier to understand than thought, as other researchers push back

Featured Podcasts Big Technology Podcast: Google CEO Sundar Pichai: AI's Infinite Possibilities, Compute Scarcity Dilemmas, Future AI Products The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators. Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast. Cheeky Pint: How Toto

https://hackread.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Industrial_Defender_Logo_1792500078XxEnes5gBs.jpg

Industrial Defender Unifies Endpoint Intelligence and Network Monitoring for CIP-015, Adds Risk Signal

Orlando, Florida, United States, October 20th, 2026, CyberNewswire Industrial Defender Unifies Endpoint Intelligence and Network Monitoring for CIP-015, Adds Risk Signal to Turn Findings into Prioritized Patch Plans New internal network security monitoring correlates every anomaly with deep asset intelligence; Risk Signal converts findings into verified remediation CompareSecurity Industrial Defender,

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/kntXJzuBjvVTZvqgBeCKfN-1920-80.jpg

'How do you know what's real?': US utilities are making AI data centers prove they exist before handing over power connections — as 50% of planned buildouts are currently being delayed, stalled, or canceled

* US data center developers have requested 1,066GW of grid connections, but Wood Mackenzie expects utilities to commit to only about 28% * Utilities are demanding collateral, longer contracts, and study fees; Exelon's high-probability load fell from a whopping 18GW to 11GW once it insisted on the former * Because