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In today’s email:
- Featured story: Australia bans social media for children under 16
- New from Pew Research Center: Most Americans continue to say media criticism keeps politicians in check
- In other news: Stanford supports prosecution of student reporter who covered campus protests
- Looking ahead: Meta pledges to improve content moderation process
- Chart of the week: How Democrats and Republicans view the media’s watchdog role
🔥 Featured story
Last week, Australia passed a social media ban for children younger than 16 in an effort to curb potentially harmful effects of social media on children’s well-being. The ban will require social media companies to take “reasonable steps” to block young users from their respective sites or face hefty fines. Last year, France passed legislation requiring social media sites to verify users’ ages and get parental consent for users younger than 15. Some U.S. states also have sought to limit children’s use of social media.
In the U.S., while the vast majority of teens use social media, just 9% see their experiences with social media as mostly negative, according to a 2022 survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17. About a third (32%) say social media has had a mostly positive effect on them personally, while more than half (59%) say it has been neither negative nor positive. Teens are more likely to say that social media has had a mostly negative effect on people their age in general (32%) than on them personally (9%).
🚨 New from Pew Research Center
As they have for the past four decades, most Americans say criticism from news organizations keeps political leaders from doing things they shouldn’t, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in September 2024.
But Republicans’ and Democrats’ views on this question often shift depending on which party controls the White House. And Republicans became much more skeptical about the media’s so-called “watchdog role” during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term.
Read more about how Americans’ attitudes toward the media’s watchdog role have changed since 1985.
📌 In other news
- Stanford University backs prosecution of undergraduate reporter arrested while covering campus protests
- Amazon looking to add news outlets to Alexa voice assistant
- How Fox News and Newsmax are covering Pete Hegseth’s bid for defense secretary
- South Korean press united against president’s short-lived martial law declaration
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette strike is now the longest ongoing strike in the country
- Forbes editorial staffers stage walkout on “30 Under 30” release day
- A new Mississippi nonprofit newsroom’s efforts at inclusive statewide coverage
- Joe Rogan had most listened-to podcast on Spotify for 2024
📅 Looking ahead
A top Meta executive on Monday pledged to improve the content moderation process across the company’s apps, including Facebook and Instagram. Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said Meta has been mistakenly removing too much content that it ultimately determines is innocuous, citing posts about the COVID-19 pandemic as an example. Taking down posts and penalizing users too stringently “gets in the way of the free expression that we set out to enable,” Clegg said.
When it comes to the inherent tension between freedom of information and restrictions on false or offensive content online, Americans lean toward restrictions. In a 2023 survey, 65% of U.S. adults said that tech companies should take steps to restrict false information online, even if it limits freedom of information. That’s double the share who say that freedom of information should be protected, even if it means false information can be published (32%).
📊 Chart of the week
Our chart this week looks at partisan views of the media’s watchdog role.
In our latest survey, conducted two months before the 2024 U.S. presidential election, 81% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said media criticism helps keep political leaders from doing things they shouldn’t. Two-thirds of Republicans and GOP leaners said the same.
In the past, however, partisan attitudes have changed notably following presidential elections.
👋 That’s all for this week.
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Sarah Naseer, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang and Emily Tomasik. It is edited by Michael Lipka and copy edited by Anna Jackson.
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