Articles about Children

After a period of intense public and political debate, Australia has approved laws that will ban anyone under the age of 16 from using social media.

While the laws were passed yesterday, it may well be a year until they come into effect -- and they will be the strictest in the world. Once in force, tech companies such as Meta could be hit with fines of up to AUS$50 million (US $32.5 million) for failing to comply.

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In an increasingly digital world, youngsters are just as a risk as the rest of us -- perhaps more so -- which means cybersecurity education for children is crucial.

Security awareness training company KnowBe4 has released its Children's Interactive Cybersecurity Activity Kit, featuring an AI safety video, a password video game, a cybersecurity activity book, and middle school lesson plans.

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Like it or not, children of all ages have smartphones these days. Long gone are the days where kids could just be outdoors without technology. While parents surely wish their little ones would just play hide-and-seek or baseball like in the good ol' days, instead, kids seem to just want to be on YouTube and TikTok. It is what it is, folks.

Thankfully, parents can still be in control of their child's online activity. There are apps and services which allow you to monitor and limit what your kids do while using a smartphone. Today, Teracube announces a new child-focused smartphone designed specifically for this purpose. Called "Thrive," it runs a specialized version of Android 12 designed to empower parents. And yes, like Teracube's other devices, Thrive is built with sustainability in mind.

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Open-ended role-playing games like The Legend of Zelda and Animal Crossing are hugely popular with younger children, and codeSpark Academy, the learn-to-code app for children, has just added a new set of design tools to help them make their own such games.

codeSpark Academy says the tools in its "Adventure Game" addition require less hand-eye coordination than other creative modes. It also lets users add features like speech bubbles for characters, to enhance storytelling.

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