Authorities say that social media platforms should not require age verification for all users when a ban on children under 16 having accounts goes into effect in December in Australia.

A federal judge is blocking Georgia's law requiring age verification for social media accounts.

Georgia's law requiring parental consent for children to use social media is being challenged in court.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Franklin County Public Schools, and the Rocky Mount Police Department are assessing an incident that occurred this morning at Franklin County High School.

Snapchat has failed to act on rampant reports of child grooming, sextortion and other dangers to minors on its platform.

Fentanyl overdoses have become a leading cause of death for minors in the last 5 years or so — and social media, where tainted, fake prescription drugs can be obtained with just a few clicks, is part of the problem.

New Mexico’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against the company behind Snapchat.

The Vice Chairman of the Smyth County School Board is facing federal charges for allegedly spending thousands of dollars to buy sexually explicit content from underage victims, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Snapchat Inc. will pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit brought by California’s civil rights agency.

Spain’s government has proposed a law to protect children from online threats that includes virtual restraining orders for felons and a higher age for opening social media accounts.

While a bill to ban TikTok if it doesn't change owners has received President Joe Biden's signature, it could still be years before the popular video-sharing app is actually blocked from U.S. app stores — if it is blocked at all.

Two tribal nations are accusing social media companies of contributing to high rates of suicides that disproportionately affect Native American youth.

Four of the largest school boards in the Canadian province of Ontario have launched lawsuits against TikTok, Meta and SnapChat alleging the social media platforms are disrupting student learning.

Roanoke Police are speaking out after the school threat investigation.

The charge against a 35-year-old man who was accused of posting threatening messages to local schools has been dismissed in the Roanoke City General District.

A federal judge has extended his block on enforcement of an Ohio law that would require children under 16 to get parental consent to use social media apps while a legal challenge proceeds.

Rockbridge County school leaders are taking legal action against popular social media sites, with plans to join a lawsuit alongside over 400 school divisions nationwide.

Nevada’s attorney general has launched a go-it-alone legal fight accusing TikTok, Snapchat and Meta of creating what one lawsuit calls “an addiction machine” that exploits children too young to have self-control.

A federal judge has temporarily halted enforcement of an Ohio law that would require children under 16 to get parental consent to use social media apps.

A trade group representing TikTok, Snapchat, Meta and other major tech companies has sued Ohio over a pending law that requires children to get parental consent to use social media apps.

A study from Harvard says social media companies collectively made over $11 billion in U.S. advertising revenue from minors last year.

Teen usage of social media hasn’t dropped much, despite rising concerns about its effects on the mental health of adolescents.

Children in Georgia would need their parents' permission to create social media accounts if some top Republicans in the state get their way next year.

Social media companies are once again under scrutiny, this time in France as the country’s president blames TikTok, Snapchat and other platforms for helping fuel widespread riots over the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver.

I’m very much aware that I have no control over the decisions social media apps and organizations make, but it would have been nice to know that a strange little AI bot was going to show up as a Snapchat friend.

This study looked at how frequent checking of social media in children might be related to brain development. It included 169 6th and 7th grade students. The kids reported how often they checked social media (specifically Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat).

Ohio’s governor wants to require parental consent for kids under 16 to get new accounts on TikTok, Snapchat and other social media and gaming platforms.

Like the tobacco, oil, gun, opioid and vaping industries before them, the big U.S. social media companies are now facing lawsuits brought by public entities that seek to hold them accountable for a huge societal problem in the mental health crisis among youth.

The public school district in Seattle is suing the tech giants behind TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, seeking to hold them accountable for the mental health crisis among youth.

As the U.S. deals with its deadliest overdose crisis to date, a national crime-prevention group is calling on the Justice Department to clamp down on social media’s role in the spread of fentanyl, the drug largely driving a troubling spike in overdose deaths among teenagers.

A Russian court has fined TikTok for failing to delete LGBT material in what is the country’s latest crackdown on Big Tech companies.

The parent company of social media platform Snapchat said Wednesday that it is letting go of 20% of its staff as it reorganizes and tries to reduce costs in the face of declining sales.

Whether it's the fitness tracker on your wrist, the “smart” home appliances in your house or the latest kids’ fad going viral in online videos, they all produce a trove of personal data for big tech companies.

As concerns about social media’s harmful effects on teens continue to rise, platforms from Snapchat to TikTok to Instagram are bolting on new features designed to make their services safer and more age appropriate.

Social media has had a rough 2022 with lingering questions about advertising spending and a $44 billion takeover of Twitter that may or may not be happening, depending on which Elon Musk tweet you read.

Thanks to Pat for sending us today's Picture of the Day from Blue Ridge!

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will give a virtual address to the US Congress

Senators have put executives of YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat on the defensive.

A North Carolina will spend the next nearly 20 years in prison for receiving sexually explicit images and videos from teenage boys living in Southwest Virginia via Snapchat.

A Southwest Virginia man has been sentenced to 27 years for using Snapchat to coerce underage girls into sending him sexually explicit photos, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

FILE - This April 26, 2017, file photo shows the Twitter app icon on a mobile phone in Philadelphia. Twitter is launching tweets that disappear in 24 hours called Fleets globally, echoing social media sites like Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram that already have disappearing posts. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)Shares of social media and other tech companies slid Monday, hit by fallout from the siege on the U.S. Capitol by supporter of President Donald Trump. Trump supporters have argued that the actions of the technology companies is a violation of free speech and Trump has long tried to repeal Section 230. Though Trump's tenure ends in nine days, power in the Senate has flipped to the Democrats who have long begrudged the oversized influence of social media.

Twitter is launching tweets that disappear in 24 hours called “Fleets” globally, echoing social media sites like Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram that already have disappearing posts. Twitter tested the feature in Brazil, Italy, India, and South Korea, before rolling it out globally. Fleets are a “lower pressure” way to communicate “fleeting thoughts” as opposed to permanent tweets, Twitter executives Joshua Harris, design director, and Sam Haveson, product manager, said in a blog post. The news comes the same day Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced questions from a Senate Judiciary Committee about how they handled disinformation surrounding the presidential election. Such features are increasingly popular with social media users looking for smaller groups and and more private chats.

An 11-year-old South Carolina boy drove his brother's car 200 miles to meet a man he met on Snapchat. (CNN) - An 11-year-old boy drove 200 miles across South Carolina to meet a stranger he knew only on Snapchat, the Charleston Police Department said. The child drove from the northwest town of Simpsonville to Charleston. He told the officer early Monday morning he had taken his brother's car to go to Charleston where he wanted to live with "an unknown male he met on Snapchat," police said. Police have launched an investigation into the unknown male, Charleston spokesman Charles Francis told CNN affiliate WCSC.

For National Hispanic Heritage Month, which is underway now through mid-October, the chain restaurant El Pollo Loco -- which has locations in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Utah and Louisiana -- is using augmented reality to bring back some of Los Angeles lost murals, as theyre called. (We are) working with our communities to ensure the legacy of our city's great murals endures through digitally restoring lost murals and donating our storefronts as permanent canvases.So what does that mean, exactly? The website provides a list of where exactly these murals are located in L.A. The campaign is expected to last throughout Hispanic Heritage Month, which ends Oct. 15. [READ NEXT: 5 Instant Pot dishes to make for Hispanic Heritage Month | 10 Spanish-speaking TV shows you should be streaming on Netflix | How did Hispanic Heritage Month come to be? ]

An 11-year-old drove himself more than 200 miles to meet a man hed been talking to on Snapchat. He told the officer hed been driving for three hours already but got lost when the GPS app on his dad's tablet stopped working. Police then contacted the boys father, who was in the middle of reporting the boy missing to police. Authorities said they werent able to identify the man the boy was supposed to be meeting because the Snapchat messages had already disappeared, but they kept the tablet to investigate further. RELATED STORIESVirginia Teen With Carnival Cruise Snapchat Handle Gets His Dream VacationCarnival Cruise Line Offers Boy a Free Cruise in Exchange for His Snapchat NameMale Student Pretends to Be Teen Girl Using Snapchat Filter and Nabs Cop Allegedly Seeking Sex

In the message, McKinney allegedly told him not to come to school. The two suspects are accused of carrying out a mass shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch near Denver in May, killing Kendrick Ray Castillo, 18, and wounding eight others. Following the shooting, Erickson told investigators that McKinney made him do it and tasked him with guarding an exit and telling everyone not to move. Erickson took the two handguns used in the shooting from his parents, according to a law enforcement source. The two students used the middle school entrance because they knew they would be able to get the guns into the school, the affidavit states.

Carl Court/Getty ImagesCHARLESTON, S.C. - Police in South Carolina say an 11-year-old boy took his brother's car and drove alone for three hours to meet someone he met on Snapchat. Charleston Police spokesman Charles Francis says the boy pulled up to an officer around 12:30 a.m. Monday and said he was lost. Francis says the boy told the officer he was heading to Charleston from 200 miles (320 kilometers) away in Simpsonville to live with a man he met on Snapchat. But the tablet computer lost the GPS signal and the man's address and he couldn't get it back because the Snapchat message had disappeared. Francis says the tablet computer is being analyzed as the investigation continues.

Carl Court/Getty Images(CNN) - Snapchat launched a political ads library as the mobile app becomes a campaign tool for 2020 candidates. The new library, available as a downloadable spreadsheet on Snap's website, makes all political and issue-based ads on Snapchat publicly available -- for the first time. Snap follows Facebook and Twitter in making political ads available in a public database. In 2017, following Facebook's disclosure of election interference on its platform, Snap conducted an audit of its ad sales during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Issue ads include abortion, immigration, the environment, education, discrimination and guns, according to Snap's political ad policies.

(CNN) - Snap isn't giving up on its smart sunglasses.On Tuesday, the Snapchat parent company announced Spectacles 3, the latest version of its video-recording sunglasses now with new 3D effects and an eye-popping price tag. In a video teased on social media, Snapchat teased the new special effects users can add to their "Snaps" with Spectacles. Snap said Spectacles 3 is a limited-edition product, and it will produce less of the new sunglasses than it has in the past. Google is now focusing on offering augmented reality glasses for businesses and Apple is rumored to be developing AR glasses. "The high price and clunky user interface will make most Snapchat users simply look the other way," she said.

Snapchat added 13 million daily users in the three months ending in June, ending a long period of lackluster growth and pushing the company's total audience above 200 million daily users for the first time. It's now just short of its initial public offering price. The social media company has been working to right the ship for most of the two years since its initial public offering. In the quarter ending in June, it appears to have moved in that direction. Revenue hit $388 million, up 48% from a year earlier and well above analysts' projections of $360 million.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat … it can be tough to keep all the social media channels straight.