Meta and Google have partnered with familiar children’s brands like Sesame Street, Girl Scouts, and Highlights to promote “responsible” technology use for kids under 12. Critics say the move functions as reputation management: the same platforms are built to be hard to disengage from, and lawsuits allege addictive design that harms youth mental health. Reuters reviewed internal and court-released materials, including early proposals to recruit third parties to rebut addiction claims.
Google is rolling out a new Android feature called Pause Point designed to curb addictive doomscrolling. Instead of letting distracting apps launch immediately, the system can require a brief wait before opening them, creating friction at the exact moment you’d otherwise fall into a scrolling loop. The goal is simple: make “one more app” harder.
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