California Assembly votes in favor of age limit on social media accounts

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Assembly on Thursday overwhelming voted in favor of a bill that would prohibit children under 16 years old from having a social media account, setting up what is likely to continue to be a tough battle over the coming months.

“Look around the room everybody — we’re making history,” said the bill’s author, Speaker pro Tem Josh Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, before the vote.

The measure, which now goes to the Senate, is just one in a series of efforts by California legislators, and those in other states, to place restrictions on social media companies and their platforms. The businesses have faced increased scrutiny from politicians and in courtrooms in the face of rising rates of depression and suicide among young people.

Assembly Bill 1709 would allow the California attorney general to adopt regulations and to bring lawsuits against any company that “offers users or provides users with an addictive feed as a significant part of the service provided by that internet website, online service, online application, or mobile application.”

—The Sacramento Bee

Illinois set to OK regulatory framework for big AI companies, including independent safety audits

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Gov. JB Pritzker says he intends to sign legislation that would give Illinois a regulatory framework for artificial intelligence developers after a measure sailed through the General Assembly with overwhelming bipartisan support and the backing of AI companies.

The bill, which passed 110-0 in the House on Wednesday and 52-5 in the Senate last week, would make Illinois the first state to require independent, third-party audits of the safety practices of large frontier artificial intelligence developers.

The measure is part of a broader package of bills being pushed by the Democratic-controlled General Assembly to fill what lawmakers view as a void left by federal inaction on AI regulation. The chief Senate sponsor, Democratic state Sen. Mary Edly-Allen of Grayslake, said earlier this month that without guardrails, the industry resembles “the Wild Wild West.”

“Illinois needs to create a road map for responsible innovation to prevent catastrophic risks,” she said.

—Chicago Tribune

Parental mental health — not medication — drives autism correlation, new study finds

LOS ANGELES — A sweeping new review of prenatal antidepressant use underscores a finding that has surfaced repeatedly throughout the last decade: While parental depression is strongly linked to child neurodevelopmental disorders, taking antidepressants during pregnancy does not appear to significantly increase a child's risk of autism.

In an analysis of 37 separate studies covering more than 25 million pregnancies, a research team from the University of Hong Kong found that children born to women who took antidepressants while pregnant were indeed more likely to later be diagnosed with autism or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

But when the researchers took into account confounding factors such as a family history of neurodevelopmental disorders or mothers' preexisting mental health conditions, the correlation disappeared.

The data showed that children born to women with a history of depression were more likely to be diagnosed with autism or ADHD, regardless of whether their mother took psychiatric medication. Children were also more likely to be diagnosed with autism and ADHD if their fathers took antidepressants during their gestation, even if their mothers did not — an association that suggests a genetic link, not a pharmacological one.

—Los Angeles Times

US labels Brazil’s two main drug gangs as terrorist groups

The U.S. will designate Brazil’s two main organized crime groups as terrorist organizations, a move that will likely reignite tensions between Donald Trump and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Thursday that the U.S. will apply the label to the Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC, and the Comando Vermelho, or CV.

“The Trump administration will continue to use all available tools to protect our nation and our national security interests by keeping illicit drugs off our streets and disrupting the revenue streams funding violent narco-terrorists,” Rubio said in a statement.

The PCC is a money laundering powerhouse that has infiltrated fuel distribution networks and fintechs, while the CV is the Rio de Janeiro group that was at the center of Brazil’s deadliest ever police operation in October.

—Bloomberg News