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On Wednesday morning, local time, over one million Australian children discovered their social media accounts had vanished. And it may not be long before kids in other countries find themselves in a similar predicament. Under the new law, which was approved late last year, no one under the age of 16 in Australia will be allowed to set up accounts on platforms including Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, X, Snapchat, Twitch, and Reddit. Any accounts for people in that age category will be deactivated or removed. The law is meant to protect the mental health of children from the addictive nature of social media. Australia’s law goes three years beyond the de facto minimum age for social media limits in the U.S., where privacy legislation dictates that children under 13 are not supposed to be able to create accounts (though they easily end-run those restrictions). Anika Wells, the country’s communications minister, said those extra years will help children mature more before they take part in social media. We want children to have childhoods. We want parents to have peace of mind and we want young peopleyoung Australiansto have three more years to learn who they are before platforms assume who they are, she said earlier this year. The legislation is being watched carefully by other governments, which have struggled with the impact of social media on young minds. If Australian children show improvements in their mental (and physical) health, with reduced reports of depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, and more, the country’s policies could become a blueprint for other nations. Several have already put plans into motion. Denmark, Norway, Malaysia, and the European Parliament have all either announced plans to ban social media access for children, similar to the Australian law, or are in the process of creating new rules. Denmark has gone the furthest, announcing last month that it would ban access to social media for anyone under 15, noting 94% of the children in that country had profiles on at least one social media platform. Under the age of 10, half of all Danish children do. The country has not yet set a date for the ban to begin. Children and young people have their sleep disrupted, lose their peace and concentration, and experience increasing pressure from digital relationships where adults are not always present, the Danish ministry for digital affairs said. This is a development that no parent, teacher or educator can stop alone. As for the U.S., don’t expect similar legislation anytime soon. The Big Tech lobby is firmly against the policy. And tech leaders, including Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, have a close relationship with Donald Trump. Even those whose relationship with Trump is contentious are seemingly protected. Last week, when the European Commission hit Elon Musk’s X with nearly $140 million in fines for violating its moderation law, the Trump Administration came out swinging. “The European Commission’s $140 million fine isn’t just an attack on X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media. “The days of censoring Americans online are over.” Some U.S. states, including Texas and Florida, have tried to enact bans, but those measures have either failed to pass the state legislatures or have been struck down by courts. Australia’s social media ban, meanwhile, passed with overwhelming support, though some critics warned it would be too blunt an instrument to address risks effectively. Social media companies were given a year to beef up their technology to confirm user ages and teens were encouraged to begin weening themselves off of the apps, so the formal ban wouldn’t come as a shock. Teens were even given a checklist to prepare for the shift.
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E-Commerce
Justin McLeod, founder and CEO of dating app Hinge, is consciously uncoupling from his app. Hinges president and chief marketing officer Jackie Jantosrecently named one of Fast Companys CMOs of the yearwill succeed him in the role of CEO, effective immediately. McLeod will stay on as an adviser through March to support the transition. McLeod, who founded Hinge in 2011, is leaving to launch Overtone, an AI-driven venture focused on facilitating connections between people; it will be backed by Match Group. In a blog post, he calls his departure a wildly bittersweet moment. This past year, I got higher conviction on two different things. One is that Jackie is the next right leader for Hinge. She’s an incredible strategist, he tells Fast Company. The other thing [is] I realized how much I miss and how much I love the early-stage part of building a company. That was where my heart was and where I wanted to focus. Jantos joined Hinge four years ago as CMO and took on the role of president in March. Shes behind the companys breakout No Ordinary Love campaign and has steered its outreach to Gen Z users, who now account for more than half of Hinge users. She also helped bring the app to new markets, most recently Mexico and Brazil. Ive been operating the business for the past year, since I stepped into this president role, so there won’t be much change, Jantos says. Hinge has been so successful because Jackie and the team understand their consumer, says Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Hinge parent company Match Group. They have [their] finger on the pulse of where the world is at with respect to human connection. DESIGNED TO BE DELETED Hinge has been one of the few bright spots amid a broader downturn in dating apps. Earlier this year, Bumbles struggles led to the return of founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, who has since laid off 30% of staff. Tinder, another Match Group property, has lost more than 1.5 million paying users since its 2022 peak. After Rascoff took over as CEO of Match Group in February, he trimmed headcount by 13%. In contrast, Hinge, which has 15 million monthly active users, saw its paying users grow by 17% year over year to 1.87 million in the third quarter of 2025. The app took in $550 million in revenue last year, and more than $500 million in the first nine months of 2025. McLeod laid the foundation for this success with a foresighted app relaunch in 2015. While other dating apps were prioritizing user engagement and addictive swiping, Hinge focused on creating positive outcomes: app interactions that convert into real-life dates. The company has even inserted deliberate speedbumps into the user experience to combat user behavior like ghosting. McLeods iconoclastic approach is embodied in the apps tagline, designed to be deleted. Jantos says Hinges mission will remain unchanged. We are very much working to help intentional daters find the relationships they’re looking for and get off the app into dates. THE MATCH GROUP ECOSYSTEM McLeods departure comes as Rascoff pushes to create more links between Match Groups different apps, allowing them to share insights around user behavior and how to incorporate AI in their user experiences. For example, a member of Chispa, Matchs Latino-focused dating app, might receive an invitation to join Hinge, which will autofill their profile. Rascoff even envisions that the matching algorithm behind these apps could be standardized I’m moving the company towards more cross-brand collaboration and knowledge sharing,” Rascoff says. He notes that Hinge has long embraced a “consumer-focused, product-led” mindset. “I’m trying to bring that attribute that has made Hinge so successful into all of our other brands, many of which have been more financially oriented, more short-term oriented, and less consumer-driven, Rascoff says. With more integrations on the back end, the distinctive user experience and marketing of each app could prove more important than ever. As CMO, Jantos has attracted younger users to Hinge by showcasing real-life relationships rather than the polished versions of love usually portrayed in media. This year, the company launched the second iteration of its No Ordinary Love campaign, which tells the complicated love stories of real Hinge couples, as well as the second chapter of the Its Funny We Met On Hinge video series. FOUNDER MODE McLeod remains coy about his new venture, Overtone, which a Hinge spokesperson describes as focused on using AI and voice tools to help people connect thoughtfully and in a personal way. We’re not going to talk a lot about that quite yet, McLeod says, except to say that there’s an opportunity to completely reimagine the dating experience and how technology can help facilitate people finding their partnerthat breaks the mold of the way current dating apps are designed. McLeod has been bullish on audio technology in dating apps: Hinge now allows users to record a 30-second audio introduction. McLeod began developing Overtone at Hinge, with Match Group providing early funding. Overtone will operate independently, but Match Group plans to lead the company’s initial funding round early next year and will have a substantial ownership position. Rascoff will join its board of directors. McLeod will serve as chairman and founder. I think for that zero-to-one stage of a company, where you have to move really fast, it made sense [for Overtone] to be its own independent public company, McLeod says. And I’m a founder and CEO at heart. There’s a piece of me that wants to be out there on my own, ultimately steering the ship again.
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E-Commerce
U.S. job openings barely budged in October, coming in at 7.7 million with ongoing uncertainty over the direction of the American economy. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that employers posted 7.67 million vacancies in October, close to Septembers 7.66 million. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which was delayed by the extended government shutdown, also showed that layoffs rose to almost 1.9 million, the most since January 2023. And the number of people quitting their jobsa sign of confidence in the labor marketfell in October, suggesting that businesses seeking to control labor costs will have to pivot to active layoffs, lifting unemployment, rather than rely on natural attrition, Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon, wrote in a commentary. Job openings have come down steadily since peaking at a record 12.1 million in March 2022, when the economy was roaring back from COVID-19 lockdowns. The job market has cooled partly because of the lingering effect of the high interest rates the Federal Reserve engineered in 2022 and 2023 to combat an outburst of inflation. Overall, its a puzzling time for the American economy, buffeted by President Donald Trumps decision to reverse decades of U.S. policy in favor of free trade and instead impose double-digit tariffs on imports from most of the worlds countries. Policymakers at the Federal Reserve are meeting this week to decide whether to cut their benchmark interest rate, and the gathering is expected to be unusually contentious. Inflation remains stuck above the Feds 2% target, partly because importers have tried to pass along the cost of Trumps tariffs by raising prices. Normally, stubborn inflation would discourage Fed policymakers from cutting rates. But the job market has looked shaky in recent months, and the Fed is expected to reduce its benchmark rate for the third time this year, though some policymakers might dissent. Meanwhile, the 43-day federal shutdown has made a mess of the governments economic statistics. The October report on job openings came out a week late, and the September version was not published separately because federal data collectors were on furlough. Instead, Septembers JOLTS numbers were folded into Tuesdays report along with Octobers. They showed a hefty increase in openings from 7.23 million in August. The Labor Department will issue numbers for hiring and unemployment for November next Tuesday, 11 days later than originally scheduled. The department is not releasing an unemployment rate for October because it could not calculate the number during the shutdown. It will release some of the October jobs dataincluding the number of positions that employers created that monthalong with the full November jobs report. Forecasters surveyed by the data firm FactSet predict that employers added fewer than 38,000 jobs in November and that the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.5% from Septembers 4.4%. That would be low by historical standards, but the highest in nearly four years. By Paul Wiseman, AP economics writer
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E-Commerce
If your home insurance rate has spiked lately, youre not alone. And President Trumps policies could make it even more expensive. Since 2021, at least 6 million policyholders across the country have seen rate hikes to their property insurance policies, according to a new report from the environmental advocacy group Climate Power. Insurers have also canceled at least 1.4 million policies in that time. One big reason is the worsening climate crisis, which is driving more and more instances of extreme weather. Inflation, labor shortages, and supply chain issues are also factors, as they drive up the costs to rebuild a home. The Trump administrations policies may be exacerbating this crisis. Trumps tariffs could make home insurance prices rise 38% faster, one insurance agency estimated. And since beginning his second term in office, Trump has also gutted the countrys ability to forecast extreme weather, as well as the governments ability to respond to disasters. Less information means insurance companies may raise premiums even more, or pull out of high-risk areas altogether. Climate change and the home insurance crisis When it comes to rate hikes, cancellations, and the cessation of new business, insurers attribute more than one in four of those actions to extreme weather or climate disasters, according to Climate Power. In Louisiana in 2023, Citizens Property Insurance customers saw a 63% rate increase on their home insurance. That move affected more than 100,000 homeowners who were forced to take out policies with Citizens after Hurricane Laura and other recent storms, The Times-Picayune reported, because other insurance companies went insolvent or left the state because of its disaster risks. And more companies are leaving especially risky states, or halting their coverage. State Farm and Allstate stopped insuring homes in California because of climate risk. And Farmers and Progressive have scaled back their coverage in Florida. Its not just coastal states at risk, however. While Florida and California are the two top states impacted by insurance cancellations, per Climate Powers report, the top 10 list also includes Iowa, Oklahoma, and Oregon. Cost-of-living and affordability issues don’t hurt profits At the same time that Americans are facing higher premiums or being left without any coverage, insurance companies are still profitable and paying their CEOs millions. In 2024, 22 publicly traded insurance companies reported profits that exceeded $36 billion combined, per Climate Power. Together, they gave their CEOs more than $220 million. One example is Allstate, which reported $4.7 billion in profits and compensated CEO Thomas Wilson with $26.7 million in 2024. Thats the same year the company raised rates for 350,000 California policyholders by 34%. Insurance companies are raking in profits, paying CEOs millions, but still canceling policies and hiking rates, which is leaving Americansespecially those facing extreme weatherhung up to dry, said Lizzy Ganssle, Climate Power’s national press secretary. No help from Trump The property insurance industry has also supported Trump to the tune of more than $1.3 million for his presidential campaigns, through donations from individuals and political action committees (PACs). But as Climate Power points out in its report, Trump isnt addressing the insurance crisis issueand may actually be making it worse. Trumps tariffs, cuts to disaster relief, and elimination of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) programs all mean that homeowners will have to bear more of the burden when it comes to extreme weather events and the cost of rebuilding their homes. Many Americans are already dealing with a cost-of-living crisis and struggling to pay for groceries, housing, and skyrocketing energy bills. As they become more pessimistic about the economy, though, Trump has called affordability issues a con job and a fake narrative. Climate Power hopes its report helps Americans to understand the scope of the insurance problem, as well as why their prices may continue to rise. Its very important for us that Americans understand the impacts that extreme weather is having on their real lives, Ganssle said. Its also important for us that folks understand that Donald Trump is doing nothing to address this issue.
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E-Commerce
Google faces fresh antitrust scrutiny from European Union regulators, who opened an investigation Tuesday into the company’s use of online content for its artificial intelligence models and services. The latest regulatory flexing by the European Commission in Brussels risks antagonizing President Donald Trump’s administration, though EU officials denied they were singling out American Big Tech companies. The European Commission, which is the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer, said it’s examining whether Google has breached competition rules through its use of content from web publishers and material uploaded to YouTube for AI purposes. Regulators are concerned that Google has given itself an unfair advantage by using content for two search services, AI Overviews and AI Mode, without paying publishers and content creators or letting them opt out. AI Overviews are automatically generated summaries that appear at the top of its traditional search results, while AI Mode provides chatbot-style answers to search queries. They’re also examining whether Google uses videos uploaded to YouTube under similar conditions to train its generative AI models, while shutting out rival AI model developers. Officials said they’re seeking to determine whether Google gained an edge over AI rivals by imposing unfair terms and conditions, or giving itself privileged access to content. This complaint risks stifling innovation in a market that is more competitive than ever,” Google said in a statement. Europeans deserve to benefit from the latest technologies, and we will continue to work closely with the news and creative industries as they transition to the AI era. The Commission, which is the bloc’s executive arm, is carrying out the investigation under the EU’s longstanding competition regulations, rather than its newer Digital Markets Act that was drawn up to prevent Big Tech companies from monopolizing online markets. “AI is bringing remarkable innovation and many benefits for people and businesses across Europe, but this progress cannot come at the expense of the principles at the heart of our societies,” Teresa Ribera, the Commissions vice president overseeing competition affairs, said in a statement. Last week the Commission opened an antitrust investigation into WhatsApp’s AI policy. It also fined Elon Musk’s social media platform X 120 million euros ($140 million) for breaching digital regulations, which drew complaints from Trump officials that American companies were being targeted. The Commission is agnostic about the nationality of companies it is investigating, spokeswoman Arianna Podesta said. Of course, the sole focus of our antitrust investigations is possible illegal behavior and the harm that this could bring to competition and consumers within the European Union, Podesta told reporters at a regular briefing in Brussels. Google will have the chance to reply to the concerns, and the Commission has also informed U.S. authorities about the investigation, she said. Brussels has no deadline to wrap up the case, which could result in sanctions including a fine worth up to 10% of the companys annual global revenue. By Kelvin Chan, AP business writer Associated Press writer Sam McNeil contributed to this report.
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E-Commerce