The Download: failed social media bans, and extending pets’ lives

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Kids are outsmarting social media bans. That’s not a problem we need to solve.  

—Michal Luria, Aliya Bhatia, and Danah Boyd

Social media bans are stacking up. In July, France joined Australia in restricting minors from accessing social media—barring children under 15 from major platforms, before the ban was blocked by the country’s top court on human rights grounds.

The UK aims to forbid kids under 16 from accessing Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms in early 2027, and the EU has announced its own plan to prohibit social media for kids under 15.

But early lessons from Australia, which enacted a ban in 2024, show that these sorts of age restrictions are easily circumvented.

Here’s what we ought to do instead to keep kids safe. 

Can’t bear to say goodbye to your pet? Biotech’s got you covered.

—Jessica Hamzelou

I don’t remember much about Peppy, my first and only pet cat. What I do vividly remember, though, is the day she went missing. I was 10 years old, and I searched everywhere for her, scouting nearby fields and woods until sunset. I made posters. We never found her. I was devastated.

Almost 30 years later, pet owners have an expanding set of options to potentially prolong their years with their furry companions. The possibilities include drugs, cloning, and even cryonics. But is that a good thing?

Read the full story on the promises and pitfalls of pet life extension.

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly biotech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: Form Energy and its iron batteries

Form Energy is one of MIT Technology Review’s 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch 2026, available exclusively to subscribers.

As wind and solar power grow, utilities need cheaper ways to store electricity for longer periods. Form Energy aims to meet that need with batteries that can store energy for 100 hours.

The company has developed a new type of battery using iron, a far more abundant and cheaper metal than those used in many existing batteries. It uses a process that Form calls “reversible rusting,” in which iron turns to rust as the battery discharges and back to iron when it charges.

See how Form Energy hopes to make renewable power more reliable.

—Jonathan W. Rosen

Subscribers can now access the full 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch, spanning everything from electric buses to portable rubber dams.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Insurance is the next big obstacle for AI
AI companies are racking up billions of dollars of legal liabilities from the damage their products cause. (WSJ $)
+ The FTC has sent subpoenas to OpenAI and Anthropic over consumer harms. (Axios)
+ AI hacks leave a mess, and AI companies still aren’t cleaning them up. (Wired $)
+ Who’s liable when AI agents go rogue? (MIT Technology Review)

2 A Russian drone entered NATO waters for the first time
Attacks like those near Bulgaria and Romania are spurring requests for better defenses. (Ars Technica)

3 An AI sell-off has rattled global markets
Many are questioning the sustainability of demand for data centers. (Reuters $)
+ Anthropic reported slowing growth in its latest quarterly results. (FT $)
+ Accenture has told employees they can only spend $29 on Claude each month. (404 Media)
+ What’s at stake in AI’s trillion-dollar gamble. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Governments are hacking people with ‘zero click’ spyware
Delivered through millions of innocuous-looking online adverts. (TechCrunch)
+ Criminals stole $90 million from crypto wallets last week in a highly sophisticated hack. (FT $)

5 Big Tech gave Trump $92 million for his ballroom
Meanwhile the president himself won’t be spending a dime. (WP $)

6 Celebrity deepfakes are everywhere now
And they’re selling you stuff the actual celebrity has probably never even heard of. (The Verge $)
+ Weaponized deepfakes have been on the rise for a while. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Can AI lighten parents’ mental load?
It seems apps and agents can help—if you agree to share masses of your data. (NYT $)
+ AI agents are a privacy nightmare. (The Verge $)

8 The memory shortage’s latest victim is schools
It’s becoming prohibitively expensive to equip students with laptops and tablets. (The Atlantic $)

9 The world’s official timekeepers have agreed to ditch the leap second
It’s a move that ought to cut the risk of time-based computer glitches. (The Guardian)

10 Tesla has finally unveiled its flying car
It’s taken a decade to get here—and still won’t even be shipping next year. (CNBC)

Quote of the day

“Tech companies used to make an effort to support women…Now we’ve swung completely in the opposite direction. Supporting women in tech has become controversial. It’s become political. It’s become risky.”

—Startup founder Sara Mauskopt explains why the cancellation of the Grace Hopper Celebration, one of the biggest gatherings of women in tech, hits so hard, Bloomberg reports. 

One More Thing

Inside the experimental world of animal infrastructure

In the mid-2000s, toads were meeting a gruesome end near Ede, a leafy old town in the Netherlands. Residents responded by building wildlife tunnels beneath the road to help them reach their breeding ponds safely.

The crossings became popular. But a few years later, researchers found the local toad population had crashed from more than 10,000 to fewer than 1,000.

The case reflects a wider global push to build wildlife crossings and other forms of “animal infrastructure.” But do they actually help animal populations recover? Read the full story to find out.

—Matthew PonsfordWe can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)

+ Check out this podcast about the incredible, mysterious powers of fungi.
+ A four-year-old boy’s simple habit of waving to his neighbors is transforming his community.
+ From treehouses to geodesic domes, these homes show what happens when people build outside the rules.
+ Remember when the internet was made by people? The Museum of the Human Web is a playful archive of that era.