In October, Australia extended its child safety measures to AI chatbots.
France is also pushing for the EU to ban social media for children under the age of 15.
Britain’s Online Safety Act, which came into force in July, sets tough age requirements on platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and X, as well as sites hosting pornography, to protect children and remove illegal content.
But experts say such bans could cut off vulnerable users from vital support networks, while privacy advocates fear age verification steps may allow more collection of personal data.
Youth protests and social media
The rapid spread of information on social media helped instigate mass protests among disenchanted youths in 2025, helping topple unpopular governments in Nepal and Madagascar.
Indonesia’s protests drew regional support after the death of a delivery driver was shared widely on social platforms, sparking demonstrations around income inequality.
Africa, home to the world’s youngest population, saw a wave of youth-led protests, fuelled by frustrations over corruption, poor governance, high living costs and rising unemployment.
With young Moroccans, Pakistanis and Peruvians among the latest to protest, Gen Z uprisings will continue to feed off societal inequalities and instability, political analysts say.
Internet shutdowns
Governments are increasingly using internet blackouts to suppress civil unrest.
The Tanzanian government in October restricted internet access for five days during elections to limit the flow of information, rights groups said.
The shutdown blocked major social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok Live and Instagram Live, preventing real-time updates and online mobilisation, said activists.
Across Africa, internet shutdowns have doubled in less than a decade, according to the African Digital Rights Network.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban restricted internet access in September before shutting down connectivity altogether for two days, denying millions of people access to the outside world.
After the Myanmar earthquake in March, internet shutdowns hindered the aid response and fuelled misinformation.
Communications have been under control of the military junta since it seized power from a democratic government in 2021.
In the runup to its general election in late December – the first since the coup – there are fears of surveillance and internet blackouts aimed at stifling opposition and suppressing information.
Border control
As the numbers fleeing war, poverty, climate disaster and other world tumult reach record levels, states are also increasingly turning to digital fixes to manage migration.
Britain said it would use AI to speed asylum decisions and would deploy facial age estimation tech on asylum seekers claiming to be under 18 over the course of 2026.
Britain also plans digital IDs for all workers to control migration, despite widespread criticism and privacy fears.
As part of his crackdown on immigration, Trump has also ramped up the use of surveillance and AI tools – from facial recognition to robotic patrol dogs.
Climate impacts
The number of data centres around the world has skyrocketed to meet the soaring demand for AI tech, but according to a series of Context investigations, there has been little information or accountability regarding their climate impact.
Data centres can house thousands of servers for big tech companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon to store reams of data for generative AI tools.
Servers use huge amounts of energy to run and a large amount of water to cool them. In 2023, Google said its data centres consumed 6.1 billion gallons of water.
In the United States, data centres could use up to 9 per cent of all the electricity it generates by 2030, more than doubling current consumption, according to the Electric Power Research Institute.
AI is poised to increase the amount of water that data centres use, as its power-intensive processors have greater cooling requirements than do conventional servers.
This story was published with permission from Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women’s rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit https://www.context.news/.
