Are infinite scrolling and autoplay creating social media addicts? Lootbox games to get age restrictions

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It was as “easy as ABC”, claimed the lawyer prosecuting a landmark social media harm case against Meta and Google which heard closing arguments this week. The defendants were guilty, said Mark Lanier, of “addicting the brains of children”. Not true, replied the tech companies. Meta insisted providing young people with a “safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work”. Features such as autoplay videos, infinite scrolling and constantly chirruping alerts woven into the fabric of online platforms were central to the six-week trial in Los Angeles. Guardian 

Nvidia is on the hook for $860m (£650m) owed by the British data centre company Nscale, in the latest of a string of deals that has raised fears of an AI bubble. Nscale, which this week hit a $15bn valuation and recruited former Meta executives Sir Nick Clegg and Sheryl Sandberg to its board, revealed that Nvidia has guaranteed five years of rent payments at a data centre in Texas. In exchange for providing the backstop, Nvidia has been given the right to buy shares in Nscale at a significant discount to its current valuation. Telegraph 

Games which feature loot boxes will soon be given an age rating of 16 across Europe, including in the UK, under a host of changes, external by the European video game ratings organisation. The Pan-European Game Information body (PEGI)’s age ratings are displayed on games sold in the UK and other countries in Europe to indicate their suitability for children of different ages. Loot boxes are an in-game feature allowing players to buy random mystery items with real or virtual currency, but recent research has found they blur the line between gaming and gambling. BBC 

The UK government’s pay-per-mile scheme for electric cars and plug-in hybrid vehicles, which is due to start in two years’ time, faces a major threat from devices called mileage blockers that are easy to buy and to fit and freeze a car’s odometer, an investigation by Autocar has found.  Pay-per-mile charging, officially called eVED, is scheduled to start in April 2028 as an extra tax placed on EVs and PHEVS to recover income lost from fuel duty, given these cars can run fully or partially on electricity. Autocar

If you were to lose your Android smartphone, whether by accident or theft, you might take comfort in the fact that it is locked down so that it cannot be accessed, at least. Unless, that is, you are one of the estimated 875 million people using a phone that includes any of a number of MediaTek chips. Security researchers uncovered a vulnerability that allowed them to recover the security PIN number and the root keys that are there to protect encrypted storage, all before the device was fully booted. Forbes

In last week’s poll about the Apple iPhone 17e, some 30% of voters say that they are not looking to buy an iPhone. Another 30% say they are looking for a new iPhone but are aiming for a more premium model. The 17e does have its fans, but it is a niche device – let’s break it down. Only 10% of voters are ready to buy a 17e outright and around half of that would join them if they like what they see in reviews. Speaking of, we have a review unit at the office and already posted an unboxing video. GSM Arena

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