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Meta is bringing its Teen Accounts, which have stricter parental controls, to its Facebook and Messenger platforms on Tuesday, expanding its teen service from just Instagram. The social media giant rolled out Teen Accounts last year on Instagram that have built-in restrictions on who can contact teens, the content they see, and limits on their time on Instagram. [Photo: Meta] Tuesday’s announcement also includes updates to Instagram’s teen service that will roll out in the next couple of months. Instagram said that teens under 16 will be prohibited from going Live unless their parents give them permission to do so. Teens under that age also will be required to have parental permission to turn off a feature that automatically blurs imaged containing suspected nudity in DMs. [Photo: Meta] Meta has come under fire from parents and lawmakers for its platforms’ impacts on young users. Forty-one states and D.C. filed lawsuits against Meta in 2023, alleging that the company intentionally designed some features on Facebook and Instagram that they knew could harm teens and other young users. Tuesday’s announcement is part of a broader push by the social media giant to beef up parental controls to drum up support. [Photo: Meta] Instagram said it moved 54 million teens into Teen Accounts. It added that 97% of teens aged 13 to 15 years old keep those built-in protections on.
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E-Commerce
Almost seamlessly, the two sides of a scenic forest in Alberta, Canada, have been woven back together. Located between Calgary and Banff National Park, this stretch of the Canadian Rockies is sliced in two by the Trans-Canada Highway, one of the busiest roadways in the province. That’s had deadly consequences for the area’s abundant wildlife, as well as the tens of thousands of people who drive through it every day. But now, after years of mounting wildlife-vehicle collisions, the danger to animals and humans is being addressed with a stunning new wildlife overpass. The Bow Valley Gap wildlife overpass is a roughly 200-foot-wide cap over a four-lane highway, topped with soil and forest-like plantings that creates a bridge almost indistinguishable from the forest on either side. [Photo: Neil Zeller/courtesy Dialog] The design and engineering firm Dialog led the structural engineering and landscape architecture of the overpass, which was funded by Alberta’s provincial department of transportation and is now the first wildlife overpass in Canada constructed outside of a national park. It’s in an area where reported vehicle collisions with deer, elk, coyotes, and grizzly bears happen 69 times per year on average. The very rough rule of thumb is for every collision that is recorded or every carcass that is seen on the side of the road, you can usually double that number, says Dialog’s Neil Robson, the overpass project manager and lead designer. The best way to mitigate collisions is to try to prevent them. The number one way to prevent them is actually fencing. But fencing doesn’t allow connectivity of the animal. It keeps them on both sides of the highway, Robson says. Very helpful for collisions, but not helpful for migration patterns, connectivity, the ability to get mates, genetic diversity, and that’s where the overpass comes into play. [Photo: Neil Zeller/courtesy Dialog] The overpass sits atop two arched tunnels that cover the two traffic lanes and shoulders on each side of the road. Seen from a driver’s perspective, the overpass has a smooth M shape, and is covered with grasses, shrubs, and trees. A tall metal fence runs along its edges, as well as on the sides of the road leading up to the overpass, running a total of more than seven miles. Robson says the design of the overpass was heavily informed by animal migration data, with its width sized to accommodate the large species that are known to travel in this area. Wildlife biologists were involved during the initial design phases for the overpass and helped to shape its look and form. The overpass topography was influenced by the species that live in the area, and its slopes were calculated to accommodate what animalsboth predator and preyneed to see to survive in the wild. If you’re going up a crest and or up a hill and it’s too sharp, that’s not ideal for a prey species because they don’t really have the line of sight [to avoid predators], Robson says. Flatter topography for viewpoints and not having blind corners and other types of things also factor into the design. [Photo: Neil Zeller/courtesy Dialog] These kinds of considerations are fairly new ones for wildlife overpasses. Dialog has some experience in this unique building typology, having designed a handful that already exist in Banff National Park. But Robson says the design process has become much more interdisciplinary in just the past few years, with designers and scientists working together. It’s not just the engineering professional inheriting the recommendations from the biologist and ecologist or reading the report and then making their own decisions. We’re going to those sites together. We’re working through the designs together, he says. That’s even affecting how these projects are planted. For the Bow Valley Gap overpass, scientists helped determine the ideal mix of plant species that would mimic the forest surroundings but not encourage animals to linger near what is still a potential collision area. We do want the landscape architecture on top, the grasses, the shrubs, and the trees, to be as close to the natural surroundings as possible, Robson says. But you also don’t want them to be overly edible, because if you plant them in and a herd of deer or elk start to chew on things, you’re not going to have much vegetation left. Those plants are still maturing on the overpass, which was officially completed in December. But even as it grows in, Robson says the design process behind the overpass is informing future wildlife overpasses in Canada, including three that Dialog is currently designing. And, perhaps more importantly, it’s already bing used by the species it was designed to protect.
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E-Commerce
The extreme tariffs that President Donald Trump has applied to nations across the world have had a whipsaw effect on global trade, with markets nosediving and countries scrambling to strategize a response. Supply chains in particular have been upended: Clothes-makers fear fluctuations across the entire production system, the cost of furniture and other home goods is likely to soon spike, and companies like Apple, which manufacture much of their high-tech products in China, have been caught in a trade-war nightmare. The same strains and stresses will impact the car industry. In addition to levies placed on foreign carmakers like BMW and Toyota, even American-made cars tend to rely on a complex web of parts and labor from both Mexico and China. Currently, about 6 out of every 10 auto replacement parts used in the U.S. are imported from Mexico, Canada, and China, according to the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA). And the sharp rise in costs wont just impact those looking to buy a new ride. Higher replacement costs mean insurers will likely foot a much bigger bill to resolve claims and fix damaged automobiles. That means higher costs trickling down to consumers, and increases in insurance rates that may be some of the highest in recent history. Robert Passmore, department vice president at the APCIA, estimates the industry might see anywhere between $30 and $60 billion more in personal auto insurance claim costs in 2025 alone. Individual annual car insurance costs will vary, but the average American, who pays roughly $2,000 a year, will see an increase. Insurify, an insurance shopping marketplace, predicts insurance costs will spike 19% this year after the impacts of Trump’s “Liberation Day” cycle through supply chains. Without the tariff increase, insurance rates would have only gone up 5%. Thats a huge increase in cost due to tariffs, specifically the levies on automobiles and auto parts introduced in late March. In addition, the Canada and Mexico-specific tariffs that impact many automaker supply chains, and the steel and aluminum tariffs, also made replacing busted cars more expensive. That adds up to about $350 extra per household per year. Insurance companies need a few months of data to get exact costs, and it takes a while for new premium costs to cycle in across the population, but by the end of the year, unless Trump backs off the tariffs, higher prices should be widespread. Matt Brannon, a data journalist at Insurify, said hes seen reports that insurance companies are already prepping agents to explain to their customers that these are tariff-driven increases in their insurance costs. Roughly 95% of Americans drive at least occasionally, per the AAA. Due to our car-centric transportation network, the vast majority dont have the option to get around without a car and the compulsory insurance. The cost of covering your car has whipsawed in recent years, dropping dramatically during the pandemic, due to less travel and few drives to work, and therefore fewer accidents to cover. It spiked once driversaccustomed to empty streets and faster speedsgot back on the road and accident rates increased. It jumped by 11% and 16% in 2023 and 2024, respectively, according to data from ValuePenguin, and was forecast to stabilize and slow down this year, until tariffs significantly increased the cost of anything related to a car. Any time your insurance rates go up, it eats into your household budget, said Rob Bhatt, insurance analyst for ValuePenguin. You have to have car insurance to drive legally, and so, you know, this isn’t really discretionary spending we’re talking about. Its more bad news for consumers. Insurance companies feel compelled to raise premiums to cover the more costly claims they need to pay; it doesnt help that, as cars have become more high-tech with bumper cameras and computer systems, theyve also become more expensive to fix. Analysts say that the insurance industry is attempting to lobby local, state, and federal governments to pass more stringent speed limits and safety laws to help reduce accidents and their exposure, but its not making much headway. Some Americans may attempt to lower their monthly insurance burden by increasing the deductible amount on their insurance, but that risks much more financial damage in the wake of an accident. At this point, short of Trump reversing the tariffs, the only hope for lower insurance rates seems to be if Americans miraculously and simultaneously become better drivers.
Category:
E-Commerce
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