The year age verification laws came for the open internet

When the nonprofit Freedom House recently published its annual report, it noted that 2025 marked the 15th straight year of decline for global internet freedom. The biggest decline, after Georgia and G [...]

Skate City: New York is a mobile game that manuals the line between casual and deep play

Skate City was an Apple Arcade launch title way back in 2019, developed by Agens and published by Snowman, a company well-known for its mobile-first games like Alto's Adventure, the "sequel& [...]

IO Interactive's 007 First Light reimagines James Bond as a young and reckless spy

The creators of the Hitman series have honed their style of- open-ended and spectacle-driven sandboxes across several games, and now they're taking their signature immersive gameplay to the world [...]

Roblox introduces mandatory age-gated account tiers

Roblox is preparing to roll out its biggest change since starting age verification late last year. While that program was initially focused on chat access, today’s news is about age-segregating the [...]

Roblox is adding an 'age estimation' feature for teens

Roblox is joining the growing ranks of online platforms that are trying to better understand the ages of their teen users. The company is rolling out a new "age estimation" feature for teens [...]

Microsoft plans to bring Xbox age verification to countries outside of the UK

Microsoft is implementing an age verification system on Xbox accounts to comply with the UK's Online Safety Act, and in a new blog post announcing the move, the company suggests it'll come t [...]

Roblox begins asking tens of millions of children to verify their age with a selfie

Roblox is starting to roll out the mandatory age checks that will require all of its users to submit an ID or scan their face in order to access the platform's chat features. The updated policy, [...]

How to improve your smartphone photography

These days, thanks to smartphones, almost everyone has a camera with them and that’s mostly a good thing. At any time, you can capture memories with family and friends, painterly sunsets and crazy s [...]

California enacts age-gate law for app stores

California has become the latest state to age-gate app stores and operating systems. AB 1043 is one of several internet regulation bills that Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law on Monday, including [...]