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The pressure is mounting on social media companies to enforce their rules and protect children on the platforms. Australia recently instituted a ban on children under the age of 16 from social media platforms. Gaming platforms like Roblox are now using facial recognition technology to prevent kids from interacting with adults in chats.

And now TikTok, the social media platform well known for its popularity with young people, will be rolling out its own age verification system in Europe to detect underage users on its site, according to a Reuters report.

TikTok's age-detection system analyzes a user's profile information, published videos, and behavioral signs to estimate if a user is under the age of 13. Per TikTok policy, users must be at least 13 to sign up for the platform. Once the age detect system flags an account, the user will be reviewed by specialist moderators. User accounts will not be banned automatically.

TikTok told Reuters the age-detection system will be rolled out across Europe in the coming weeks after testing the program in Britain for the past year. The system was specifically designed to comply with European regulatory requirements.

EU regulators have been pushing for social media platforms to act on child safety issues, including ensuring users are of the minimum age required for a platform. The European Parliament is looking into potentially instituting a social media ban similar to the one in Australia for children under the age of 15.

As Mashable covered earlier this week, some online platforms are discovering the difficulties with online age verification. Roblox users, for example, have been uncovering simple workarounds to the platform's age verification, which involved simply uploading animated avatars or even drawing facial hair on their image with a Sharpie.

TikTok's method is bound to pick up some false positives on users who are over 13 but mistakenly get flagged or even removed for being underage. We'll have to see just how accurate it is, and how many disgruntled users it leaves in its path once it rolls out more broadly.



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Alienware AW3423DWF QD-OLED gaming monitor on pink and orange abstract background

SAVE $199.01: As of Jan. 16, get the Alienware AW3423DWF QD-OLED gaming monitor for $499.99 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $699. That's a discount of 28% and the lowest price we've seen.

Alienware AW3423DWF QD-OLED gaming monitor on white background
Credit: Amazon
Alienware AW3423DWF QD-OLED gaming monitor
$499.99 at Amazon
$699 Save $199.01
 

Now that we're at the start of a new year, we're facing down plenty of new games coming down the pipelines in 2026. Why not be ready with a monitor that can handle all the action with ease? You can do just that with this deal on one of our favorite gaming monitors right now, as it's available for its lowest price yet.

As of Jan. 16, get the Alienware AW3423DWF QD-OLED gaming monitor for $499.99 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $699. That's a discount of 28% and the lowest price we've seen.

SEE ALSO: The Samsung Odyssey G5 ultra-wide gaming monitor just dropped to under $300 at Amazon

This 34-inch curved OLED monitor is all about making you feel like you're right in the middle of your favorite games. It offers a gorgeous, crisp picure with sharp details, deep hues and contrasts, and two HDR modes to offer the best possible performance: HDR 400 True Black and HDR Peak 1000.

It boasts 1,000 nits of brightness with a 0.1ms respnse time as well as AMD FreeSync and VESA AdaptiveSync. It's perfect for twitchier games where you need to make sure you're as precise as possible, so if you need a bit of help improving your game, this very well may do it for you.

You can customize the look and feel of the monitor thanks to its RGB lighting, and adjust and tilt it to your liking when placed on a desk. All of these features come together to give you one of the most comprehensive suites possible in terms of gaming monitors, which almost certainly means you'll be seeing some true improvement with your games. Just be sure you grab it now before it's no longer on sale.



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X logo on mobile device

After finally making moves to stop its Grok AI from creating nonconsensual sexualized images and CSAM, Elon Musk's X has announced another major platform overhaul today.

X's head of product Nikita Bier announced on Thursday that the social media platform was going to ban apps that reward users for posting on the site. Bier specifically mentioned it was going to block "InfoFi" apps and developers from accessing its API. 

InfoFi stands for Information Finance and has become popular in the Web3 space for rewarding users for engaging with online communities and posting on social media.

Why is X banning these types of apps? According to Bier, these apps were encouraging users to post low-quality content solely to receive crypto tokens.

"We are revising our developer API policies: We will no longer allow apps that reward users for posting on X (aka 'infofi')," Bier posted on X. "This has led to a tremendous amount of AI slop & reply spam on the platform."

According to X, many users of these InfoFi apps appeared to be posting spammy, low-quality AI-generated content solely to get paid in crypto tokens by these apps. The mass posting of this kind of content on a social network harms the platform's overall quality.  

SEE ALSO: AI slop is killing the internet

Bier went on to say that X has "revoked API access from these apps, so your X experience should start improving soon (once the bots realize they’re not getting paid anymore)." X's head of product then joked that if a developer had their account terminated, they could reach out, and X would help get them set up on competitor platforms like Threads and Bluesky.

X's Bier has recently butt heads with the cryptocurrency community on X over low-quality engagement. Earlier this month, Bier was critical of users who just mass reply "gm," a common phrase within the crypto community, and then complain that the X algorithm doesn't boost their content. 

This latest decision is likely to cause an uproar with X's crypto users as well. As Decrypt noted, the token for the popular InfoFi platform Kaito dropped by more than 15 percent shortly after Bier's announcement.

As a result of Bier's announcement, Kaito shared that it was sunsetting its Yaps app, which paid users to post on X.



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Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, stars of Heated Rivalry, pose with bottles of champagne.

There is not much that can stop a dedicated fandom.

Not paywalls, not cancellations, and certainly not even the source of their fan fervor itself, as was the case in several high profile instances of extreme parasocial behavior. And as queer hockey romance Heated Rivalry has dominated social feeds, it has once again proved that federal laws are not going to dissuade a fan from their idols of worship.

Fans of the show living in Russia, for example, have risked jail time in order to engage with the viral phenomenon, writes Russian reporter Mikhail Zygar for Vanity Fair (the show chronicles the same-sex love affair between a Russian hockey player and his Canadian rival). Fans have flooded dedicated Telegram channels to share encrypted links and bumped up its ratings to the top spot on Kinopoisk, a Russian media review site. They're leaning on VPNs to obscure their IP addresses and engaging in online piracy. You wouldn't steal an enemies-to-lovers romance, would you?

SEE ALSO: A new 'Heated Rivalry' book is on the way — preorder 'Unrivaled' by Rachel Reid now

Despite the collective joy attached to the series, the stakes are serious. The Russian Federation has some of the most extreme anti-LGBTQ laws on record, including an outright ban on LGBTQ content. Russian leaders have attacked and censored what they call the "International Public LGBT Movement," convicting more than 100 individuals for the crime in 2025 and imprisoning at least two. Violators can also face fines of 400,000 rubles ($5,111) to 5 million rubles ($63,898), PinkNews reported.

As of today (Jan. 15), the government has officially charged Russian streaming services with the crime of violating the country's propaganda laws, which prohibit the amplification of "nontraditional sexual relationships" to Russian citizens. The charges target domestic sites and cloud sharing services like Beeline TV, Kinopoisk, Wink, Ivi, Amediteka, 24TV, and Digital Television.

The determination of Russian fans to stream the hot new show mirrors a general trend in online fandom and among Heated Rivalry fans, specifically, who initially shared ways to torrent the series using VPN services and links pulled from its parent network, Crave Canada, and licensing network HBO Max US. HBO Max reportedly only signed on to the project after successful pitches from employees who were fans of the show's book series. They said they felt they needed to "do their civic duty" and get the show to the masses.

The success of Heated Rivalry — and the formidable sports romance book industry from which its source material gained its following — lies partially in the compelling, often erotic, juxtaposition of an extremely masculine sport and the emotional stakes taken on by its characters. At large, cisgender male erotic fiction (also called slash fic, MLM romance, boylove, or yaoi, for anime lovers and the chronically online) has historically offered an outlet for sexual exploration, community, and LGBTQ acceptance. Fandom scholars and Heated Rivalry show runner Jacob Tierney have explained its popularity with cis women is due in part to the ability of writers to ignore the gendered power dynamics of heterosexual pairings and lean into the rarity of sexual partners being on equal footing — although much of the genre relies on stereotypical tropes that critics say still feeds into gender and racial binaries.

Hockey, in particular, is one of the most popular sports depicted in the genre. As of 2025, the National Hockey League has had no active, out LGBTQ players. So subverting that reality is particularly appealing to fans, especially those in restrictive, patriarchal environments.

One former hockey player, Jesse Kortuem, made headlines just this week, posting a statement about feeling empowered to come out after seeing the success of Heated Rivalry. Kortuem didn't compete for the NHL but told reporters that the homophobia rampant in the sport eventually led him to retire. "I know many closeted and gay men in the hockey world are being hit hard by Heated Rivalry's success," Kortuem told Out. "Never in my life did I think something so positive and loving could come from such a masculine sport."



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A shot of a tall building from below, with a red Verizon sign on its facade.

Verizon has confirmed that the extreme service outage was not caused by a cybersecurity breach but was some kind of software problem. Details are still being reported.

"This was a software issue and we are conducting a full review of what happened. As of now, there is no indication that this was a cyber security issue," the telecom giant said in a statement sent to Mashable.

SEE ALSO: Verizon outage today: Verizon reveals how to fix ongoing issues, offers $20 credit

Following a countrywide service outage that resulted in millions of error reports, prompted the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to respond, and could have impacted emergency services for costumers across states, some online speculated that the scale of the event could have been caused by a breach of its systems.

At the time, Verizon kept mum about the cause, instead saying it was focused on reinstating service as it had teams on the ground. The company didn't include any details on where Verizon teams were working. "We know this is a huge inconvenience, and our top priority is to get you back online and connected as fast as possible," the company said in a social media post.

Verizon then issued an apology and offered affected customers a $20 credit the morning after the outage, writing in a post on X: "



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In this photo illustration, the logo of Verizon is seen displayed on the screen of a tablet

A major telecommunications outage is unfolding, with a surge of reports pointing to widespread service disruptions across AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. In particular, many Verizon customers are reporting that their phones have gone into SOS mode, though they should still be able to make 911 calls via satellite.

According to Downdetector, user error reports started to spike around 11:55 a.m. ET on Wednesday. (Disclosure: Downdetector and Mashable are both owned by Ziff Davis.) While some users on AT&T and T-Mobile networks have also reported issues, Verizon customers appear to be bearing the brunt of the disruption. On X, "Verizon" quickly began trending as users attempted to figure out what was happening.

With the outage still developing, details remain limited. So far, Verizon is the only carrier to publicly acknowledge the issue.

In a post on X, the company said: “We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers. Our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience.”

That same message has been repeated in replies to multiple users who tagged Verizon Support seeking help. Mashable reached out to Verizon for comment, and we received the same message that was previously posted on social media.

Downdetector categorized the Verizon outage as "Very High," and the service received a peak of 140,850 error reports within a 15-minute window on Wednesday afternoon. Among Downdetector users, 63 percent reported "phone issues," while 31 percent reported a "complete lack of signal."

Downdetector also reports that Verizon user error reports have spiked in New York City, Houston, Atlanta, and Charlotte in particular.

T-Mobile, meanwhile, has not issued a formal statement. In a response to a user on X, the company stated that it was not currently experiencing any widespread coverage issues on its network.

There’s been no official comment yet from AT&T.

This story is developing and will be updated as necessary...



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illustration showing reddit logo appearing on a laptop screen

Is Reddit down?

The website is operating normally as of this writing, but thousands of Reddit users were asking this question on Tuesday, Jan. 13, when the popular online discussion platform appeared to suffer a brief outage. According to Downdetector, the problems started around 11:33 a.m. ET, with tens of thousands of Downdetector users reporting problems accessing the Reddit website and app. (Disclosure: Mashable and Downdetector are both owned by Ziff Davis.)

screenshot showing reddit error reports on a graph at the website downdetector
Reddit's status had returned to normal at Downdetector by 12:18 p.m. ET. Credit: Downdetector

At the peak of the outage, Downdetector received 89,943 user error reports.

"Reddit is currently experiencing a significant internal outage causing widespread service disruptions," reads a Downdetector summary (emphasis in original). "The impact is categorized as Very High, primarily affecting mobile app access (55%) and website connectivity (39%)."

Again, as of this writing, Reddit's website and app appear to be fully operational.

Mashable reached out to Reddit for more information, and we'll update this story if we receive a response.

This is a developing story...



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