Social Networks

(Image source: Arkansas County Youth Growth and Development Program Facebook page.) Parents and area students will have a chance to learn how to stay safe online during a free workshop hosted by the Arkansas County Youth Growth and Development Program. The parent night and social media safety workshop is set for Tuesday, April 14, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the program’s center, 702 E. Michigan in Stuttgart. Coordinator Jalicia Wyatt said the session will provide parents with practical tools, resources, and real-time guidance. “At this workshop, we will talk about different trends that are going on, so parents are up to date on how they can effectively address these things with their child,” Wyatt said. “We will talk about social media safety and ways to present different conversations.” Wyatt said parents should stay informed about platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and WhatsApp, as well as emerging trends, such as private and group conversations on Clubhouse-style platforms. She noted some apps make oversight more challenging. “With WhatsApp, you can have a fake number and not identify who you truly are. With Snapchat, you send messages under a different name, and they go away after a certain time frame,” Wyatt

We use cookies and data to Deliver and maintain Google services Track outages and protect against spam, fraud and abuse Measure audience engagement and site statistics to understand how our services are used and enhance the quality of those services If you choose to 'Accept all', we will also use cookies and data to Develop and improve new services Deliver and measure the effectiveness of ads Show personalised content, depending on your settings Show personalised ads, depending on your settings If you choose to 'Reject all', we will not use cookies for these additional purposes. Non-personalised content and ads are influenced by things like the content that you’re currently viewing and your location (ad serving is based on general location). Personalised content and ads can also include things like video recommendations, a customised YouTube homepage and tailored ads based on past activity, like the videos that you watch and the things that you search for on YouTube.  » Read More

LinkedIn is facing two class action lawsuits What's the story LinkedIn is embroiled in a legal battle over its practice of scanning users' browsers to identify their extensions. Two class action lawsuits were filed earlier this week in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The complaints were filed by different law firms representing different plaintiffs, with each seeking to represent a proposed class of all US-based LinkedIn users. BrowserGate report forms basis of lawsuits The lawsuits heavily rely on a recent BrowserGate report by Fairlinked, a German trade association and advocacy group for commercial LinkedIn users. The complaints claim that LinkedIn's practice of scanning browsers without adequate disclosure violates user privacy expectations. One lawsuit's named plaintiff, Nicholas Farrell, argued that "Plaintiff and Class members had an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy because, unlike other forms of tracking, Defendant does not disclose in its Privacy Policy or elsewhere that it tracks users' browser extensions." LinkedIn has not denied scanning browsers LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, has not denied scanning browsers for extensions. However, it disputes whether it adequately discloses this practice and how it uses the information collected. The company says it scans for extensions that violate its

URochester scientists identify how warming oceans may trigger increased methane emissions, adding a key insight for current climate models. The world’s oceans may be quietly amplifying climate change in ways scientists are only beginning to understand. In a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Rochester scientists—including Thomas Weber, an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and graduate student Shengyu Wang and postdoctoral research associate Hairong Xu in Weber’s lab—uncovered a key mechanism behind methane production in the open ocean. Their research indicates that this mechanism could intensify as the planet warms, providing an alarming feedback loop for global warming. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, and for decades scientists have puzzled over a paradox: surface ocean waters consistently release methane into the atmosphere, even though surface water is rich in oxygen. Traditionally, methane production has been associated with oxygen-free environments, such as wetlands or deep sediments. Weber’s team set out to solve this puzzle using a global dataset and computer modeling. Their findings point to a specific microbial process that is responsible for methane production in the ocean environment: certain bacteria generate methane as a byproduct when

BUTLER COUNTY, IOWA – U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is opening a congressional inquiry into eight major tech companies for allegedly failing to sufficiently report online child sexual exploitation, frustrating law enforcement investigations into online child abuse. Additionally, Grassley is releasing new information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) – provided to Congress in response to Grassley’s oversight – which details the eight companies’ reporting deficiencies, a list of “poor reporting” companies and data related to generative AI. Meta, Amazon AI Services, TikTok, Snapchat, Discord, X.AI, Grindr and Roblox in 2025 submitted over 17 million reports of suspected online child exploitation. According to NCMEC, these eight companies collectively accounted for 81% of the reports received through NCMEC’s CyberTipline in 2025. All electronic service providers (ESPs) are required by law to report suspected cases of online child sexual exploitation to NCMEC’s CyberTipline. NCMEC found significant issues with the companies’ reporting processes in 2025, with some companies failing to provide essential location data on users and suspects, failing to disclose child sex abuse material (CSAM) in AI training data and failing to report instances of sadistic online exploitation targeting children, among others. However, NCMEC indicated

Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. Please try your request again later. Why did this happen? IP address: 185.181.255.246Time: 2026-04-09T18:37:23ZURL: https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DV05VjGQAaLs

British perfumer Jo Malone has finally responded to Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) launching legal action against her over the use of her name on packaging for a Zara perfume. Malone broke the silence around the lawsuit in an Instagram Reel posted on 8 April, seen by Cosmetics Business, providing her thoughts on the situation. ELC, which has owned Malone’s perfume business, Jo Malone London, since 1999, launched legal action against Malone, her latest fragrance brand Jo Loves, and fashion retailer Zara UK over alleged trademark infringement, passing off, and breach of contract in March. These were filed with the UK High Court, an ELC spokesperson confirmed to Cosmetics Business in an email at the time. The litigation is said to be centred on the words ‘A creation by Jo Malone CBE, founder of Jo Loves’, which appeared on the packaging for a Zara perfume. Malone stated in her Instagram post that she was and still is “surprised and very sad” to have received the UK High Court claim over the use of her name. She added in the post that a defence is now being put together, and that she is prepared to “defend position and innocence in court”. Malone

The victims were as young as 12 years old, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. GREENFIELD, Ind. — An Indiana man was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release for exploiting children as young as twelve years old, using social media. Bobby Cyprus Linhart, 24, of Greenfield, Ind., pleaded guilty to one count of coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of distribution of child sexual abuse material to a minor, and one count of possession of child sexual abuse material. Linhart was also ordered to pay $68,000 in restitution to the victims. Between April 2023 and March 2024, Linhart repeatedly targeted minors between the ages of 12 and 15 through social media platforms, such as, Instagram, Telegram, Snapchat, and X, according to court documents. Using the username “maps.syb,” he contacted at least six identified minor victims and attempted to reach additional children. Linhart employed grooming tactics such as feigning interest in the minors’ activities, complimenting their appearance, lying about his age and offering narcotics in exchange for sexual acts, according to a DOJ news release. Linhart

The victims were as young as 12 years old, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. GREENFIELD, Ind. — An Indiana man was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release for exploiting children as young as twelve years old, using social media. Bobby Cyprus Linhart, 24, of Greenfield, Ind., pleaded guilty to one count of coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of distribution of child sexual abuse material to a minor, and one count of possession of child sexual abuse material. Linhart was also ordered to pay $68,000 in restitution to the victims. Between April 2023 and March 2024, Linhart repeatedly targeted minors between the ages of 12 and 15 through social media platforms, such as, Instagram, Telegram, Snapchat, and X, according to court documents. Using the username “maps.syb,” he contacted at least six identified minor victims and attempted to reach additional children. Linhart employed grooming tactics such as feigning interest in the minors’ activities, complimenting their appearance, lying about his age and offering narcotics in exchange for sexual acts, according to a DOJ news release. Linhart

With the gradual rollout of the WhatsApp Username feature, Meta is officially ending WhatsApp's decade-long reliance on phone numbers. In the past, your digits were your digital footprint on the app, and they were often seen by large groups or by professional contacts you didn't know.  WhatsApp will start using a handle-based identity system in April 2026. This will let users hide their phone numbers behind unique, customizable usernames. Meta's official reports say that this rollout is meant to make users safer and make it easier for people to find new friends and businesses.  The new version of WhatsApp makes it more like Telegram and Signal when it comes to privacy. It offers a "numberless" chat experience while keeping its end-to-end encryption. How does the WhatsApp Username feature work for users? The new system gives you a unique handle that you can use to identify yourself. Once you create a username, you can send it to someone else through a link or a search handle. This keeps your private phone number safe from the person who gets it. Privacy Aspect Phone Number Based (Old) Username Based (New) Contact Discovery Must save digits in phonebook Searchable via unique @handle Data Privacy