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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis just signed into law a bill named HB 3 that creates much stricter guidelines about how kids under 16 can use and access social media. To that end, the law completely bans children younger than 14 from participating in these platforms. 

The bill requires parent or guardian consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to make an account or use a pre-existing account on a social media platform. Additionally, the companies behind these platforms must abide by requests to delete these accounts within five business days. Failing to do so could rack up major fines, as much as $10,000 for each violation. These penalties increase to $50,000 per instance if it is ruled that the company participated in a “knowing or reckless” violation of the law.

As previously mentioned, anyone under the age of 14 will no longer be able to create or use social media accounts in Florida. The platforms must delete pre-existing accounts and any associated personal information. The bill doesn’t name any specific social media platforms, but suggests that any service that promotes “infinite scrolling” will have to follow these new rules, as will those that feature display reaction metrics, live-streaming and auto-play videos. Email platforms are exempt.

This isn’t just going to change the online habits of kids. There’s also a mandated age verification component, though that only kicks in if the website or app contains a “substantial portion of material” deemed harmful to users under 18. Under the language of this law, Floridians visiting a porn site, for instance, will have to verify their age via a proprietary platform on the site itself or use a third party system. News agencies are exempt from this part of the bill, even if they meet the materials threshold. 

Obviously, that brings up some very real privacy concerns. Nobody wants to enter their private information to look at, ahem, adult content. There’s a provision that gives websites the option to route users to an “anonymous age verification” system, which is defined as a third party that isn’t allowed to retain identifying information. Once again, any platform that doesn’t abide by this restriction could be subject to a $50,000 civil penalty for each instance.

This follows DeSantis vetoing a similar bill earlier this month. That law would have banned teens under 16 from using social media apps and there was no option for parental consent.

NetChoice, a trade association that represents social media platforms, has come out against the law, calling it unconstitutional. The group says that HB 3 will essentially impose an “ID for the internet”, arguing that the age verification component will have to widen to adequately track whether or not children under 14 are signing up for social media apps. NetChoice says “this level of data collection will put Floridians’ privacy and security at risk.”

Paul Renner, the state’s Republican House Speaker, said at a press conference for the bill signing that a “child in their brain development doesn’t have the ability to know that they’re being sucked in to these addictive technologies, and to see the harm, and step away from it. And because of that, we have to step in for them.”

The new law goes into effect on January 1, but it could face some legal challenges. Renner said he expects social media companies to “sue the second after this is signed” and DeSantis acknowledged that the law will likely be challenged on First Amendment issues, according to Associated Press.

Florida isn’t the first state to try to separate kids from their screens. In Arkansas, a federal judge recently blocked enforcement of a law that required parental consent for minors to create new social media accounts. The same thing happened in California. A similar law passed in Utah, but was hit with a pair of lawsuits that forced state reps back to the drawing board. On the federal side of things, the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act would require parental consent for kids under 18 to use social media and, yeah, there’s that whole TikTok ban thing.

Night City is looking for new residents — even if they’re only temporary ones who happen to be in the neighborhood for a few hours. CD Projekt Red is offering PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S players the chance to check out Cyberpunk 2077 for free over the Easter weekend.

You’ll be able to play up to five hours of the sprawling first-person RPG at no extra cost between 11AM ET on March 28 and 2:59AM ET on April 1. PlayStation Plus Premium members also have access to a five-hour trial of the base game, but CDPR notes that no subscription is necessary to hop in this weekend.

If you’re an efficient player, five hours of game time might just be enough to see you through the pivotal heist mission toward the end of the first act. It’s there that the story really opens up and perhaps might entice you to buy the full game to keep playing.

Cyberpunk 2077 had a disastrous debut in 2020 and was in such rough shape that Sony pulled it from the PlayStation Store and offered refunds. The game’s in much better condition these days. I dropped off of Cyberpunk 2077 after playing for a few hours at launch. The arrival of the current-gen console versions in early 2022 pulled me back in and I ended up enjoying the base game. I've yet to check out the highly regarded Phantom Liberty expansion or the 2.0 update that overhauled some of the key systems, but newcomers will be able to get a taste of the latter for free this weekend.

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit from X against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit that researches hate speech on the Elon Musk-owned platform. In the decision, the judge said that the lawsuit was an attempt to “punish” the organization for criticizing the company.

X sued the CCDH last summer, accusing the group of “scraping” its platform as part of a “scare campaign” to hurt its advertising business. The group had published research claiming X was failing to act on reports of hate speech, and was in some cases boosting such content.

In a ruling, federal judge Charles Breyer said that “this case is about punishing” CCDH for publishing unflattering research. “It is clear to the Court that if X Corp. was indeed motived to spend money in response to CCDH’s scraping in 2023, it was not because of the harm such scraping posed to the X platform, but because of the harm it posed to X Corp.’s image,” Breyer wrote. “X Corp.’s motivation in bringing this case is evident. X Corp. has brought this case in order to punish CCDH for CCDH publications that criticized X Corp.—and perhaps in order to dissuade others.”

X said it planned to appeal the decision.

In a statement, CCDH CEO Imram Ahmed said that the ruling “affirmed our fundamental right to research, to speak, to advocate, and to hold accountable social media companies for decisions they make behind closed doors.” He added that “it is now abundantly clear that we need federal transparency laws” that would require online platforms to make data available to independent researchers.

It's a busy spell for fans of Final Fantasy, and fantasy RPGs in general. Many folks are still working through Baldur's Gate 3 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, but Dragon's Dogma 2 just dropped and Elden Ring expansion Shadow of the Erdtree arrives in June. The second Final Fantasy XVI DLC, The Rising Tide, will drop on April 18. On top of all that, Square Enix has revealed that Dawntrail, the fifth expansion for Final Fantasy XIV Online, will arrive on July 2. Phew.

Dawntrail arrives just over 19 months after the last major expansion, Endwalker. You'll be able to check out a new storyline, try two fresh classes or jobs (Pictomancer and Viper) and tackle more dungeons. Square Enix is also increasing the level cap to 100 and there are several other additions to delve into.

Pre-orders for the $40 expansion open on Tuesday. Those who buy it in advance will be able to check out Dawntrail several days early, likely starting on June 28. Digital and physical collector's editions will also be available. Snap up either of those and you'll get access to several in-game items, including an Ark mount based on the eidolon from Final Fantasy IX. All editions include access to the previous expansions, Shadowbringers and Endwalker.

Meanwhile, a crossover questline with Final Fantasy XVI will run from April 2 until May 8. Those who complete quests in The Path Infernal will receive several Final Fantasy XVI-themed in-game rewards.

Today marks the end of the Amazon Big Spring Sale and there are still a few tech deals still worth checking out, including this bundle of an Echo Show 8 paired with an Amazon Basics smart bulb. If you bought them at full price and separately, you'd pay $163, but now the set is down to $100. That amounts to a 38 percent discount. If you want the smart display on its own, it's the same $100. That's about $10 more than its record low price and a 33 percent savings.  

If you're just starting on the path towards smart home grandeur, you can think of the set as a starter kit, as the Echo Show gives you voice and routine control over your new bulb. We named the previous generation of the Echo Show 8 the best Amazon display in our guide. It strikes a good balance between not taking up too much space and offering a sizable enough viewing area with its 8-inch screen. We also liked how adept it is at handling video calls. 

We were able to get a look at this latest version of the display at a demo during Amazon's hardware event last fall. It has a new edge-to-edge glass front and a more refined design overall. But perhaps the most interesting update is the introduction of the adaptive content feature. Depending on where you are in the room, the display will show different content: large-font time and weather info when you're far away, and more personalized calendar and news articles when you get closer. 

The bulb lets you change its brightness and color just by talking to your smart display. You can also use the Alexa app to set up routines that will, for example, turn off the light when you say "goodnight" or turn it on an hour before sunset.   

Your Spring Sales Shopping Guide: Spring sales are in the air, headlined by Amazon’s Big Spring sale event. Our expert editors are curating all the best spring sales right here. Follow Engadget to shop the best tech deals from Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, hear from Autoblog’s car experts on the best spring auto deals on Amazon, and find spring sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

Amazon is selling a two-pack of SanDisk microSD cards for $25 as part of the company’s Big Spring Sale. Each card is 128GB, totaling 256GB of sweet, sweet game storage. These are drives that have been designed and pre-formatted for Nintendo Switch systems, though they’ll work with just about any microSD reader. This deal, however, is only for Prime members.

The Nintendo Switch is notoriously stingy when it comes to integrated storage, offering just 32GB, so microSD cards are an absolute must for AAA titles. Nintendo may be wizards when it comes to compressing its games, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is only 16GB, but that space is still gonna fill up fast.

As a Switch-friendly bonus, each card comes emblazoned with a Mario-esque mushroom logo. We’ve always liked these SanDisk drives and gave them a call out in our list of the best microSD cards. They come with a lifetime warranty and boast read/write speeds that are, more or less, comparable to rival products. The max write speed is 90MB/s and the max read speed is 100MB/s. This isn’t as fast as something like the Samsung Pro Ultimate, but it’s a whole lot cheaper.

Looking for more than 128GB of storage? The above deal is part of a larger sale on SanDisk and Western Digital products. There are microSD drives up to 1TB, plenty of USB stick drives and external storage solutions. Also, if Mushroom Kingdom iconography is not your bag, you can pick up a 1TB SanDisk card that has been stamped with the Triforce from Zelda for $95.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

The Amazon Big Spring Sale isn't over yet, and new deals are still popping up all over the site on everything from outdoor cameras to smartwatches—including our favorite budget Apple Watch for 2024. The second-generation Apple Watch SE is 24 percent off, dropping to $189 from $249. It's not the device's record-low price, but the $60 off brings it pretty close.

The second-gen Apple Watch SE garnered an 89 in our review thanks to the comprehensive features it offers for much less money than the company's alternatives. The smartwatch has all the usual options, like heart-rate monitoring, crash detection, and emergency calling. The retina display offers up to 1,000 nits brightness, and the battery lasts 18 hours. 

If you're considering buying an Apple Watch SE, one thing to keep in mind is that it's not IPX6 rated for dust resistance like the Series 8 and Ultra. However, it is water resistant up to 50 meters.  

Your Spring Sales Shopping Guide: Spring sales are in the air, headlined by Amazon’s Big Spring sale event. Our expert editors are curating all the best spring sales right here. Follow Engadget to shop the best tech deals from Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, hear from Autoblog’s car experts on the best spring auto deals on Amazon, and find spring sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

Amazon’s Big Spring Sale is nearly over and if you’re interested in saving on tech, you’ve come to the right place. This sale event may not have been a boon for discounts on laptops, tablets, wearables and the like, but we were able to dig up a number of decent tech deals available right now. While most of these prices are not the same as those we saw during the Black Friday time period, some get pretty close (as a general rule of thumb, a good price in March isn’t necessarily the same thing as a good price in November). As a reminder, the Big Spring Sale comes to a close at the end of the day March 25, so you have limited time left to shop these deals. Here are the best Amazon Spring Sale discounts on tech we love that you can get before the event ends.

Best Spring Sale deals under $50

Best Spring Sale deals on Amazon devices

Best Spring Sale deals on Apple devices

Best Spring Sale deals on headphones, earbuds and speakers

Best Spring Sale deals on smartphones

Best Spring Sale deals on gaming gear

Best Spring Sale deals on smart home tech

Best Spring Sale deals on other tech

Best tech deals available elsewhere on the web

Your Spring Sales Shopping Guide: Spring sales are in the air, headlined by Amazon’s Big Spring sale event. Our expert editors are curating all the best spring sales right here. Follow Engadget to shop the best tech deals from Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, hear from Autoblog’s car experts on the best spring auto deals on Amazon, and find spring sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

There was once a time when you went to one place for music, another for education, and so on, but many companies are now attempting to turn themselves into a jack of all trades to compete for survival. The latest example is Spotify, which has announced a test for video-based learning courses. The new feature joins the platform's music, podcasts and audiobooks lineup. 

Spotify has teamed up with a range of content partners: BBC Maestro, PLAYvirtuoso, Thinkific Labs Inc. and Skillshare. They offer content in four main categories: making music, getting creative, learning business and healthy living. "With this offer, we are exploring a potential opportunity to provide educational creators with a new audience who can access their video content, reaching a bigger potential swath of engaged Spotify users while expanding our catalog," Spotify stated in the announcement. The platform claims that around half of users have "engaged" in self-help or educational podcasts. 

The test courses are available only to UK users, with free and premium subscribers receiving at least two free lessons per course. The series will range in price from £20 ($25) to £80 ($101), regardless of a person's subscription tier. Users can access them on mobile or desktop. Exact pricing and availability might change if the feature moves past the test phase. 

This forays into video-based courses follows shortly after Spotify introduced music videos in beta. They're available on select tracks and, like the classes, aren't available to US subscribers (the UK is among the 11 countries with access). 

Last summer, TikTok said it planned to form a “youth council” of teens to advise the company as part of a broader push to beef up safety features for the app’s youngest users. That group is now official, and they have already started meeting with the company, including CEO Shou Chew, the company announced.

The announcement comes as TikTok is fighting a bill that would force parent company ByteDance to sell the app or face a ban in the United States. As part of that effort, the company has tried to mobilize its users, many of them teens, to oppose the measure. TikTok’s critics often cite youth safety as one of the most significant risks posed by the app.

It’s not clear if the newly-formed youth council will do much to counter that perception. But the company says the group has already influenced an upcoming media literacy campaign in the US that will “focus on misinformation, AI-generated content, and more.” The council, made up of 15 teens from the US, UK, Brazil, Indonesia, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, and Morocco, has also weighed in on the app’s “youth portal” feature, which provides in-app privacy and security resources.

According to TikTok, the council is meant to advise on the safety policies and issues that often impact teens. The group also collaborates with UK online safety organization Praesidio Safeguarding, which helped select the council’s teenage members, all of whom are paid, according to TikTok. The company notes that CEO Shou Chew attended the most recent meeting in February, when the youth council asked TikTok to share more details about how reporting and blocking work in the app.

While it’s not yet clear how much, if any, influence TikTok’s youth council will ultimately wield over the company’s policies, it underscores just how important teens are to the platform. TikTok is one of the most dominant apps among teens in the US, currently the company’s largest market. The company has also leaned on them to oppose the bill that could lead to a ban of the app, though those efforts may have backfired.