Delete your kids’ social apps?

Hi all, it’s Aisha in San Francisco. Some parents are taking a drastic step with their children’s phones. But first...Three things you need [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hi all, it’s Aisha in San Francisco. Some parents are taking a drastic step with their children’s phones. But first... Three things you need to know today: • The EU threatened to [break up Google’s ad business]( • Chipmaker Qualcomm is [cutting 1,200 jobs]( • Microsoft scored its first [renewable energy deal]( in Japan Excising X In the hands of children, social media apps have always risked exposing them to things their parents would rather they not see. That’s especially true in a time of war. Efforts by the social media operators to limit violent content over the past week have largely [failed](. So, many schools and community organizations have been urging parents to take a drastic step: delete their kids’ social media apps. “Students are at risk of exposure to violent content online while social media is being used to amplify terrorist acts,” wrote the superintendent of a Bay Area school district in an email to families and staff seen by Bloomberg. “We also encourage all families to limit students’ access to social media, as images of violence and terrorism circulate online.” A private school in New Jersey and a synagogue in New York were also among the organizations that issued warnings to parents regarding their kids’ social media use, as was a parent association in Tel Aviv. “Dear Parents, It has been brought to our attention that videos of hostages begging for their lives will soon be released. Please remove the @TikTok and @instagram apps from your children's mobile phones,” wrote the Israeli Parents Association in a message, [according]( to an ILTV Israel News anchor. In some Jewish chat groups, warnings were being passed around like chain mail. “IN A FEW HOURS, HAMAS TERRORISTS WILL BE POSTING PHOTOS AND VIDEOS OF HOSTAGES AND TORTUE ON ALL SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS,” read one such message. “ABSOLUTELY PREVENT YOUR CHILDREN FROM WATCHING THEM; THEY ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN AND WILL BE TERRIFYING.” A Jewish high school and Jewish community center in the New York area suggested parents delete Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) from their kids’ devices because of “graphic and misleading information” on those sites, [said]( Joanna Stern, a journalist at the Wall Street Journal. A similar warning was issued by a public school in Washington, DC, [said]( Kevin Baron, an editorial director at Politico. The war has exposed deficiencies in the social media companies’ approaches to content moderation. Elon Musk, who owns X, and Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, have each de-emphasized news in different ways and reduced the sizes of their content safety teams. Now their platforms are more of a free-for-all. More parents are finding that two guys who said they were going to fight each other in a cage aren’t creating the healthiest environments for kids on their apps. —[Aisha Counts](mailto:acounts3@bloomberg.net) The big story The European Commission sent Elon Musk’s X a formal request for information over “illegal” and “terrorist” content on the platform. X has until Oct. 18 to [respond to regulators’ questions]( over the platform’s crisis-response protocol. Get fully charged The CEO of the movie theater chain AMC said he was a victim of a [failed extortion plot]( involving false allegations about his personal life. A US judge said Montana might have overreached with its [statewide TikTok ban](. Adobe’s acquisition of the web design tool Figma is [stalling due to regulatory challenges]( and Adobe’s focus on AI. The workplace software company Atlassian acquired the video startup [Loom for $975 million](. More from Bloomberg Live event: The Bloomberg Technology Summit in London will host top technology leaders, business executives, innovators and entrepreneurs on Oct. 24. The event will explore the rapid advance of AI, green technology, the escalation of cyber warfare and more. [Register here](. 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