The Tech Radar for Parents

Intro — The Rules Catch Up

Welcome to The Tech Radar for Parents. I'm your host, Weston, brought to you by Nicholas D. West Tech LLC. This is your briefing for the week of October twenty sixth, twenty twenty six.

This week, the rules started catching up with the technology in your kid's life. One state told chatbots they can't pretend to be your child's friend. Another state took TikTok to court. And a school district spent the whole week teaching with no internet, after a ransom note showed up on teachers' laptops.

Here's the plan. The good, New York signs a law that spells out, feature by feature, what an A I companion may not do with a minor. The bad, West Virginia sues TikTok, and says its own test account for a thirteen year old girl was fed sexually suggestive videos. The ugly, Richmond, Virginia's public schools, twenty two thousand students, knocked offline by ransomware. And for the first time in a month, the Decoder Ring has real new slang.

This episode mentions self harm. If you or your child are struggling, call or text nine eight eight.

Let's go.

The Good — New York Draws a Line for Chatbots

The good. New York draws a line for chatbots.

On Wednesday the twenty eighth, Governor Kathy Hochul signed a law aimed at A I companions, the chatbots built to talk like a friend. Once it takes effect, companies can't offer a minor in New York a chatbot that does any of a dozen things. It can't claim to be a real person, or to have feelings. It can't claim a personal or romantic relationship. It can't flatter a kid to keep them talking. It can't ask unprompted emotional questions, or bring up a kid's health or personal details from an earlier chat. It can't encourage secrecy, or steer a child away from parents and real help. And it can't promote self harm, eating disorders, or anything sexual.

To do that, companies have to check ages, and offer at least one way that doesn't require a government I D. The state attorney general enforces it, with penalties up to twenty five thousand dollars per violation.

Hochul's line: no company should be peddling chatbots to kids encouraging self harm or pretending to be their friend, or more.

Now, the caveat. It's a New York law, so it protects New York kids, and nothing is enforced yet. The bill text says January first. The governor's office says the coming months. And several of those features still wait on rules the attorney general has to write.

Here's why this matters outside New York. That list is the clearest description yet of how a companion app hooks a kid. Pretend to be real. Flatter. Ask about feelings. Remember secrets. Read it as a checklist for the apps already on your child's phone.

The Bad — West Virginia Takes TikTok to Court

The bad. West Virginia takes TikTok to court.

On Thursday the twenty ninth, West Virginia Attorney General J B McCuskey sued TikTok in state court in Charleston. The state says TikTok built its app to keep young teens scrolling as long as possible, and didn't tell parents about the safety gaps.

Here's the detail that should get your attention. Investigators set up two accounts. One as an adult. One as a thirteen year old girl. The adult's feed filled up with home improvement and local restaurants. The thirteen year old's feed, the state says, kept serving sexually suggestive videos.

The complaint also says TikTok makes kids easy to find and contact, and it cites a West Virginia University study that found teens who used TikTok more showed more signs of depression. The state wants penalties, and a court order forcing TikTok to detect predators and redesign the app for kids.

Now, the caveat. This is a lawsuit, filed Thursday. These are allegations, nothing has been proven, and we found no response from TikTok yet.

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, on Wednesday the twenty eighth, jury selection began in the first of that city's social media trials to put Snap, the maker of Snapchat, in front of a jury. Two plaintiffs, sixteen and eighteen, say Snapchat and Instagram's design hooked them and hurt their mental health. Meta settled with one of them. Opening statements are expected the week this episode airs, and the chief executives of Meta and Snap are expected to testify.

Two states, two tools. One wrote a rule. One filed a suit. Both are asking the question you ask at home. What is this app doing to my kid?

The Ugly — A School District With No Internet

The ugly. A school district with no internet.

On Wednesday morning, October twenty first, teachers in Richmond, Virginia, opened their laptops and found a ransom note. It said the district's network and sensitive information had been compromised, and it threatened to publish stolen data on a leak site within seventy two hours unless the district made contact.

Richmond Public Schools, about twenty two thousand students across fifty three schools, pulled the plug. All week, no Wi Fi. Phones down, except the front office. No copiers, no smart boards, no student Chromebooks, and no PowerSchool, the platform that holds grades and attendance. The schools stayed open.

By Thursday the twenty ninth, the district had brought in the F B I and a private cybersecurity firm. The superintendent, Jason Kamras, told staff there was no evidence employees' personal information had been misused or published. If student data turns out to be affected, he said, families would be notified and offered free credit monitoring.

Now, the caveat. Nobody knows yet what was taken. No ransomware group has claimed the attack, the district hasn't said what the attackers demanded, and as of Thursday nothing had appeared on a leak site.

Richmond wasn't alone. In Jerome, Idaho, an attack the weekend before took over the district's cameras, door locks and heating, and closed schools for two days.

Here's why this is the ugly. Last week it was a testing company your school chose. This week it's the school itself. Your child's school is a network now. When it goes down, the phones, the grades and the way they'd reach you can go down with it.

The Decoder Ring — Maxxing, Word of the Year

Time for the decoder ring.

For the first time in a month, we have new slang with a date and a source behind it. This week, Dictionary dot com named its twenty twenty six word of the year, and it comes straight from your kid's feed. Five terms.

Number one. Maxxing. Spelled with two X's. Pursuing something to the fullest, or optimizing one part of your life. Stick it on the end of almost any word.

Number two. Looksmaxxing. Optimizing your appearance. Searches for it spiked early this year. Harmless at the skincare end. Watch for the surgery and starvation end.

Number three. Cozymaxxing. The same idea, turned gentle. A movie night with snacks, rebranded as a project.

Number four. Min maxing. Where it all started. A gaming strategy, build up a character's strengths until the weaknesses don't matter. Maxxing dropped the min and picked up an extra X.

Number five. Unc. Short for uncle, and on the dictionary's shortlist. If your kid calls you unc, it usually means out of touch. It comes from Black American English, where it meant an older relative or mentor.

Newly official, not new. Your kids have been saying all of these for a while. Now you know what they mean.

Your Weekly Action Plan (1–2)

Here's your action plan for the week. Four things.

Number one. Run New York's checklist on your kid's phone. Sit down together and open any app that talks back. Ask it, are you a real person? Watch whether it flatters, asks how they're feeling, or remembers things from last time. Those are the exact features New York just banned for minors. If an app does them, decide together whether it stays.

Number two. Do what West Virginia did. Open TikTok with your teen and scroll the For You page together for two minutes. Don't lecture, just look. Then turn on Family Pairing, which links your account to theirs so you can set screen time, restrict content, and limit who can message them.

Your Weekly Action Plan (3–4)

Number three. Ask the school one question. How would you reach me if your network went down? Make sure the front office has a current phone number for you, not just an email. And if your child's school ever gets hit, watch your mailbox. Breach notices and credit monitoring offers come by letter.

Number four. Ask your kid what they'd maxx. It's a light way into a heavy topic. If the answer is looks, ask what they'd change and where they got the idea. You'll learn more about what their feed is selling them than any filter will show you.

Closing, This Week's Poll & Outro

Let's bring it home.

The good. New York signed a law that spells out what an A I companion may not do with a minor. Not in force yet.

The bad. West Virginia sued TikTok, and says its test account for a thirteen year old was fed sexually suggestive videos. Allegations, nothing proven.

The ugly. Richmond's public schools spent the week offline after a ransomware attack. Nobody knows yet what was taken.

One more headline. On Friday the twenty third, Texas sued OpenAI, and its chief executive Sam Altman personally, and asked a judge to block ChatGPT for Texas minors. The state says the chatbot fakes human compassion to hook kids. OpenAI says it's committed to working with Texas. Allegations, nothing ruled.

What I did not check this week. No court filings were pulled, in West Virginia or Los Angeles. Richmond's own website carried no notice we could find, so the details come from local reporters. And we found no response from TikTok.

Last week's poll is open through Sunday.

This week's poll. If your child's school were hit by a cyberattack, how would you expect to find out? The school would tell me directly. From my kid. From the news or other parents. Or, I'm not sure. Vote in the Spotify app, or at n d w tech dot org slash tech radar slash polls.

If you or your child are struggling, call or text nine eight eight. Free, confidential, twenty four hours.

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I'm your host, Weston, with Nicholas D. West Tech LLC. Stay vigilant, stay informed, and I'll see you next week.