Bytes: What’s new in tech

Instagram’s child-influencer problem

Young girls’ Instagram accounts, run by parents, have become a magnet for creeps, said Jennifer Valentino-DeVries and Michael H. Keller in The New York Times. On Instagram, “preteens jockey to become brand ambassadors for products and apparel” by donning “bikinis” and gym attire. Others build up their following by “paid subscriptions” to access exclusive photos, videos, and even chat sessions. The most successful girls can command $3,000 per post from sponsors. Instagram, however, prohibits kids under 13. Many of these accounts are “mom-run accounts,” opened and maintained by a parent. But their followers are predominantly grown men, some of whom have openly admitted to being attracted to children. “A small group of men” will “cultivate business and patronage relationships with mothers,” and some have tried to blackmail mothers and daughters.

The ‘airplane mode’ switch is obsolete

Airplane mode is a myth, said Maxwell Zeff in Gizmodo. For years, we’ve been told that we must switch our phones into “airplane mode” upon boarding because a phone signal could interfere with a plane’s navigation system. This idea traces back to 1991, when the Federal Communications Commission “banned cellphones on planes, citing as the reason ‘ground network interference.’” By 2005, the FCC had acknowledged that modern phones don’t pose any risk, but the myth persisted. Efforts by the FCC to drop the ban were shot down. Why? Because airlines believe “people won’t stop yapping on their phones during flights, leading to more instances of ‘air rage.’”

Marc Andreessen’s Washington play

Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capitalist is making a push for influence in Washington, said Theodore Schleifer in Puck. Marc Andreessen backed Obama in 2008 but says he “felt burned by Democrats’ anti-business message,” prompting a period of “self-conscious reflection and awakening he has called a

‘spirit walk.’” That spirit walk is over: Andreessen has emerged as “unabashedly a right-winger, and a terminally online one at that.” Ironically, Andreessen’s political outspokenness comes just as his firm, Andreessen Horowitz, is spending tens of millions of dollars to promote “crypto-friendly regulations.” Andreessen’s elevated profile has been a hindrance to lobbyists trying to press the venture capital firm’s “carefully manicured” crypto policy message.