May 2026 - Page 93 of 105

In which communities it can be done and how to do it in the 2026 declaration

May 5, 2026 by usatoday24

Let’s explain to you how and where you can have a deduction for celiac disease in your Income 2025, which is the declaration we make in 2026 to account for the last fiscal year. You can now request and submit your draft online and from the mobilebut if you have celiac disease it is important to pay attention to this deduction, because you can save a few euros. We have already told you what they are the most important boxes that should be reviewed in the income. And we also have guides on how to deduct you home insurance, gym fee, vet expenses, glasses and contact lenses, school supplies either the rent of your habitual residence. Now, it is the turn of the expenses derived from celiac disease. The deduction is designed to compensate for the extra costs of following a gluten-free diet. But it is important that you know that The deduction depends on the autonomous community in which you live. First because it is only available in three of them, and second because in each one there are different conditions and quantities. Requirements in addition to the community where you live Although each autonomous community establishes its own conditions, there are a series of common requirements that are repeated in practically all of them. These are the requirements that you should know about how to request the deduction or if you can do so. Official medical diagnosis: It is not enough to follow a gluten-free diet by your own decision. To be able to access this deduction you must have a medical report or certificate that confirms that you have celiac disease, in accordance with the criteria recognized by the scientific community. You do not need to justify the specific expenditure on food: You don’t have to keep purchase receipts or invoices for gluten-free products. This deduction is a fixed amount that will be applied just for having this diagnosis. Of course, you will always have to have the medical document. The deduction does not appear in the draft: This is one of those deductions that the Treasury does not automatically fill out. Therefore, it is recommended that you review the draft and add it manually. It is cumulative per family member: If there are several people in your home with diagnosed celiac disease, you can apply the deduction for each of them, not just for you. Deductions for each autonomous community We start with this table where we summarize the autonomous communities where you will be able to receive the deduction for celiac disease, as well as the amount. This way, you will have everything clear at a glance. Community Deduction Rent limit Andalusia €100 for each member of the family unit diagnosed No limit Asturias €100 for each member of the family unit diagnosed €35,000 (individual) / €45,000 (joint) Rioja €250 for each member of the family unit diagnosed No limit Deduction for celiac disease in Andalusia In Andalusia it is established a deduction of 100 euros for each person in the family nucleus with diagnosed celiac disease. This is the only one of the three communities that does not require any tax base limitso any taxpayer residing there can access it regardless of their income. The taxpayer himself, his spouse or partner registered in the registry of de facto couples, and the people who give the right to family minimums through ascendants or descendants are considered part of the family nucleus. Come on, it can be you, your partner if you have married or are a de facto couple, and the children, parents or grandparents who live with you. If two taxpayers are entitled to the deduction for the same person, such as separated people or people with shared custody of a celiac child, the amount is divided equally, 50 euros for each one. Deduction for celiac disease in Asturias In Asturias the deduction is also 100 euros for each member of the family nucleus with a confirmed diagnosis of celiac disease. However, there are three aspects in which it is different from the other two communities. For a start, yes there is an income limit To be able to benefit from the deduction: do not exceed 35,000 euros in individual taxation or 45,000 euros in joint declaration. In addition to this, Asturias It does require that you have expenses derived from the illness. You will not have to provide purchase invoices, but you may have a way to prove that you have actually had these extra expenses in the event that the Treasury requests it. Asturias also has a more restrictive definition of family nucleus. It includes the taxpayer, spouse only when there are joint returns, and ascendants and descendants. If two taxpayers are entitled to the deduction for the same person, such as separated people or people with shared custody of a celiac child, the amount is divided equally, 50 euros for each one. Deduction for celiac disease in La Rioja La Rioja is the most generous community, since it gives you 250 euros for each person in the family nucleus who have a diagnosis of celiac disease, more than twice as many as the others. Furthermore, there are no limits on the tax base either. The family nucleus includes the taxpayer, his or her spouse and the people who give the right to family minimums through ascendants or descendants: children, parents, grandparents. Yes indeed, La Rioja is also more demanding in documentation. Unlike the other two communities, this one does expressly mention the need to have a medical certificate that includes the complete identification of the active doctor who issues it, his or her membership number and specialty, and the date of issue and diagnosis. If two taxpayers are entitled to the deduction for the same person, such as separated people or people with shared custody of a celiac child, the amount is divided equally, 125 euros for each one. How to declare it in Renta Web To add this deduction … Read more

the Mediterranean reaches 20 degrees and today a DANA is going to show us what it means

May 5, 2026 by usatoday24

Let’s start at the beginning: what is going to happen today in Castellón is something completely ordinary. A DANA coming down from the Cantabrian Sea and discharging water over the interior and coast of Castellón, perhaps some hail and intense gusts of wind. The extraordinary thing is everything else, everything that surrounds it: the warmest April in decades, the Mediterranean with a ‘heat wave’ at the beginning of May and the uncertainty of not knowing what will happen in the coming years. What we do know is what is going to happen now. Because, as I said, the DANA was located on the Cantabrian Sea and has been moving towards the east. The point is that the most unstable sector of this DANA spreads today over the north of Castellón. Once there, the DANA, the surface winds and a steep orography facing southeast force the rise of humid air from the Mediterranean. That is the recipe for potentially very intense convective nuclei in inland regions. By Wednesday or Thursday the situation will improve. As I say, a priori, it is nothing exceptional… Although we normally associate DANAs with autumn, the truth is that spring is also a time when they are abundant. What makes this event worth studying is the context that surrounds it. …except for one thing. At the end of April, anomalies of 2 to 3 degrees were recorded in the Gulf of Valencia, the area around the Balearic Islands and Catalonia. A fact that summarizes all this: the Sa Dragonera buoy It touched 20 degrees on April 26while the average for the Balearic Sea in April is 14.9. A warmer Mediterranean in spring is equivalent to more moisture available in the lower troposphere. When there is a contribution of cold air at altitude, that moisture becomes fuel: greater convective instability and more intense rains in less time. This is the problem. While AEMET maintains the yellow noticethere is no reason to assume more danger than expected. However, it is true that it is increasingly difficult to rule out torrential accumulations in any month of the year. The question is not whether it will rain a lot or not, the question is that DANAs arise on a Mediterranean different from the one that served as a reference to build our infrastructures and our warning thresholds. Image | BenBaso In Xataka | There are meteorologists who are already comparing El Niño of 2027 with that of 1877, a catastrophic event that wiped out 4% of the population

women have taken it and filled it with pearls, crystals and glitter

May 5, 2026 by usatoday24

Technology promised to be the glue that would connect us to everything and everyone. The reality is that there are more and more people who feel that technology makes them feel more isolatedwith algorithms that catch in a doomscrolling loop endless. Furthermore, the devices are monotonous, gray and without personality. In this context, a creative scene of women who create their own personalized gadgets, with designs that leave no one indifferent, is emerging. What is a cyberdeck. The concept was coined by William Gibson in his novel ‘Neuromancer‘. This idea ended up becoming a stream ‘maker‘ with users creating mini laptops from loose parts such as screens, keyboards from other gadgets and generally with a Raspberry as the brain. They are devices that do not connect to the internet and are usually designed for hacking or programming. Traditionally they were built by men and the aesthetics were more futuristic cyberpunk style or tactical style. The cyberdecks of the girlies. Recently a new trend has emerged in cyberdecks in which women are the protagonists and they print that hyperfemininity with the most striking designs. It was popularized by the tiktoker and youtuber UbeBoobey when he created his cyberdeck with “mermaid” stylewhich is built inside a shell-type bag and decorated with pearls, crystals, moss and even has makeup inside. Since she published her video in March of this year, many more creators have jumped on the trend of hyperfeminine cyberdecks in media as curious as ‘Polly Pocket’ cases, jewelers, ring boxes and even Hello Kitty toys. Limited features. As we said, a cyberdeck is not designed to connect to the internet, so its functionalities are limited. UbeBoobey loaded movies, music, books, photos and even Wikipedia articles on its cyberdeck, all so as not to depend so much on Internet access. He also installed Doom and can play with a custom mouse as well. In statements to Wiredthe creator admits “I’m a hypocrite, because I use my phone every day. I wouldn’t prefer my Cyberdeck to my phone.” The pleasure of building. But this movement is not about completely replacing the laptop or smartphone, it is about building something with your own hands and then imprinting your personality on the design. In addition, the creator states that it is a way to learn the ins and outs of how current technology works. “We are very disconnected from the manufacturing process, the origin and the inner workings of everything we use and interact with on a daily basis. Cyberdecks are a great starting point to become a little more familiar with technology,” he told Wired. Rejection. There are people who have been building cyberdecks for years, but this new trend emerges at a time when there are a feeling of rejection towards big technologygreatly facilitated by the rise of AI tools, and an evident homogenization of technology, with increasingly minimalist devices and hardly any possibilities for customization. In this context, building a cyberdeck is a response to this discomfort, a way to regain control over technology with open, repairable and personalized devices. Nretro ostalgia. It is a trend that we already talked about in its day in the thread of revival of digicams. Generation Z is falling in love with decades-old technologies, such as the first digital cameras, wired headphones, retro consoles or music players. Young people find charm in the imperfection of these technologies, such as less defined photos or the less clean sound of a player. In the midst of the wave of generative AI, these types of devices are perceived as more human and authentic. It is also a way of reusing technology that was already practically forgotten, compared to the idea of constant renewal to be up to date. Image | Xataka In Xataka |

We believed that the secret to rest was sleeping eight hours. A study has shown that we forget a big element

May 5, 2026 by usatoday24

One of the mantras most repeated ad nauseum in the field of health is related to the need to sleep at least eight hours nightly. A goal that has been widely studied with the repercussions that failure to meet it may have. But now we have seen how the regularity in sleep is a much more powerful preacher of long-term health than mere duration. It’s when you sleep. Although we had very ‘glorified’ how much sleep we have to, trying to make up for lost hours on the weekendthe reality is that the important thing is to have good consistency, as is the case with many other processes. The regularity. The scientific consensus on this paradigm shift is gaining strength, and the last major proof is published by the National Sleep Foundation with an article that points to this regularity as one of the most forgotten components of our nocturnal habits. The key here lies in the internal clock, since we must remember that the time of waking up and early exposure to natural light is what activates our internal system with the cortisol release. In this way, by maintaining a constant reference, we ensure that critical biological processes, from hormonal secretion to body temperature, are regularized. When we don’t respect it. Just like when we travel to another country and we follow schedules very different from ours, the same thing happens here. We have the classic situation on the weekend, where we go to bed late and get up two or three hours later than usual, and surely the feeling when we get up is exhaustion. This is what is now known as ‘social jet lag’ or ‘Monday jet lag’, responsible for that mental fog, lack of alertness and low cognitive function with which we start the week. A shield. Unlike total sleep duration, regularity is a direct marker of the integrity of our circadian system, since when the internal clock and the demands of the environment become out of sync, known as chronodisruption, the body suffers. Just like when we travel between countries or experience time change. Here, a study published in Health Data Science HE dedicated analyzed more than 88,000 adults in the United Kingdom and found that irregular sleep patterns are associated with a greater predisposition to suffer from up to 172 different diseases. In fact, actigraphy studies have shown that intra-individual variability in our sleep hours is a direct marker of all-cause mortality, so trying to accumulate hours on Saturdays and Sundays not only does not save the furniture, but it puts us at risk. The impact of irregularity. In this sense, a linear relationship can be seen between sleep instability and the risk of suffering a cardiac event. But trying to “compensate” for tiredness on the weekend also results in worse insulin sensitivity and ends up altering glucose metabolism, which causes the bill to be quite expensive in the long run. Furthermore, the lack of a clear sleep routine causes a chronic pro-inflammatory state. This alteration compromises our immune response to pathogens, worsens the regulation of autoimmune diseases, and decreases the ability of our cells to repair themselves and eliminate metabolic waste. In summary, following set hours of sleep is essential if we really want to have optimal results in our daily lives. Images | diana.grytsku in Magnific In Xataka | We have accepted that “deep sleep” is the standard for sleep quality: science points in another direction

that Intel and Samsung manufacture their advanced chips in the US

May 5, 2026 by usatoday24

Apple is no longer TSMC’s largest customer. It has been since 2014 and has maintained this position for just over a decade, but in 2025 Nvidia established itself as the main customer of this Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer. Until December 31, 2025, Nvidia generated 19% of TSMC’s revenuecompared to 17% for Apple. Even so, there is no doubt that the Cupertino company continues to be a priority customer for TSMCalthough this scenario could change in the short or medium term. And, according to BloombergApple is exploring the possibility of Intel and Samsung manufacturing the advanced chips for their devices in the US. In all likelihood, the loss of influence and priority in the TSMC production chain that it has maintained for more than a decade has led to this decision. Now Nvidia has these privileges. However, to understand why Apple is considering leaning on Intel and Samsung, we also need to look in another direction. Betting on Intel or Samsung makes sense, although it involves risks There are several compelling reasons why Apple may be interested in Intel manufacturing its integrated circuits in the US. Or Samsung in its state-of-the-art plant in Texas. Or you could even work with both companies simultaneously and not completely sever your business relationship with TSMC. Either way, this diversification strategy would allow Apple to effectively protect itself from supply chain disruptions triggered by geopolitical instability. And also the shortage of some components caused by the massive construction of data centers to artificial intelligence (AI). Apple is a candy for Intel and Samsung. There is no doubt about that In fact, last week Apple recognized during the presentation of its economic results that its current supply chain is not very flexible. And in the current situation of instability, having Intel and Samsung as partners is a very attractive option. Furthermore, for these two companies it is very important get Apple as a client. In 2024 this last company represented approximately 25.2% of annual income from TSMC. And in 2025 this figure dropped to 17%, allowing Nvidia to overtake Apple with 19% of income generated for TSMC. Still, Apple is a candy for Intel and Samsung. There is no doubt about that. For Intel, having Apple as a client would represent a definitive boost for its integrated circuit manufacturing division for third parties. And for Samsung to manufacture a part of Apple’s SoCs would be a very important boost that would probably allow it to attract other clients in the fight it has had with TSMC for years to dominate the cutting-edge chip manufacturing market. Whatever Apple executives decide, it is highly unlikely that this company will abandon TSMC. This Taiwanese chipmaker has proven for years that it is perfectly capable of manufacturing cutting-edge semiconductors on a large scale and with indisputable consistency. You don’t have to prove anything, but Intel and Samsung do because it’s currently unclear whether they can reliably deliver the kind of production and scale that has made them TSMC in the dominant custom chip maker. Apple may end up outsourcing part of the manufacturing of its SoCs to Intel or Samsung, but nothing indicates that it will break its already long-standing commercial alliance with TSMC in the medium term. Image | Apple More information | Bloomberg In Xataka | Apple had been able to maintain prices despite the crazy rise in RAM. That’s over

a cardboard kamikaze drone for $2,000

May 5, 2026 by usatoday24

Since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, drones have become a centerpiece of modern warfare, one marked by the massive use of cheap drones for saturate air defenses. However, even if they are much cheaper than other types of weapons, Its use as loitering ammunition makes the destruction rate very high. In this context of skyrocketing volume and costs, a Japanese startup has a radical solution: disposable drones literally made of cardboard. Disposable drones. The Japanese Minister of Defense, Shinjirō Koizumi, met with the heads of the AirKamuy company and posed with his star invention: a drone made of cardboard, designed for destruction on the battlefield. Its use is intended for countermeasures, launching swarms of drones to absorb attacks from other drones or anti-aircraft defenses. Its strong point is the cost: about $2,000 per unit. To put it in context, an Iranian Shahed drone (one of the most used by Russia) costs around $35,000, 50,000 if it is an improved model. Details. The AirKamuy 150 is made of cardboard with a finish that makes it resistant to rain. It has an electric motor and an autonomy that allows it to fly for 80 minutes. Regarding the weight it can carry, it can only carry 3 pounds (a little over one kg), so it can only move small loads of supplies or ammunition. It is not a heavy combat drone, but a saturation tool: its value is not in what one can do, but in what many can do at the same time. Why it is important. In a context where cost and scale are everything, AirKamuy’s bet has an overwhelming logic: if the enemy launches hundreds of cheap drones, then we launch even cheaper drones. Few materials are as cheap and easy to mass produce as cardboard, and in fact its creators claim that nothing special is needed to produce them, but that any cardboard production plant could do it. That a packaging company can become a military production line is a solution as ingenious as it is disturbing. IKEA-style logistics. Not only is it cheaper to produce but it can also be transported in large quantities and taking up very little space. The AirKamuy 150 comes in a completely flat package, allowing 500 units to fit into a standard cargo container. Once at the destination, assembly takes just ten minutes, without the need for special tools or qualified technical personnel. Image | Shinjiro Koizumi in X In Xataka | Ukraine has just reinvented aerial combat with a piece from the Soviet era: a plane that fires drones

While the hantavirus from the MV Hondius cruise makes headlines, the closest health risk is 10 km from any Mediterranean city

May 5, 2026 by usatoday24

When the MV Hondius left Ushuaia heading to Antarctica on March 20, no one could imagine the hell they were about to live: 150 people of 23 different nationalities, a relatively small ship and a virus that has already caused the death of three passengers. The Dutch shipping company Oceanwide Expeditions consider now docking in the Canary Islandswhich guarantees extra media attention. And yet, the health risk is minimal. In fact, the true health risk for Spain lies elsewhere: much closer. “Risk”? Yes, ‘risk’ is the word and the best example is Andalusia. March 2, 2026 the Board announced that its Strategic Plan for Surveillance and Comprehensive Vector Control until now limited to the West Nile virus will incorporate (for the first time) the monitoring of dengue, chikungunya and Zika. It seems somewhat anecdotal, but what it hides is a profound epidemiological change: not only Andalusia, but the entire Spanish Mediterranean is becoming the perfect ‘breeding ground’ for the mosquitoes that spread all these diseases. What’s more, all this coincides temporally not only with the largest dengue epidemic ever recorded in the Americas (12.6 million cases)but with the historical record of indigenous chikungunya in continental Europe. Dengue in Spain. It is worth stopping at this because, according to data from the National Center for EpidemiologySpain reported 1,119 cases of dengue in 2024 (compared to 615 in 2023, 503 in 2022 and 50 in 2021). It is true that the majority are imported, but indigenous cases are growing. It is not a minor issue: before 2018 We had gone almost a century without indigenous cases in Spain. What changes for someone who lives in Spain? Today, 66% of the Spanish population already lives in municipalities with confirmed presence of tiger mosquitoes. This means that the individual risk of contracting diseases such as dengue, chikungunya or Zika remains low and localized (without having left the country), but it is certainly on the table. As Pamela Rendi-Wagner, director of the ECDC, pointed out last year, we have entered a new normal. And we have to learn that this situation is not fought with headlines but by eliminating stagnant water in patios and terraces. It is worth remembering that the (immense) majority of epidemics in the last 40 years have not been due to unknown diseasesbut to known diseases that went beyond their usual niche. That’s what we’re about to see: a bunch of diseases moving across a continent that has no recent experience managing them. Image | Mithil Girish In Xataka | Mosquitoes attack me in summer and I tried these TikTok tricks to get rid of them

Sam Altman attacked Anthropic for using fear tactics with their new AI. He then did exactly the same thing.

May 5, 2026 by usatoday24

The big AI companies have set themselves a goal: practically every week They must present a new model or start warming up the atmosphere by commenting on what is to come. Delays are not tolerated because the speed at which everything happens is overwhelming, but those who continue to dominate the conversation in terms of the power of their models are OpenAI and Anthropic. And what had to happen has happened: if Anthropic has a new “dangerous” model, now OpenAI says they also have one. And it is a example very clear of “where I said I say, I say Diego.” GPT-5.5 Cyber. A few days ago, OpenAI released GPT-5.5 Cyber. This is a variant of GPT-5.5 focused and specialized in advanced cybersecurity capabilities. It is a model focused on tasks such as the exploitation of vulnerabilities, penetration tests, malware reverse engineering and other types of actions highly focused on that sector of computer security. In a reality in which, thanks to AI tools, there are systems that are more vulnerable than ever (and all this when we are on the threshold of the era of post-quantum cryptography), such specialized models seem like a very sweet tool for companies. But, of course, also for someone with other intentions. Access control. Due to concerns over potential dual use, OpenAI has made the decision to restrict access to GPT-5.5 Cyber to “critical cyber defenders.” Who are these? Those that protect essential infrastructure such as electrical or financial networks. OpenAI has a certified access program with robust safeguards and rejection of malicious requests so that not everyone has access to this tool. In addition, they have a monitoring system to detect suspicious activity carried out by the model. With cannon shots. It is, in essence, the discourse of fear. Once again, an artificial intelligence company saying that they have a product so powerful that it cannot fall into the hands of just anyone. It’s not the first time that OpenAI uses this speech, but the times have been very curious. A few days ago, Anthropic presented Mythos. It is a tool very similar to that of OpenAI, one that is already giving some results in companies, with examples like Mozilla pointing out that, thanks to Mythos, the latest version of Firefox has a lot of security patches because AI has greatly streamlined the processes for finding vulnerabilities. It is one more example of the two titans of the AI industry captaining ships with enormous firepower and “shooting” their best product with that speech of fear. Precisely, that’s where the problem lies. The hypocrisy. After the presentation of Cyber, Sam Altman commented at X that they were working with the Government to establish trusted access control to their tool. They have not shared the identities of those who will have initial access or, really, many details of the model. It has simply been a “oops, oops, this is very powerful and we can’t release it to the general public.” And, as we say, the problem is that Sam Altman himself harshly criticized Anthropic’s strategy when Mythos was presented. The CEO spoke about the strategy of fear and compared the maneuver of Anthropic and its declared enemy, Dario Amodei, with that of someone who manufactures an atomic bomb and, at the same time, sells you the bunker to protect you from it. This has not been overlooked by the media because he harshly criticized that strategy just before copying it word for word. At par. Despite everything, neither one nor the other is wrong. When AI companies present a model, curiously it is always better than the competition in almost everything. On this occasion, a assessment The UK AI Security Institute reflects that both Mythos and GPT-5.5 Cyber are two of the most powerful models they have analyzed in their cybersecurity tests and that they are, basically, on par. Compared to previous or non-specific models, the difference is palpable. In expert-level tasks, GPT-5.5 achieved an average success rate of 71.4% compared to 52.4% for GPT-5.4. Mythos Preview, for its part, stayed at 68.6% compared to 48.6% for Opus 4.7. The Institute concludes by pointing out that this is evidence that the potential in cybersecurity is a trend among frontier models, one in which they can begin to achieve the desired benefits in order to become listed companies. Another reading is that countries that want to stop depending on cutting-edge American technology must start getting their act together as soon as possible. And that is, precisely, the message from the CEO of Mistral, the French AI company that recently pointed out that Europe had to stop being a technological vassal of the United States to become a power. In Xataka | Someone has had a simple idea so that data centers do not collapse in Spain: “unplug them” 18 days a year

how to migrate memory of everything other AIs know about you to Gemini

May 5, 2026 by usatoday24

Let’s tell you how to migrate memories from Claude or ChatGPT to Geminiand thus perform a migration of a artificial intelligence to another. Gemini has launched a function that allows you to import memories from Claude, ChatGPT or any other AI you’ve been using. This is a function that It was already available in Claudeand now it has been Google that has incorporated it. With it, you can import all the important data about you that any AI chat will save to personalize the responses to your context. Because yes, Claude or ChatGPT can remember things like your musical tastes, where you work or if you have pets. And why can it be useful to import these memories into Gemini? Well, because if you have decided to start using Google’s AI, you can make it know about you all the specific data that your other AIs use to personalize its results and adapt them to you. This way you won’t have to learn it from scratch conversation by conversation. Import memories from another AI to Gemini To use this option, you first have to enter Gemini through its application or its website, and log in with the account where you want all the information you will bring from other AIs to go. in here, enter the option Settings and help that will appear in the left column on the website. Once inside, you have to click on the option Import stored data to Geminiwhich will appear to you. In the Gemini mobile appwhat you have to do is click on your profile image, and in the drop-down menu is where you will find the option to Import stored data to Gemini. This will open the import memory screen. In it, above you have a prompt that you must copy to use in another AI to extract the memories, and below you will have a field where you have to write the imported memory that generates the prompt above. Therefore, here click on the button Copy of the text you have above. Now, the text that you have copied in Gemini you have to paste it in a chat with the AI where you want to extract the memories. Just paste it exactly as you have it into ChatGPT, Claude or something else, and send it. This will make the AI generate a code with all the memories what he has on you. You will have to copy this code and stick it in the Gemini field what’s in the window we opened before. With this, Claude will recognize the memories and start saving them internally. Additionally, you also have the option to import the conversations as a Zip file. To do this, you will have to go to the other chatbot’s settings and look for the option to export your history as Zip. Google has a tutorial with the process for ChatGPT and Claude.

The world wants to verify the age of children so that they do not access social networks. Children’s solution: paint a mustache

May 5, 2026 by usatoday24

The United Kingdom presume to have one of the strictest legislations in the world when it comes to protecting minors from social networks. The curious thing is that young people are managing to demonstrate that age verification technology has a unique Achilles heel: an eyebrow pencil. Look, I have a mustache. The British country has been forcing platforms to implement age verification measures in accordance with its Online Safety Act for months. However, a recent study from the NGO Internet Matters reveals that the limits imposed by these platforms are surprisingly easy to overcome. In fact, one of the methods is especially striking, because some children simply use an eyebrow pencil to paint a mustache and thus look older than they really are. Children 1 – Machines 0. This agency surveyed 1,000 children and parents in the United Kingdom and although it showed positive effects after activating these measures, it also made it clear that many children saw these systems as an easy obstacle to overcome rather than as a way to keep them safe. 46% of minors believe that the measures are easy to overcome. Only 17% believe that they are very difficult to avoid, while 19% say they do not know. Source: Internet Matters. Cheating machines is trivial. 46% of the children surveyed indicated that These age verification systems are easy to overcomeand only 17% found them difficult to avoid. There are several methods to overcome these systems, but most are simple. For example, using video game characters like ‘Death Stranding’ to show them in front of cameras trying to verify their age. Also show IDs of other people when asked, or simply use false birth dates. (At least) One in three skips the controls. But not everyone uses these methods: although the aforementioned 46% say that it is easy to overcome these systems and another 17% say that they are neither easy nor difficult, “only” 32% admit to having used some technique to overcome them. Of course, it is one thing that only 32% admit it and quite another that these figures are representative taking into account that they are confessing that they are doing something that they should not do. Methods vary, but many use fake birth dates or log in with their parents’ or siblings’ accounts. Complicit parents. The effectiveness of the Online Safety Act depends largely on the family environment, with data suggesting that at least a quarter of parents are uncooperative. The study indicates that 26% of parents have allowed their children to ignore or overcome these age verification systems, and in fact 17% admit have actively helped their children to evade these controls while 9% simply turn a blind eye. It’s not that big of a deal. Many parents justify this “help” by indicating that they understand the risks of their children accessing these platforms, but prefer to supervise the use of services such as TikTok or video games themselves. The idea: allow your children to bypass restrictions to play with friends or stream, but theoretically under your supervision. The failure of putting doors to the field. It’s not just that age verification systems are easy to overcome: The thing is that they do not eliminate risks completely either. In the Internet Matters study, almost half of the minors surveyed (49%) indicated that they had recently encountered toxic material on the Internet. This makes it clear that even children who do not try to bypass these controls still encounter inappropriate content. There are those who advocate going further and push for the end of online anonymity. Image | Jeremiah Lawrence In Xataka | The EU has just ready its app to verify age on the internet. And Ursula von der Leyen warns: “There are no more excuses”

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