Things To Do In SW Florida

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer

Nearly half of American teenagers say they are online “constantly” despite concerns about the effects of social media and smartphones on their mental health, according to a new report published Thursday by the Pew Research Center.

As in past years, YouTube was the single most popular platform teenagers used — 90% said they watched videos on the site, down slightly from 95% in 2022. Nearly three-quarters said they visit YouTube every day.

There was a slight downward trend in several popular apps teens used. For instance, 63% of teens said they used TikTok, down from 67% and Snapchat slipped to 55% from 59%. This small decline could be due to pandemic-era restrictions easing up and kids having more time to see friends in person, but it’s not enough to be truly meaningful.

X saw the biggest decline among teenage users. Only 17% of teenagers said they use X, down from 23% in 2022, the year Elon Musk bought the platform. Reddit held steady at 14%. About 6% of teenagers said they use Threads, Meta’s answer to X that launched in 2023. read more

By KELVIN CHAN

LONDON (AP) — After a sprawling hacking campaign exposed the communications of an unknown number of Americans, U.S. cybersecurity officials are advising people to use encryption in their communications.

To safeguard against the risks highlighted by the campaign, which originated in China, federal cybersecurity authorities released an extensive list of security recommendations for U.S. telecom companies — such as Verizon and AT&T — that were targeted. The advice includes one tip we can all put into practice with our phones: “Ensure that traffic is end-to-end encrypted to the maximum extent possible.”

End-to-end encryption, also known as E2EE, means that messages are scrambled so that only the sender and recipient can see them. If anyone else intercepts the message, all they will see is a garble that can’t be unscrambled without the key.

Law enforcement officials had until now resisted this type of encryption because it means the technology companies themselves won’t be able to look at the messages, nor respond to law enforcement requests to turn the data over. read more

Six months after top Florida officials advanced a deal that would swap 324 acres of state forest to a golf course company, Chase Pirtle hiked through the woods to document the creatures that stood to lose their home.

He found a threatened indigo snake basking in the sun, a rare animal some scientists spend years trying to spot. Florida mice, an imperiled species with distinctive big ears and hind feet, scurried through the sand, captured on a night camera. And Pirtle, who leads a nonprofit research group hired by the Sierra Club, tallied at least 112 burrows of endangered gopher tortoises — more than half of which showed signs of active use.

“Every acre serves significant importance,” said Pirtle, director of the Ashton Biological Preserve, considered a leader of gopher tortoise protections in Florida. “The loss of sandhill habitat in this state is horrific, and every little habitat that we can hang on to is extremely important right now.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis, along with the three members of the Florida Cabinet, spent less than 30 seconds in June discussing the swap before voting to move it forward. The deal meant the state would give the forest land to Cabot Citrus Farms, a luxury golf resort in Hernando County looking to expand its neighboring operation, in exchange for 861 acres of timber land in Cedar Key. Environmental groups have decried the proposal, saying the state forest is home to fragile habitat in need of protection. read more

By TOM KRISHER, AP Business Writer

DETROIT (AP) — Elon Musk says the Securities and Exchange Commission wants him to pay a penalty or face charges involving what he disclosed — or failed to disclose — about his purchases of Twitter stock before he bought the social media platform in 2022.

In a letter posted by Musk on the platform now called X, his lawyer Alex Spiro tells the outgoing SEC chairman, Gary Gensler, that the commission’s demand for a monetary payment is a “misguided scheme” that won’t intimidate Musk. The letter also alleges that the commission reopened an investigation this week into Neuralink, Musk’s computer-to-human brain interface company.

The SEC has not released the letter. Nor would it comment on it or confirm whether it has issued such a demand to Musk.

“It is the policy of the SEC to conduct investigations on a confidential basis to preserve the integrity of its investigative process,” an agency spokesperson said in an email Friday.

Messages also were left Friday by The Associated Press seeking comment from Spiro. read more