Social Media Bans for Kids + Other Agreement News
Social Media Bans for Kids
Across party lines, Americans favor banning social media for kids under 16. Florida is the first state to try. Instead of policing content, its law argues that social media platforms are deliberately designed to be addictive, a strategy inspired by tobacco litigation. A legal challenge to Florida’s law, and separate lawsuits against major platforms, will test whether the strategy can succeed.
Read more: Social Media Bans for Kids (8 minute read)
New Poll Results
The U.S. government should not endorse candidates or parties in European elections, said 66% of Democrats, 57% of Republicans, and 60% of Independents. When this poll was conducted in mid-February 2026, President Trump had recently endorsed Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for re-election. (Poll data from The Economist/YouGov Poll, February 20-23, 2026)
Other News and Links
Looking for Less Polarization? Try Local Government: In Local governments provide proof that polarization is not inevitable, Rochester Institute of Technology Professor Lauren Hall points to a 2024 survey of 1,400 local officials conducted by CivicPulse and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. It found local governments “are largely insulated from the harshest effects of polarization in America,” and smaller communities (those under 50,000 residents) proved especially resilient.
In explaining this, Hall notes that national politics is often defined by values- and identity-centered issues like abortion and transgender rights. In contrast, local issues are more practical, like enforcing zoning rules, filling potholes, and picking up garbage. It’s easier to get people to problem-solve the latter together.
Hall also notes that local politics is done by people who live among each other: “A neighbor who disagrees about property taxes could be the coach of your child’s soccer team. Your fellow school board member might share your concerns about curriculum but vote differently in presidential elections.” It’s harder to demonize people you actually know, as opposed to abstract “others” represented by their extremes in the media.
That said, you might ask whether small towns feel less polarized simply because many are overwhelmingly red or overwhelmingly blue to begin with. Hall’s article doesn’t address that question directly, but the survey of local officials does. It found that the perceived impact of polarization on local governing relationships was similarly low across Republican-majority, Democratic-majority, and politically mixed communities.
This suggests that Hall's mechanisms—practical problem-solving, personal relationships outside politics—are doing real work, not just benefiting from friendly terrain. So although local politics still has conflict, there is reason to believe it’s structurally less polarized than national politics.