The UK is proposing one of the toughest social media crackdowns for children anywhere in the world. The plans were announced by Keir Starmer this month, stating that under-16s would be banned from major platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, X and YouTube, while messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal are expected to remain exempt.

The government is also considering broader protections, including restrictions on livestreaming, contact from strangers, overnight “digital curfews”, breaks in infinite scroll, and possible default safeguards for 16–17-year-olds to avoid what ministers have called a “cliff edge” at 16. The legislation is expected later this year, with protections due to come into force in spring 2027.

This is where Australia offers an important reality check. Its under-16 social media ban, introduced in December 2025, has so far had only limited success in reducing access. Research found that more than 85% of under-16s were still accessing at least one restricted platform each week, while Australia’s eSafety Commissioner reported that around seven in ten children who had social accounts before the ban still had some access afterwards. Workarounds included fake accounts, private browsing and parental accounts. In response, Australia is now doubling the maximum penalty for platforms in breach of the law to AUD $99 million and giving regulators stronger powers to demand evidence of compliance. The lesson is not that bans are meaningless, but that enforcement is difficult, circumvention is inevitable, and the real pressure may ultimately fall back on platforms to prove they are taking safety seriously.

The longer-term significance goes far beyond this policy cycle. If these restrictions stick, the next generation may grow up with weaker default attachment to mainstream social platforms, stronger parental influence, and different habits around attention, discovery and trust. That could gradually shift the balance back towards search, owned channels, offline experiences and more intentional content journeys. For institutions thinking about future student behaviour, this is not just a child safety story; it could become a channel shift story too.

New LinkedIn data provided exclusively to Forbes suggests that choosing a degree is no longer just about salary potential or perceived prestige. Instead, it is increasingly about how many different directions a degree can take you in.

The data shows that hiring for new graduates into roles related to their major has fallen across all 15 of the most common majors on LinkedIn between December 2019 and April 2026. The steepest drops were in engineering (-25%), computer and information sciences (-24%) and interdisciplinary studies (-24%). Even business and marketing, which make up 24.3% of graduates on LinkedIn, saw hiring fall by 23%.

Reddit is often treated as a youth platform by association with internet culture, but the audience data tells a more useful story. According to Comscore data reported by EMARKETER, Reddit reached 124.5 million unique US visitors in March 2026, and 62% of them were aged 35 or older. The single biggest age group was 25–34-year-olds, at 29.6 million users, but millennials and Gen X clearly make up the platform’s centre of gravity.

Reddit is increasingly looking like a platform where broad adult audiences gather around intent, identity and expertise instead of just memes or niche fandoms. And advertisers seem to be noticing, with Reddit ad spend up 46.3% year on year and outpacing Instagram and TikTok.

However, Reddit should not be dismissed as too old or too niche by default. If you are trying to reach prospective postgraduates, adult learners, parents or working professionals, it may deserve a bigger role in audience planning, community testing and paid social mix than it often gets.

Meta’s latest updates show how quickly AI is becoming baked into both content creation and advertising as an everyday workflow tool.

On the creator side, Meta is rolling out a new AI creator assistant on Facebook that can answer practical performance questions like when should I post? and what are people saying in my comments? based on a creator’s own content, audience and goals. It can also suggest new ideas tied to trends, helping creators move from analysis to action much faster.

Alongside that, Meta is expanding its AI translation tools on Facebook, adding more languages and lip-sync capabilities so creators can preserve tone and reach wider audiences more naturally. More than half a billion users are already watching AI-translated videos weekly, which gives a sense of how fast this behaviour is scaling.

There is some genuinely encouraging news on student retention in the U.S. New data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows that 77.1% of first-time students who enrolled in fall 2024 returned the following fall, which is the highest first-year persistence rate in a decade.

The most notable progress came among underrepresented groups. Black students’ year-to-year persistence rose to 70%, up from 68.6%, while Hispanic students increased to 74.5%, up from 73%. These are both the highest rates seen for these groups in the last 10 years. Black and Hispanic students were also more likely than before to return to the institution where they originally enrolled.

So, it looks as though persistence is moving in the right direction, even if equity gaps remain. For universities, retention is not just a student success story; it is increasingly a brand, recruitment and revenue story too. Institutions that can show students stay, progress and feel supported will have a much stronger message in-market.

France raises non-EU tuition fees

France is making a significant change to its international recruitment model. From September 2026, most new students from outside the EU will be required to pay €2,895 a year for a bachelor’s degree and €3,941 for a master’s, replacing the much lower public rates many universities had continued to charge. The move is tied to France’s new “Choose France for Higher Education” strategy, which aims to attract international students into priority sectors such as health, AI, biotech, energy and communications.

France will still be cheaper than the UK, US, Canada or Australia, but this is a clear shift away from its previous low-fee positioning, and it could strengthen the appeal of other countries in more price-sensitive markets, especially across Africa and South Asia.

Vietnam pushes to become a top international study destination

Vietnam is making a more serious play for a key role in international higher education. Long known as one of Asia’s strongest outbound student markets, the country is now trying to position itself as a destination in its own right, with a mix of policy reform, English-medium delivery and growing transnational education partnerships.

Vietnam currently hosts around 20,000 international students and wants to grow that to 35,000 within five years. There are already around 200 TNE programmes operating in partnership with overseas institutions, particularly from Australia, the UK and Germany, and sector leaders say the country now feels similar to where Malaysia was at the start of its TNE growth story.