Creator Weekly: UK teen social media bans, YouTube Membership Smart Pricing, Threads Communities

Summer is officially here! Be sure to take a break now and again to enjoy the outdoors (this is also a reminder for me).

This week there are new limits on teens using social media, updates for YouTube Partners, Twitch Streamers, writers on Substack, Beehiiv, and Mastodon, Threads Communities, LinkedIn Profiles and more.

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Top Updates

UK will ban social media for under-16s and limit live streaming for all under-18s.
YouTube Partners can update Membership pricing every 12 months, and optionally use new smart pricing recommendations.
Twitch rolled out Dual Format streaming to all, and 4K streaming to Affiliates and Partners. If you don’t want to set up Dual Format streaming yourself, use Streamlabs.
Twitch has a new Creator Certification program for Sponsorships.
Google Vids added new Veo video generation tools and expanded the selection of default AI avatars.
Edits video editing app can export video up to 15 minutes, and has new AI Restyle and Opacity Blending tools. Plus new Reel metrics if you are sharing to Instagram.
Substack has a new Creator Kit media kit tool and will add brand partnerships.
Beehiiv MCP (which lets you connect to AI platforms) now have write access to create posts, launch polls, and more.
Mastodon launched Collections (curated lists of profiles) and email Newsletters.
Bluesky now lets you reply to specific messages in Group Chats and wants to hear from you about Communities.
Facebook added AI Mode in search (with info from Groups & Reels) and can make cutout collages and videos from your camera roll.
Threads hit 500 million monthly users, and has added new Communities features and “Your Algo” to influence your feed algorithm.
Instagram image carousels can have a separate caption for each image.
LinkedIn simplified the look of Posts, enabled GIF replies and lets you add Connected Apps to show your expertise.
Android 17 is rolling out with Screen Reaction recording, AI music and video tools and more.
Plus more updates for website owners, video creators, live streamers, Android phones, Adobe Firefly, Google Play Books, Google Scholar and more.

UK to limit Social Media to 16+

Under-16s in the UK will be banned from social media starting in Spring 2027. This is similar to the recent age restrictions in Australia.

But the UK regulations take it further. 16- and 17-year olds will not have access to live streaming or being able to be contacted by strangers by default, including on gaming platforms.

The ban will apply to Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X, but not messaging services. Social media companies, including YouTube, Meta and Snapchat, argue this will push teens to the less safe corners of the internet.

And it’s not clear it will work. Natalia Perez-Gonzalez at Creator Spotlight notes that in Australia, where under-16s were banned from social media last year, 60% of 15-year-olds who previously had accounts were still using those platforms.

A ban doesn't make teenagers disappear — or even protect them — so much as it scatters them into group chats, DMs, gaming servers, and uncovered apps with far less moderation and far less visibility. It also pulls teens out of the open, legible spaces where brands, media, and the rest of us currently read the first signals of what's coming.

She also notes that teen girls set the trends, or at least are good at identifying trends. Platforms cater to that, so banning younger teens may make the internet less vibrant. And it’s not clear that limiting teen expression online is a good thing.

It’s also concerning that this will require platforms to collect more personal information. Adults will NOT have to verify their age if their account:

has been open more than 16 years
has a credit card connected to it
linked to an email address that’s age-verified in other ways
completed age verification under the Online Safety act

Even so, many 16 and 17-year-olds and adults will have to go through age verification.

Possibly related: Meta and YouTube have recently added new tools for parents and a safer experience for teens.

YouTube and Video Updates

YouTube is updating the pricing of Memberships to reflect current exchange rates. You have until August 17 (60 days) to decide whether to use the recommended market pricing or set custom prices.

There are also new smart pricing recommendations inside YouTube Studio, with personalized suggestions based on your location, your members’ location, your audience and your engagement with members. Pricing for new members can be updated once every 12 months per Membership tier (current members keep their pricing). YouTube is clear that they don't guarantee the recommended prices will increase your earnings, so use the suggestions with caution.

If selling things is your passion, YouTube shared a short explainer on how to get started with the YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program.

Twitch launched a Creator Certification program. Complete the brief Creator Camp course and get a special badge, training to maximize sponsorship opportunities and early access to Open Invite campaigns. The course covers Sponsorships on Twitch and creating brand suitable content.Learn more.

This week Twitch rolled out Dual Format streaming for all streamers and 2k (1440p) streaming for Partners and Affiliates. Vertical stream VOD expire after 7 days

Streamlabs now supports dual format streaming to Twitch. The desktop app uses cloud based streaming, which uses less upload bandwidth and doesn’t tax the CPU and GPU on your computer as much. That keeps stream quality high. Dual Output to one vertical and one horizontal destination is free. Streamlabs also supports dual streaming to YouTube.

StreamYard added bulk actions to manage your media assets like overlays, backgrounds and videos.

Google Vids has new Veo video generation tools. This is available to personal Google Accounts with an AI Pro or Ultra subscription, and Google Workspace accounts. Generated clips are standard definition (720p) and 8 seconds long. Now you can:

Extend existing video clips
Generate multiple clips at once

Google Vids expanded the default AI avatar selection from 23 to 53, including new photorealistic, 3D cartoon and graphic novel styles. You can also generate avatars in 16 new languages. And custom avatars can now be used to prompt generated video clips where they can move around. This is available to personal Google Accounts with an AI Pro or Ultra subscription, and Google Workspace accounts. Learn more.

The Edits video editing app has added longer video export (up to 15 minutes), Restyle with an AI prompt, and Opacity Blending (blend stickers, text and captions with your video). If you use Edits to post to Instagram, there are audience insights that you can share as a PDF, and compare metrics for up to 3 Reels.

TikTok has new rules for shopping livestreams. TikTok wants “lively verbal interactions” with your audience while showing your face. They prohibit AI-generated voices or audio recordings, screen recordings, or still images or animated content that covers more than half the screen. And you have to demonstrate and reference the promoted product.

Web Publishers

Google Search Central News has a new video covering Generative AI Reporting in Google Search Console, Search Profiles for US creators and publishers, and more tips from the SEO community.

And in the latest episode of Search Off the Record, Google’s John Mueller and Martin Splitt discuss whether you should use Markdown for your website. Does it help AI crawlers understand your site? Probably not. And Markdown can hurt discovery.

If you are a bestseller publisher on Substack you can use the new Creator Kit tool to create a media kit to share with potential sponsors. Substack says that a new platform for brand partnerships is “coming next”.

Beehiiv has added write access to the beehiiv MCP (Model Context Protocol). If you connect your beehiiv account to Claude or other AI (like Gemini), you can use it to create and edit posts, launch products and polls, or build multi-step automations. Write access requires a paid plan; free accounts can use the MCP for analytics and similar tasks.

Social Media

Mastodon launched Collections, curated lists of profiles to follow. It’s designed to minimize the potential for spam.

You can only be included if you opt in to “Feature me in discovery experiences”
Collections can include up to 25 profiles.
There’s no “follow all” shortcut.
Collections can be shared with a link
Collections appear on the creator's profile, under the Featured tab.

Mastodon has redesigned profiles to be more “ergonomic” and easier to edit.

The new Newsletter feature on Mastodon lets you opt-in to allow anonymous users (not signed in to Mastodon or a Fediverse account) to follow your posts by email.

Designed for institutional accounts, journalists, bloggers and creators with their own server.
It must be enabled for your server, as this can be expensive to manage.
Your account must have an assigned role with the necessary permissions. (Mastodon says discuss it with your server admin)

Bluesky updated Group Chats so you can reply to specific messages. Group Chats just launched, and are a first step towards Communities.

And if you are interested in building a Community on Bluesky, the design research team wants to hear from you.

Facebook added AI Mode in search. Ask a question and Meta AI will base the answer in public posts in Groups and Reels. The example is looking for travel suggestions, which is pretty low stakes. But there is a lot of bad information and promotional content posted on Facebook, which seems like would make this not particularly valuable.

If you have given Facebook access to your camera roll (!) , there is a new AI editing option that can create cutout collages and videos. You can also change your clothing with AI, like adding your soccer team’s jersey.

Threads has reached 500 million monthly active users, bringing it close to the activity on X. There are a new Community and timeline features:

Communities are out of beta.
Communities Hub on the left menu to find your Communities and suggested Communities.
Distinct Community Icons
Community Progress to show if a topic is close to becoming a Community.
Community Champion status to more users.
Local Communities for Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
“Your Algo” to indicate which topics you do or don’t want to see. The changes can last 1, 3 or 7 days. This is available in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Instagram image carousels can now have up to 20 slides, with a separate caption for each slide. This is a “long-requested feature”.

LinkedIn is simplifying the look of Posts in the main feed so there is “less visual noise”. What that means in practical terms is there are just small icons for Like, Comment, Repost, Send (and no text labels). Follow the link to see what it looks like.

LinkedIn added Connected Apps. Connect the apps you use and they will display on your profile with a statement about how you use the app (which is provided by the app, and cannot be edited).Apps include (or will include soon) Adobe Express, beehiiv, Buffer, duolingo, fiverr, GitHub, HeyGen, HubSpot, Magic Patterns, Replit, Riverside, Sprinklr, Zapier and a bunch more. The purpose is “building credibility”, but note that it does not include professional software like Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft Office, Figma, AutoCAD, or Affinity.

And now you can add GIFs to your LinkedIn comments.

Tools

Adobe Firefly AI Assistant has new tools, including brand kit creation, short product video creation, create video from storyboards (and create storyboards), Quick Cut (assemble footage into a first draft that you can edit). You can also use natural language, invite collaborators and set workflow preferences. AI Assistant is available in public beta for Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator, Frame.io and InDesign. It’s available in private beta for for After Effects.

Upgraded Adobe Firefly can save elements (characters, locations, objects) and let you organize projects. This is available in private beta. Sign up here.

Adobe Premiere has new features including faster AI masking, new audio editing controls, single word captioning, new dynamic transitions and improved connections to Firefly and Adobe Stock. There are also updates to After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator and Lightroom. Click the link for details.

Google Calendar now lets you choose from 24 default colors for events, rather than 11, and there is a full color picker on the web.

Google Scholar is a repository of research articles. This being Google, it has an AI-powered Scholar Labs search feature. With the latest update, it’s faster, scans more papers, and allows users to do 10x more searches per day. For each paper in the search results, it describes why it might be relevant. And you can ask follow-up questions. My take is that this looks useful, but don’t rely on the AI-generated descriptions which can be misleading.

Google Play Books now has Book Insights. Yes, this is an AI chatbot that lets you ask about the plot, characters, locations or other information. No spoilers, because it will only reference the text up to your current reading location.

Android 17 is starting to roll out. It includes the new Screen Reactions recording (record yourself, along with your phone screen), and a lot more.

There are also creative features in this month’s Pixel drop (see availability by device):

Screen Reactions (with Android 17) are coming first to Pixel devices.
Create videos with Gemini Omni remixed from your photo or video references. Requires an AI subscription.
Create original music tracks with lyrics in Gemini from a photo or text prompt.
Real time voice translation between English and Hindi. Requires a Pixel 10a or higher device.

Microsoft introduced the new Surface Pro (which can be used as a tablet or laptop) and Surface Laptop. Both ship with Affinity “pinned to the start menu” for professional design, photo and publishing tools. Canva acquired Affinity in 2024, and it is free to use.

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