France doubled down on restricting access to Polymarket, a Chinese solar company said its new cell has an efficiency of 35.5%, and OpenAI will notify parents if their teen has been kicked off of ChatGPT

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France has doubled down on restricting access to Polymarket. A Chinese solar company said its new cell has an efficiency of 35%.
And OpenAI will start notifying parents if their teen has been kicked off of ChatGPT. It's Monday, July 20th, and here's a quick look at some of the news happening in the sphere of tech this morning from Engadget.
France is doubling down on preventative measures for its citizens trying to access Polymarket. The country's independent regulatory authority in charge of licensed gambling and betting games said that it ordered internet service providers to block access to Polymarket. This decision follows its previous regulatory action from November of 2024 that placed a geo block on any financial transactions from French residents on the Polymarket website. Despite this ban on transactions, the agency said that the platform continued to grow in France thanks to users circumventing the block. Now it wants to crack down harder on Polymarket, again emphasizing that the platform is considered an illegal gambling site. According to the regulator's latest move, anyone called advertising an unauthorized betting or gambling site could be fined up to €100,000, equivalent to $114,000.
In Spain, the government also ordered to block access to both Polymarket and Cauchy while it investigates if these sites break the country's gambling laws. In the US., Minnesota passed a bill that bans prediction markets from operating in the state, while other states are filing lawsuits against Polymarket and Cauchy.
Chinese company LONGi has developed a solar cell that it claims has achieved a conversion efficiency of 35.5% as verified by the European Solar Test Installation, a reference laboratory for the calibration of photovoltaic devices. That is an impressive conversion efficiency compared to what most solar cells are capable of. According to the US. Energy Information Administration, the solar cells in commercially available panels are just now approaching a 25% efficiency. There are cells with a conversion efficiency of 50%, but therefore niche uses like solar panels for satellites. The company specifically developed crystalline silicon perovskite tandem solar cells. They're an emergent PV technology that LONGi believes is the future of solar energy. Theoretically, these cells could achieve an efficiency of 43%.
OpenAI will now notify parents and guardians with linked accounts if their child has been kicked off ChatGPT for violating its policies on violent threats or acts of violence online. The company launched parental controls for ChatGPT last year, allowing parents to link their personal accounts with their teenage children's. It allows them to schedule hours when ChatGPT cannot be used and to reduce sensitive content, and it will notify them if the chatbot detects signs that their child might be thinking of harming themselves. Now, OpenAI has expanded its notifications to let parents know if their child might be a danger to others. In the example the company posted, OpenAI sent the parent an alert regarding an important update about their child's account. From there, the parent can click Learn More to see a longer message telling them that their child's account had been deactivated for violating its usage policies related to acts of violence. OpenAI vowed to strengthen its safety protocols after it was discovered that the 2025 TumblrRidge British Columbia mass shooting suspect used ChatGPT. Canadian authorities summoned the company after reports came out that it did not notify authorities when it banned the shooter's account. OpenAI chief Sam Altman even apologized for the oversight. In addition to launching the new notification, OpenAI has also introduced the ability to switch on Study Mode directly from parental controls. Study Mode enables ChatGPT to give hints before answering questions to help students learn and study. Plus, the Chatbot will now show teen users who spent extended time in ChatGPT more frequent break reminders to help them form healthier tech habits.
Thanks for listening. There's more tech news at engadget.com. This episode featured journalism from Jackson Chen and Mariela Moon. Enjoy your day, and I'll be back tomorrow with more tech news from Engadget.