“Australia’s world-first social media ban begins as millions of children and teens lose access to accounts.”
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Russ Roberts (https://hawaiisciencejournal.com).
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Accounts held by users under 16 must be removed on apps that include TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit, Kick, Twitch and Threads under ban How is Australia’s social media ban affecting you and your family? The social media ban explained: everything you need to know Australia has enacted a world-first ban on social media for users aged under 16 , causing millions of childre
Platform fighting world-leading ban on grounds it contravenes implied freedom of political communication in constitution Will Australia’s social media ban survive a high court challenge? Reddit has filed a challenge against Australia’s under-16s social media ban in the high court, lodging its case two days after implementing age restrictions on its website. The company said in a Reddit post on Fr
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It started with a goat. Now – via a degree for developers and an incubator for startups – the tiny city is churning out world-famous video game hits. What is the secret of its success? On 26 March 2014, a trailer for a video game appeared on YouTube. The first thing the viewer sees is a closeup of a goat lying on the ground, its tongue out, its eyes open. Behind it is a man on fire, running backw
Yesterday
Every prize at the The Game Awards from the Peacock theater in Los Angeles Star Wars, Tomb Raider and a big night for Expedition 33 – what you need to know from The Game Awards Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – WINNER Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Donkey Kong Bananza Hades II Hollow Knight: Silksong Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Continue reading…
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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won nine awards, including game of the year, while newly announced games at the show include the next project from Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios The Game Awards 2025: the full list of winners At the Los Angeles’ Peacock theater last night, The Game Awards broadcast its annual mix of prize presentations and expensive video game advertisements. New titles were
President Nayib Bukele entrusting chatbot known for calling itself ‘MechaHitler’ to create ‘AI-powered’ curricula Elon Musk is partnering with the government of El Salvador to bring his artificial intelligence company’s chatbot, Grok, to more than 1 million students across the country, according to a Thursday announcement by xAI. Over the next two years, the plan is to “deploy” the chatbot to mor
An all-new Croft adventure, Tomb Raider Catalyst, will be released in 2027 – and a remake of the action heroine’s first adventure arrives next year After a long break for Lara Croft, a couple of fresh Tomb Raider adventures are on their way. They will be the first new games in the series since 2018, and both will be published by Amazon. Announced at the Game Awards in LA, Tomb Raider Catalyst sta
The media company is investing $1bn in OpenAI – and allowing its characters to be used in generated videos Users of OpenAI’s video generation app will soon be able to see their own faces alongside characters from Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and Disney’s animated films, according to a joint announcement from the startup and Disney on Thursday. Perhaps you, Lightning McQueen and Iron Man are all danci
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Agreement comes amid anxiety in Hollywood over impact of AI on the industry, expression and rights of creators Walt Disney has announced a $1bn equity investment in OpenAI, enabling the AI startup’s Sora video generation tool to use its characters. Users of Sora will be able to generate short, user-prompted social videos that draw on more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters as
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A far cry from hand-scrawled letters to Santa, on graphic design platform Canva users have created a whopping 1.4m Christmas wishlist presentations Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email Twas three weeks before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except for my 13-year-old daughter, who emerged from her lair with a level of vim uncommon in daylight hours. As sh
What started as Guillaume Broche’s personal project has been nominated for 12 Game awards, sold more than 2m copies and been praised by Emmanuel Macron as a ‘shining example of French audacity’ The record-breaking 12 nominations at the Game awards this year was beyond the wildest dreams of Guillaume Broche when he first began inking out Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as a personal project while work
Dec 10, 2025
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From Crocs to indestructible wallets, we rounded up the best guy-approved gifts they won’t know how they lived without The 15 US gifts to give the women in your life Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things Whether you have been together for years, just made it official, or maybe you’re just shopping for your brother, one thing remains certain: he is
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We asked you to share your views on your children’s use of social media and how the ban is affecting your family. Here is what you told us For some parents, social media sucks up their children’s time and steals them away from family life, instilling mental health issues along the way. For others, it provides their children with an essential line to friends, family, connection and support. When A
As shoppers ask ChatGPT for inspiration, brands scramble to ensure their products appeal to the bots calling the shots Consumer test drive: can AI do your Xmas gift shopping for you? Christmas shopping – some love it, to others it’s a chore, and this year for the first time many of us will outsource the annual task of coming up with gift ideas to artificial intelligence. While traditional interne
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Pregnant immigrants in ICE monitoring programs are avoiding care, fearing detention during labor and delivery In early September, a woman, nine months pregnant, walked into the emergency obstetrics unit of a Colorado hospital. Though the labor and delivery staff caring for her expected her to have a smooth delivery, her case presented complications almost immediately. The woman, who was born in c
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Buying the Zombies, Run! studio wasn’t part of my plan, but our post-apocalypse game has a story that makes people feel seen • Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here A few days ago, I clicked a button on my phone to send funds to a company in Singapore and so took ownership of the video game I co-created and am lead writer for: Zombies, Run! I am a novelist, I wrote the
Dec 9, 2025
If search interest holds, glitchy glam, cool blue, aliencore and gummy bear aesthetics are among the vibes set to rock the creative world next year Next year, we’ll mostly be indulging in maximalist circus decor, working on our poetcore, hunting for the ethereal or eating cabbage in a bid for “individuality and self-preservation”, according to Pinterest. The organisation’s predictions for Austral
PC, PS5, Switch 2; Sam Eng/Devolver Digital An exquisitely fluid game of tricks, grinds and manuals is framed by a story that uncovers the poignancy of the infamously painful pastime Skateboarding video games live and die by their vibe. The original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater titles were anarchic, arcade fun while the recent return of EA’s beloved Skate franchise offered competent yet jarringly corpo
Dec 8, 2025
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European Commission to assess whether Gemini owner is putting rival companies at a disadvantage Business live – latest updates The EU has opened an investigation to assess whether Google is breaching European competition rules in its use of online content from publishers and YouTube creators for artificial intelligence. The European Commission said on Tuesday it would examine whether the US tech
Commerce department finalising deal to allow H200 chips to be sold to China as strict Biden-era restrictions relaxed Donald Trump has cleared the way for Nvidia to begin selling its powerful AI computer chips to China, marking a win for the chip maker and its CEO, Jensen Huang, who has spent months lobbying the White House to open up sales in the country. Before Monday’s announcement, the US had
Experts warn of dangers as England and Wales study shows 13- to 17-year-olds consulting AI amid long waiting lists for services It was after one friend was shot and another stabbed, both fatally, that Shan asked ChatGPT for help. She had tried conventional mental health services but “chat”, as she came to know her AI “friend”, felt safer, less intimidating and, crucially, more available when it c
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How far will tech firm Palantir go to ‘save the West’? With Michael Steinberger and Johana Bhuiyan Why do some consider Palantir the world’s ‘scariest company’ and who is its chief executive, Alex Karp? Michael Steinberger , the author of The Philosopher in the Valley: Alex Karp, Palantir and the Rise of the Surveillance State, describes Karp’s origin story to Nosheen Iqbal and the way that his p
Platform to introduce age-prediction model analysing users but argued to eSafety commissioner it was a source of information not a social media platform Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Reddit will comply with Australia’s under-16s social media ban, due to begin on Wednesday, but says it is “legally erroneous” and
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Gen Z are the first generation to have grown up with social media, they were the earliest adopters, and therefore the first to suffer its harms. Now they are fighting back Late one night in April 2020, towards the start of the Covid lockdowns, Shanley Clémot McLaren was scrolling on her phone when she noticed a Snapchat post by her 16-year-old sister. “She’s basically filming herself from her bed
Study of 8,300 US children suggests social media may be contributing to a rise in ADHD diagnoses Increased use of social media by children damages their concentration levels and may be contributing to an increase in cases of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a study. The peer-reviewed report monitored the development of more than 8,300 US-based children from the age of 10 to
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Exclusive: Congress urged to act against energy-hungry facilities blamed for increasing bills and worsening climate crisis A coalition of more than 230 environmental groups has demanded a national moratorium on new datacenters in the US, the latest salvo in a growing backlash to a booming artificial intelligence industry that has been blamed for escalating electricity bills and worsening the clim
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As midlife audiences turn to digital media, the 55 to 64 age bracket is an increasingly important demographic In 2022, Caroline Idiens was on holiday halfway up an Italian mountain when her brother called to tell her to check her Instagram account. “I said, ‘I haven’t got any wifi. And he said: ‘Every time you refresh, it’s adding 500 followers.’ So I had to try to get to the top of the hill with
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A surprising economic bubble is making it hard for anyone to buy Pokémon cards – especially children Pokémon has been huge since the late 90s. Millions of people have fond memories of playing the original Red and Blue games, or trading cards in the playground for that elusive shiny Charizard (if your school didn’t ban them). The franchise has only grown since then – but, where the trading cards a
Dec 7, 2025
Exclusive: Campaign urges PM to show independence from US and push to rein in development of superintelligence More than 100 UK parliamentarians are calling on the government to introduce binding regulations on the most powerful AI systems as concern grows that ministers are moving too slowly to create safeguards in the face of lobbying from the technology industry. A former AI minister and defen
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Should we be worried about the vast amounts of money pouring into AI? And what will happen if the bubble bursts? Blake Montgomery reports For months there have been fears that artificial intelligence is a bubble and that it is about to burst. As the Guardian US tech editor Blake Montgomery explains, the magnificent seven – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla – make up one-t
A US psychologist prescribed a social media ban for kids. How did Australia become the test subject?
From nascent policy idea in one state to passing federal parliament in just days, it has been a whirlwind journey for the world-first legislation that will take effect from 10 December Australia’s world-first social media ban begins Australian social media ban explained: everything you need to know How is Australia’s social media ban affecting you and your family? In early 2024, the South Austral
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Machines can be funny when they mistakenly bump into things – but standup is a tough gig even for humans Robots can make humans laugh – mostly when they fall over – but a new research project is looking at whether robots using AI could ever be genuinely funny. If you ask ChatGPT for a funny joke, it will serve you up something that belongs in a Christmas cracker: “Why don’t skeletons fight each o
Dec 6, 2025
Easy-to-guess words and figures still dominate, alarming cysbersecurity experts and delighting hackers It is a hacker’s dream. Even in the face of repeated warnings to protect online accounts, a new study reveals that “admin” is the most commonly used password in the UK. The second most popular, “123456”, is also unlikely to keep hackers at bay. Continue reading…
As the under-16s social media ban looms, Guardian Australia speaks to five 13 to 15-year-olds about what they will miss, and what government should be doing instead Australia social media ban explained: everything you need to know Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Australia’s world-first social media ban for under-16s will begin in just a few days. Malaysia, Denmark and
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AI research in question as author claims to have written over 100 papers on AI that one expert calls a ‘disaster’ A single person claims to have authored 113 academic papers on artificial intelligence this year, 89 of which will be presented this week at one of the world’s leading conferences on AI and machine learning, which has raised questions among computer scientists about the state of AI re
Power blackouts, public chaos and loss of communication with space were all thrown at troops in seven days Russia and China were barely mentioned, but they were the threats in everyone’s minds in Tallinn this week, where Nato hosted its largest ever cyber war game. The goal of the war game, conducted 130 miles from the Russian border in Estonia, was to test the alliance’s readiness for a rolling
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Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days Continue reading…
Testing showing racial bias against black and Asian people prompts watchdog to ask Home Office for explanation The UK’s data protection watchdog has asked the Home Office for “urgent clarity” over racial bias in police facial recognition technology before considering its next steps. The Home Office has admitted that the technology was “more likely to incorrectly include some demographic groups in
Perplexity AI also faces lawsuit from Murdoch-owned Dow Jones and New York Post for its use of copyrighted content The New York Times sued an embattled artificial intelligence startup on Friday, accusing the firm of illegally copying millions of articles. The newspaper alleged Perplexity AI had distributed and displayed journalists’ work without permission en masse. The Times said that Perplexity
Dec 5, 2025
Hundreds of videos on TikTok and elsewhere impersonate experts to sell supplements with unproven effects TikTok and other social media platforms are hosting AI-generated deepfake videos of doctors whose words have been manipulated to help sell supplements and spread health misinformation. The factchecking organisation Full Fact has uncovered hundreds of such videos featuring impersonated versions
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Gordon McKee, whose explainer has racked up 3m views, leads way as party tries to harness power of social media UK politics live – latest updates A perennial head-scratcher for progressives is how to craft a simple, compelling message on the economy. One Labour MP found the answer in a few packets of M&S biscuits. Gordon McKee, who represents Glasgow South, has racked up more than 3.3m views on X
Many users of the app were shocked, this week, by this addition to the Spotify Wrapped roundup – especially twentysomethings who were judged to be 100 “Age is just a number. So don’t take this personally.” Those words were the first inkling I had that I was about to receive some very bad news. I woke up on Wednesday with a mild hangover after celebrating my 44th birthday. Unfortunately for me, th
Pulled by Steam and Epic Games Store, indie horror Horses shook up the industry before it was even released. Now it’s out, all the drama surrounding it seems superfluous On 25 November, award-winning Italian developer Santa Ragione, responsible for acclaimed titles such as MirrorMoon EP and Saturnalia, revealed that its latest project, Horses , had been banned from Steam – the largest digital sto
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Ruling likely to put European Commission on collision course with billionaire, and possibly Donald Trump Business live – latest updates Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has been fined €120m (£105m) after it was found in breach of new EU digital laws, in a ruling likely to put the European Commission on a collision course with the US billionaire and potentially Donald Trump. The breaches, und
Calls for review after technology found to return more false positives for ‘some demographic groups’ on certain settings UK politics live – latest updates Ministers are facing calls for stronger safeguards on the use of facial recognition technology after the Home Office admitted it is more likely to incorrectly identify black and Asian people than their white counterparts on some settings. Follo
Web infrastructure provider says problem lasted half an hour and was not an attack, weeks after larger outage Cloudflare has apologised after an outage on Friday morning hit websites including LinkedIn, Zoom and Downdetector, the company’s second outage in less than a month . “Any outage of our systems is unacceptable, and we know we have let the internet down again,” it said in a blogpost , addi
CEO Elon Musk says lower-cost electric car will reignite demand by appealing to broader range of buyers Business live – latest updates Tesla has launched the lower-priced version of its Model 3 car in Europe in a push to revive sales after a backlash against Elon Musk’s work with Donald Trump and weakening demand for electric vehicles. Musk, the electric car maker’s chief executive, has argued th
Cloudflare reports it is investigating issues with Cloudflare Dashboard and related APIs Technical problems at internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare today have taken a host of websites offline this morning. Cloudflare said shortly after 9am UK time that it “is