Will Australia’s social media ban start a global trend?

Governments are racing to rein in children’s access to social media as alarm grows over its impact on young minds. Australia’s world-first under-16 ban – the toughest yet – is already showing cracks, with teens easily bypassing restrictions. India is exploring similar curbs in the world’s second-largest smartphone market, where a surge in young users – and low digital literacy – makes enforcement difficult.

There was a time when Elon Musk and Sam Altman were friends. But the two tech billionaires are now embroiled in a bitter legal battle in the United States that could reshape not just OpenAI, the artificial intelligence (AI) firm behind ChatGPT they cofounded in 2015, but also the future of the technology more broadly.

At a time when the populist right is on the rise, progressives are shooting blanks while history rushes headlong into an automated future

After the e-Safety Commission revealed that it is investigating some of the world’s biggest social media platforms for suspected non-compliance with the ban on under-16s, analysts are saying it’ll take more than that for the platforms to change their ways. Australian experts say increasing global pressure on social media giants could prove to be the most effective way of enacting change.