Close Up Of A Line Of High School Students Using Mobile Phones

BANNED IRL

Australia passes world’s first social-media ban for under-16s

Australia’s landmark ban is light on details, but could pave the way for other governments to take similar action.

11/29/24 10:53AM

Australia has taken an unprecedented step in taking on Big Tech: within a year, children under 16 will be banned from using social media, following Thursday’s Senate approval on the world’s first law of its kind.

The bill comes amid mounting concerns about the negative impact of social media — a “scourge,” as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described it — on teens’ mental health.

The list of tech companies targeted, though yet to be specified explicitly in the legislation, includes TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, X, and potentially Reddit — each of which could be fined up to 49.5 million AUD (32.2 million USD) if found to be in violation of the new law. These apps rank among the most popular apps for Australian kids aged 10-15, based on an August study by software firm Qustodio.

Some platforms, however, are exempt from the ban: messaging apps (like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger Kids), online gaming platforms, and YouTube, thanks to its “educational” purpose. An exemption for YouTube would be a big deal — it’s the most-used app for 7- to 9-year-olds in Australia and the second most-used for 10- to 15-year-olds, per Qustodio.

The obvious question with such a ban is: how do you enforce it? Many social apps technically already have age limits in their terms of use, which, candidly, aren’t hard to ignore for a determined teen or preteen. Indeed, the specifics of enforcement remain unclear; instead companies will be required to come up with “reasonable alternatives” to ensure users are over 16. The Australian government is also testing its own “age assurance technologies,” such as facial scans to estimate and verify a user’s age.

The move has sparked mixed reactions. A November YouGov poll found that 77% of Australians support the ban, with 87% favoring tougher penalties for platforms that fail to comply with Australian laws. However, tech giants like Meta, TikTok, and X have slammed the bill as rushed, raising concerns about its effectiveness. In October, over 100 academics signed an open letter calling the law “too blunt an instrument” to address the risks of social media.

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Prediction markets have, predictably, been given a boost by the summer of sports

Major platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have seen huge upticks in users of late, thanks in no small part to what’s felt like a recent sporting smorgasbord, with major competitions across hockey, basketball, and soccer soaking up fans’ time (and spending, clearly) at the outset of summer.

While gaming industry groups may not like it, there’s been a huge change in the methods people are using to put money on the big games, with everyone from fortunate NYC bar owners, to a far less fortunate Spanish supporter, turning to prediction markets to try and turn their sports know-how into cold, hard cash.

According to a new report from Adam Blacker for apptopia, that shift might have been even more seismic than imagined in the wake of the NBA and NHL finals and around the 2026 World Cup kicking off.

2026 World Cup Reverses Seasonal Lull for Sports Betting Apps

According to a new report from Adam Blacker for apptopia, that shift might have been even more seismic than imagined in the wake of the NBA and NHL finals and around the 2026 World Cup kicking off.

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Gold Tesla Cybercabs are piling up, but they’re not picking up passengers yet

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TAKING ACCOUNTS

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Britain announces social media ban for under-16s starting early 2027

The UK government plans to use the same model for the restrictions as Australia — but how successful has that case study been so far?

UK Prime Minister Announces Under-16s Social Media Ban

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Anthropic pulls Fable and Mythos access worldwide after Trump administration bars their use by foreign nationals

Only days after releasing two versions of its next-gen AI model, Anthropic has disabled them for users worldwide.

Anthropic says it received a Friday night order from the Trump administration to suspend access to the models for any foreign national (anywhere in the world) — a group that included some Anthropic employees. In response, the company turned off access to everyone.

Last week, the company released to the public its much-anticipated Claude Fable 5 model (and its restricted version Claude Mythos 5, which is still being tested with trusted partners). Anthropic said in a blog post announcing the action that officials cited national security concerns with the new models, while offering few specific details.

The post said that the government gave the company “verbal evidence of a potential narrow, non-universal jailbreak” of the public Fable 5 model. A jailbreak is a means by which users can evade restrictions built into the code to unlock prohibited functionality. Anthropic downplayed the significance of the attack, and said other major models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-5.5, could also be affected by the technique described.

Fears of these first Mythos-class models being misused are running high, after Anthropic warned the cybersecurity world in May that the advanced cyber capabilities of Mythos have rapidly discovered thousands of vulnerabilities in ubiquitous software, leading to the decision to restrict the full version of the model to a close group of trusted partners for testing.

This morning, Axios reported that Anthropic technical staff have flown to Washington to meet with White House officials to resolve the issue.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Trump administration’s decision to take action against Anthropic was prompted by discussions that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had with officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. According to the report, Amazon researchers said they had been able to evade some of Fable 5’s security restrictions using specific prompts. Amazon is a major investor in Anthropic.

Anthropic is currently suing the US government to fight the Pentagon’s blacklisting of the company on national security grounds.

Statement on the US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5