20 March 2026

Welcome

On Tuesday I moved home to Campsie in Sydney’s inner south-west and all is still chaos, so let’s just get on with it and I’ll go back to unpacking boxes.

The social media ban works, say the vibes

Most Australians believe that the teen social media ban is proving effective in controlling the risks children face online, according to polling by YouGov released on Tuesday.

Well, the question actually asked was “How effective do you think the ban will be [my emphasis] in positively improving” four listed areas.

And while, yes, there was a net positive feelpinion for all of those areas — cyberbullying, exposure to harmful or inappropriate content, data privacy and surveillance, and social comparison and mental health impacts — that’s the total across all demographics. Which of course includes all the people who don’t have teenage kids or some other direct observation of their well-being.

It’s all on the vibes. And just three months in, how can anyone have any idea of the long-term impacts? This is not to say the ban isn’t working, just that we don’t know yet.

Fortunately the punters know this. “An overwhelming 97% say stronger evidence is needed to properly judge the ban’s impact, and 95% believe further action or refinement is required,” YouGov reports.

It’s also worth noting that nearly half of Australian adults (49%) believe parents should be primarily responsible for protecting children from online risks, with the tech companies at 13%, and the government at 10%.

Goodbye Metaverse, hello Manhatten?

Finally, after spending tens of billions on mid-grade VR, Mark Zuckerberg has effectively shut down the Metaverse. Maybe.

“Even after Meta lost roughly [US]$80 billion on its endeavour, the metaverse and virtual reality remain niche interests among hobbyists and some businesses. Other digital worlds, like Roblox and Fortnite, became more popular,” wrote the New York Times (gift link).

Meanwhile, for some reason, the company has opened a Meta Lab retail store on Fifth Avenue in New York. “Resources are being shifted toward AI, wearables, mobile first experiences, and continued development of AI chips and retail experiences,” reports Simply Wall Street.

As always there’s more commentary at *Pivot to AI.

And after all that, Engadget is now reporting that the Metaverse is not being shut down. Meta now plans to support Horizon Worlds in VR for the “foreseeable future,” though users shouldn’t expect new games, CTO Andrew Bosworth said in an update.

I for one don’t care.

Also in the news

• The Australian government is exploring options to connect its digital identity exchange to others. The plan has always been to open the Australian Government Digital ID System (AGDIS) for private sector use, and it’ll start happening later this year.

• From Information Age, “Google has reportedly paused plans for a $20 billion AI and data centre hub in Australia, amid concerns the move could expose the company to a higher tax rate across its local operations.”

• Almost 80% of Australian uni students now use AI, creating an “illusion of competence”. Love that phrase.

• Australia’s eSafety Commission has told Elon Musk’s X that child abuse material was “particularly systemic” on the platform and more accessible than on “any other mainstream service”.

• Apparently, yes, Spotify’s AI is “killing” Australian music.

• The old adage is true: “illegal, and there’s a fine” really means “legal if you can afford the price”. Big tech companies certainly understand that. So what might work instead?

• The government has released a slab of Government Response documents to various inquiries, which can be found on the Tabled documents page. Quite a few of them are relevant to our focus here. All appear to be dated 19 March.

• The UNSW Centre for Ideas has an interesting-looking evening coming up, AI: Breakthrough or Breaking Point?, on 24 April at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA). It isn’t free, but tickets also give access to all the current MCA exhibitions.

IF YOU’VE BEEN FINDING THIS NEWSLETTER HELPFUL, PLEASE SUPPORT IT: The Weekly Cybers is currently unfunded. It’d be lovely if you threw a few dollars into the tip jar at stilgherrian.com/tip. And thanks to those of you who’ve already done so. Much appreciated.

Elsewhere

• China’s AI and robotics “revolution” has featured in the news again this week as the Guardian takes a long look at autonomous humanoid robots.

• “AI giants OpenAI and Anthropic have begun advertising job openings for experts in chemical weapons,” reports Cyber Daily, so that’s reassuring.

• From Seriously Risky Business, the observation that a successful war by the US would leave Iran with cyber as the only option.

• Speaking of Iran, if citizens there spread the government’s propaganda they get their internet back.

• The UK government has decided to not let AI companies use copyrighted works to train their models after all.

• An interesting story from 404 Media about a US city that’s effectively a gated community, so Google’s Sreet View cars aren’t allowed in and can’t map it. But flying a drone over it is legal and seems to work.

• It’s slightly adjacent to the main interest of this newsletter, but it turns out that people who use business cant like “circle back” and “synergise” tend to be crap at their jobs.

HOW’S THAT AI BUBBLE GOING? My most recent podcast episode is The 9pm S-Bend of Technology with David Gerard. He’s the editor of the Pivot to AI newsletter, video essay, and podcast. Look for The 9pm Edict in your podcast app

And I know that’s been the latest episode for a few weeks now, but I’ll start clearing the backlog of already-recorded episodes very soon.

Inquiries of note

Nothing new this week.

What’s next?

Parliament returns for two weeks of sittings starting this Monday 23 March, although the second is a short week before Easter.

The House of Reps program incudes more debate on the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill and the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation) Bill.

The Senate program incudes the Copyright Amendment Bill 2026.

As always, the government may introduce more legislation as suits their needs on the day.

Also next week, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will be in Australia to meet the PM. Among other things, they will discuss “meaningful social media reform for the protection of young people”.

DOES SOMETHING IN THE EMAIL LOOK WRONG? Let me know. If there’s ever a factual error, editing mistake, or confusing typo, it’ll be corrected in the web archives.