The Weekly Cybers #44
Australia’s War on Social Media continues, with platforms to be hit with duty-of-care responsibilities as well as age restrictions, but there’s also plenty more.
Welcome
Social media! Social media! Social media! Yes, the Australian government has quite a bee in its bonnet about social media. This really has been the theme for the last few months.
But there are other things happening, and a lot in the coming week, so stay with me.
Social platforms to face duty of care
The Australian government continues to ramp up the pressure on social media platforms, this week announcing that they’ll soon face new Digital Duty of Care laws.
Such laws were apparently recommended by the independent review of the Online Safety Act, which the government received last month — but which you and I have yet to see.
In a speech to the Sydney Institute this week, communications minister Michelle Rowland said it’s about creating “a more systemic and preventative approach to making online services safer and healthier”.
“Where platforms seriously breach their duty of care — where there are systemic failures — we will ensure the regulator can draw on strong penalty arrangements.”
Rowland said that regular risk assessments are part of the EU’s Digital Services Act and the UK’s Online Safety Act, and the same will go for Australia.
Age restriction debate still confused
With legislation to enact the government’s social media age restrictions expected to hit parliament in the next two weeks, the debate is hotting up.
One key problem, though, is that it’s still not at all clear what will and won’t be included as “social media”.
In this week’s speech communications minister Michelle Rowland gave one version:
“Common social media services such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X will be subject to the minimum age limit. Messaging and gaming services will not be in scope of this definition.”
Indeed, two University of Sydney academics have said that games are crucial for kids’ social lives.
One might also argue, however, that so is social media. The clue is in the name.
Meanwhile Snapchat says it’s should be exempt because it’s a messaging platform not a social media platform, something which has gobsmacked a high school principal.
Politicians’ views are all over the shop
National Party Senator Matt Canavan reckons the proposal goes too far, saying it’s akin to “banning children from libraries”.
“Absolutely there should be a Senate inquiry. There’s grave risks this legislation locks adult Australians out of communication on social media, and potentially goes way too far on young people. The detail will be crucial, which we haven’t seen.”
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the rush to pass legislation before Christmas “smacks of cheap politics in an election year”.
Industry and science minister Ed Husic said the age restrictions would go ahead regardless of any US opposition from Elon Musk and the Trump administration.
But what does the science say?
Macquarie University’s Danielle Einstein says there’s “reliable evidence” that social media harms young people, and debates about it are a misdirection.
Conversely, The Mandarin is reporting that behind the scenes there’s a messy fight over science. Much of it is centred around Jonathan Haidt’s best-selling pop-sci book The Anxious Generation, which “blames a rise in youth mental illness over the past 15 years or so on the advent of smartphones and social media” — rather than all the stressful things have have been happening.
Over at Crikey, Varsha Yajman’s commentary is headlined “As a teen I learned how harmful social media can be, but Albo’s ban shirks responsibility”.
And if all that isn’t confusing enough, Cyber Daily has collected even more comments.
BONUS LISTENING: LiSTNR’s The Briefing podcast has an episode on How banning kids from social media will affect you. Contains Leo Puglisi from 6 News, me, and Libertarian MP David Limbrick.
Also in the news
- At InnovationAus, Joseph Brooks has an update on the government’s verifiable credentials project. It’s still at proof-of-concept stage, but a whole bunch of organisations are signing up.
- National Anti-Corruption Commission chief Paul Brereton has rejected calls to quit over the robodebt decision.
- We have the Senate committee report on the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024, debate on which resumes next week. Alas, I didn’t have time to read it before deadline.
- Constitutional law expert Professor Anne Twomey reckons the disinformation and misinformation bill might impede freedom of speech.
- The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has new rules for major telco outages. “Telcos must prioritise customer communications in major network outages that affect 100,000 or more services.”
- “The leader of the Digital Transformation Agency’s Microsoft 365 Copilot trial, Garrett Kelly, has been elevated to direct AI strategy,” reports iTnews.
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Elsewhere
- The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has called for a national AI authority to regulate the adoption of the technology in workplaces. They say workers could be closely monitored and potentially discriminated against without appropriate oversight.
- Despite OpenAI’s own advice, 30% of Australian 13 to 15-year olds use ChatGPT, and even more in the next age bracket up. Going down the scale, some users are as young as seven.
- More than 7% of ANZ Banking Group’s code was written by AI in the last six months, they reckon.
- The United States Studies Centre has written about the importance of satellite cybersecurity.
- Publicis Sapient released The 2024 Digital Citizen Report. While satisfaction with online government ‘life event’ services overall “remains high and progress is being made, the cost-of-living crisis is causing the digital divide to grow.” Some 94% of respondents say myGovID, soon to become myID, makes it easier to access government services. (Full PDF.)
DOES SOMETHING IN THE EMAIL LOOK WRONG? If there’s ever a factual error, editing mistake, or confusing typo, it’ll be corrected in the web archives.
Inquiries of note
Nothing new this week that’s relevant to this humble newsletter. This is bound to change next week.
NEW PODCAST: Earlier this week I had a wonderfully fun and slightly disturbing conversation with satirist Mark Humphries, who most you will know. Check out The 9pm Gorging on Pornography with Mark Humphries or look for The 9pm Edict in your podcast app.
What’s next?
Parliament returns this Monday 18 November for what are currently scheduled to be its final two weeks for the year — and the schedule is packed.
The draft legislation program for the House of Representatives includes resumed debate on the Cyber Security Bill and the related Intelligence Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Cyber Security) Bill and Security of Critical Infrastructure and Other Legislation Amendment (Enhanced Response and Prevention) Bill, the National Broadband Network Companies Amendment (Commitment to Public Ownership) Bill.
The Senate program includes those bills as well, indicating that the government is keen to wrap them up this week.
The Senate program also includes debate on the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill.
Meanwhile the Reps also lists debate on the Oversight Legislation Amendment (Robodebt Royal Commission Response and Other Measures) Bill and the Scams Prevention Framework Bill, though the latter is marked as something to be pushed back if there isn’t time.
The Weekly Cybers is a personal look at what the Australian government has been saying and doing in the digital and cyber realms, on various adjacent topics, and whatever else interests me, Stilgherrian, published every Friday afternoon (nearly).
If I’ve missed anything, or if there’s any specific items you’d like me to follow, please let me know.
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This is not specifically a cyber *security* newsletter. For that that I recommend Risky Biz News and Cyber Daily, among others.