The Weekly Cybers #68
Albanese announces his new ministry, Australia’s social media age restriction tech trials grind on, more AI stories, and more.
The Weekly Cybers #68 | 16 May 2025
Welcome
The appointment of the Albanese government’s new ministry has received plenty of coverage elsewhere, but I’m including it here for completeness
Meanwhile Australia and other nations are continuing to work towards social media age restrictions. France has joined the herd. But how are Australia’s technology trials going? Perhaps not as well as the government hopes.
And as usual there’s a bunch of stories about AI, including a new warning from Pope Leo XIV.
I’m sending this newsletter a little earlier than usual this week, thanks to certain scheduling conflicts. This will almost certainly guarantee that a major story will break later this afternoon.
Labor retains government and there’s a reshuffle
Albanese announced his new ministry on Monday and it was sworn in on Tuesday. Here’s the roles that have the greatest relevance to digital policy. You can read the full list for yourself.
Some things are changing...
Michelle Rowland MP has been moved from communications and is now Attorney-General. The new Minister for Communications is Anika Wells MP. She was previously the sports minister, and still will be.
Tanya Plibersek MP is the new Minister for Social Services, which means the joy of Centrelink and Medicare and such.
Senator Tim Ayres is the new Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science, replacing Ed Husic MP, who was dumped from the ministry entirely.
Dr Daniel Mulino MP is the new Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services. Regulating new online payment systems will be part of his brief.
Dr Andrew Charlton is the new Assistant Minister for Science, Technology, and the Digital Economy, as well as cabinet secretary.
... and some things remain the same
Senator Katy Gallagher continues as Minister for Government Services, as well as finance, the public service, and women.
Tony Burke MP continues as Minister for Home Affairs and for Cyber Security, as well as immigration and citizenship, and the arts.
It’s too early to know much else. Vote counting hasn’t even finished in some places, and there still has to be a formal cabinet meeting. Stay tuned.
Australia’s social media age assurance trial grinds on, “as it should be”. But should it be?
We know things are going well because this exchange happened at the prime minister’s press conference on Monday.
Journalist: PM, Anika Wells has got Communications and Sport ... And she'll also have to implement the under-16 social media ban later in the year. Are you confident that that age assurance trial is running as it should be?
Prime Minister: I am.
But apparently there are problems. According to an analysis at The Conversation, the major platforms aren’t engaging with the trial, leaving it to the 53 tech vendors taking part. There are internal tensions about the trial’s design choices, and the tech is flawed.
It also represents a significant change in internet regulation.
“Rather than age-gating specific content such as porn or gambling, Australia is now targeting basic communication infrastructure — which is what social media have become. It centres the problem on children being children, rather than on social media business models.”
As another piece at The Conversation notes, a review of 70 reports from experts in Australia, the UK, US, and Canada found broad agreement that a ban may not address the real problems.
“Around 98% of Australian 15-year-olds use social media. Platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram are where young people connect with friends and online communities, explore and express their identities, seek information, and find support for mental health struggles.”
None of this is new. The experts have been trying to explain these issues to the government ever since the age restrictions were first proposed. But Australia seems determined to push on.
France climbs onto the age restrictions bandwagon
Despite the expert advice, other nations have been proposing their own social media age bans. The latest is France.
“In the absence of a European agreement, France will have to take action,” said France’s digital affairs and AI minister Clara Chappaz on Sunday.
Last year, French president Emmanuel Macron said he was in favour of banning phones before the age of 11, and social media for those under 15.
Chappaz agreed, telling La Tribune: “No social networking before the age of 15”. She’s now rallying Spain, Greece, and Ireland to support her proposal.
IF YOU’VE FOUND 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.
Also in the news
- According to new research from the eSafety Commissioner, almost one in five young adults think it's reasonable to expect to track a romantic partner whenever they want — a flag for coercive control.
- “Telstra has started a live trial of satellite-to-mobile messaging in regional Australia, ahead of a commercial launch of the service ‘in the coming months’,” reports iTnews. Vodafone sent their first message the previous week.
- Albanese’s most-viewed YouTube video was a beer-filed interview with self-proclaimed bogan influencer Ozzy Man Reviews. It’s an interesting lesson in how to reach certain harder-to-reach demographics.
- Via the Guardian, “Job candidates being interviewed by AI recruiters risk being discriminated against if they don’t have American accents, or are living with a disability, a new study has warned.”
- You’ve doubtless heard this one, but Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot started ranting about “white genocide” in South Africa, which is not a thing.
- Via The Conversation and somewhat adjacent to the interests of this humble newsletter, “From GPS to weather forecasts: the hidden ways Australia relies on foreign satellites.”
- And while we’re slightly off-topic, here’s a decent backgrounder from the ABC on Canada buying JORN, Australia’s remarkable Jindalee Operational Radar Network, rather than American options.
Elsewhere
- Reuters reports that the US has found undocumented communication devices in Chinese solar power inverters, and undocumented cellular radios in batteries. There’s no explanation yet, but obviously this could be an attempt to subvert power grids. Or it could be a mistake.
- Your coworkers hate you for using AI at work, according to a study from Duke University. As Pivot to AI reports, “Asking a coworker for help is fine, asking a chatbot for help is not. In fact, asking the chatbot comes across worse than not asking for help at all.”
- Even new Pope Leo XIV is warning the world (gift link) of the AI threat, saying the church would address the risks that artificial intelligence poses to “human dignity, justice, and labour”.
AND NOW A MUSICAL INTERLUDE: My good friend Snarky Platypus and I have produced the pilot episode of Another Untitled Music Podcast, and a second pilot will appear within days. Yes, it’s about music. Look for it under that title in your podcast app of choice and let us know what you think.
Inquiries of note
It’s still a little early for this.
What’s next?
Word is that parliament won’t sit until July, after the traditional winter break, rather than as soon as all the MPs and Senators are confirmed — although we’re bound to start seeing some policy announcements before then.
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.
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.
If you find this newsletter useful, please consider throwing a tip into the tip jar.
This is not specifically a cyber security newsletter. For that that I recommend Risky Biz News and Cyber Daily, among others.