The Weekly Cybers #70
Work on Australia’s social media age restrictions continues, reporting your ransomware payments is now compulsory, and much more.
The Weekly Cybers #70 | 30 May 2025
Welcome
The Australian government may still in a state of limbo as we await all the election results, but work on the nation’s social media age restrictions continues.
Other than that, it’s a mass of smaller items this week, from ransomware payment reporting, to the CIA running a Star Wars fan site.
Kicking kids off social media is “on track”?
The tech trial for Australia’s social media age restrictions is broadly on track, reports the Guardian, although there are concerns that under-16s could circumvent the systems systems. Didn’t we already know that?
Apparently only one type of technology has been tested on actual children so far, a facial age estimation system.
As an aside, the trial isn’t testing how robust the systems are against circumvention. It’s just verifying the vendors’ accuracy claims.
A separate report on Australians’ attitudes to age assurance tech was delivered to the government back in January but has not yet been released — which your writer assumes is a sign that it doesn’t support the policy.
Is sexual health information now at risk?
Meanwhile, the latest draft online industry safety codes filed with the eSafety Commissioner, which we mentioned last week, may have unintended consequences.
As The Conversation reports, “There is a real risk they may further restrict access to materials about sex education, sexual health information, harm reduction, and health promotion.”
Anyone who has ever been a teenager will be shocked to hear that under-18s and even under-16s seek out such information.
As the writers discuss, content moderation policies are already very restrictive, and are often biased toward heteronormative standards.
“For example, Google’s computer vision software has previously relied on word databases that link ‘bisexuality’ with ‘pornography’, ‘sodomy’ with ‘bestiality’, and ‘masturbation’ with ‘self-abuse’.”
Your writer is aware that some internet block lists are compiled and managed by vendors connected with US-based conservative religious organisations, who view any discussion of sexual health, reproduction, and even workers unions and fantasy role-playing, as inappropriate for minors.
And older readers may remember the moral panic over Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s.
“Inappropriate” is very much a subjective measure, something this newsletter may explore in the future.
Texas climbs onto the age-restriction bandwagon, joining Utah
Texas, America’s the second-most-populous state, has signed into law a bill that requires Apple and Google to verify the age of users of their app stores.
As the BBC reported, “Texas follows Utah, another conservative state, which adopted a similar law earlier this year.”
And as InnovationAus reports, “Another bill, which has not yet passed the state legislature, would restrict social media apps to users over 18.”
Also in the news
- Via The Conversation, “Australia could tax Google, Facebook and other tech giants with a digital services tax – but don’t hold your breath.”
- Bunnings, who were sprung using facial recognition on their customers, reckons it’s “unreasonable or impracticable” to obtain consent to collect that data. Such data collection was “necessary to prevent a serious threat to an individual’s life, health or safety or to public safety more broadly”. So yeah, they were only looking for the bad people.
- Mandatory ransomware payment reporting starts today. Information Age explains who has to report.
- “Telstra will use the next five years to move away from offering ‘best effort’ connectivity services, instead tailoring services to customer needs and pricing them accordingly,” reports iTnews.
- Both Telstra and Optus are both inconsistently blocking devices from their mobile networks following the 3G shutdown. They do have a vested interest in selling people new devices, of course, and that’s the problem.
- Law firm Slater and Gordon is currently looking at launching a class action against Google in relation to its online advertising technology.
- A new report, From Gen Z to GenAI (PDF), looks at “the impact, opportunities, and challenges of generative AI for young Australians.”
- It’s a sample size of one, but using artificial intelligence for meal planning has helped a woman slash her weekly grocery bill by more than half.
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Elsewhere
- Selfie-editing tools are distorting how young people see themselves.
- The CIA secretly ran a Star Wars fan site. That story may be behind a paywall, but I’m sure you know what to do.
- And finally — literally in this case — from The Conversation, “Most of us will leave behind a large ‘digital legacy’ when we die. Here’s how to plan what happens to it.”
MUSIC PODCAST SECOND PILOT POSTED: My good friend Snarky Platypus and I have posted the second pilot episode of Another Untitled Music Podcast. 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 too early for this. The Australian government is still working out who’s even in it, let alone what their plan is.
What’s next?
Parliament is scheduled to return on Tuesday 22 July, which is more than seven weeks away, but we may see 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.
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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.