Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI TECH SCROLL: Australia’s under-16s social media ban begins, Reddit's legal challenge, AI reality show + more

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MINI TECH SCROLL: Australia’s under-16s social media ban begins, Reddit's legal challenge, AI reality show + more · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Hey everyone, and welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
• 0:03
  culture podcast bring you the biggest stories from social
• 0:06
  media, the creator economy, and the digital space every Monday
• 0:10
  through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
• 0:12
  My name is Annabelle and I'm your Wednesday Mini Tech Scroll
• 0:15
  host and also the deputy editor of the youth digital media brand
• 0:19
  Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Tech
• 0:22
  Scroll. I can't believe we have reached
• 0:25
  the final episode of the year. That is absolutely crazy to me.
• 0:30
  I feel like me hosting this podcast has been such a crazy
• 0:34
  experience because I'm truly at my core, not a front of camera
• 0:38
  person. I am much more comfortable and
• 0:42
  more used to being behind the scenes, but I definitely feel
• 0:45
  like I have learnt a lot from this experience and I hope it
• 0:49
  has been engaging to watch each week.
• 0:52
  Even though this is the last mini Tech scroll episode of
• 0:55
  2025, you will still be seeing me two more times this year,
• 0:59
  once on Friday and then the next Friday.
• 1:02
  Because I'm in the two infinite scroll episodes that are
• 1:06
  concluding the year. It will be different to our
• 1:09
  typical deep dives. They're much more chatty videos,
• 1:11
  much more fun, I guess for the end of the year.
• 1:14
  But yeah, I really hope you guys like those.
• 1:17
  We have recorded one so far and I'm excited to see the result.
• 1:22
  But yes, as I say every week, if you enjoy this episode, Please
• 1:26
  remember to rate review and subscribe and star rate US on
• 1:29
  Spotify. And let's get into the stories
• 1:32
  because honestly, this week I have quite a big episode, which
• 1:36
  I feel like is fun for the final episode of the year, but it's
• 1:39
  also very Australia heavy. So I hope listeners outside of
• 1:44
  Australia are OK with that. I hope you guys find it
• 1:47
  interesting. So the reason why this episode
• 1:49
  is very Australia focused is because we cannot ignore that
• 1:53
  today, today is the day that Australia's world first under 16
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  social media ban officially begins.
• 1:59
  I know I've been talking about this one for the past couple of
• 2:02
  weeks and months, but of course I have some updates.
• 2:05
  So it's been just over a year since the ban's legislation was
• 2:09
  officially passed in Parliament and social media platforms have
• 2:12
  had between then and now to start rolling out, quote UN
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  quote, reasonable measures to make sure that no one under the
• 2:18
  age of 16 can make an account or use an account on a variety of
• 2:22
  platforms. And obviously the decision, as I
• 2:25
  feel like we all know by this point, was to set a minimum age
• 2:29
  for social media with the intention of safeguarding the
• 2:32
  health and well-being of the internet's youngest users.
• 2:35
  If you are regular listeners of Mini Tech Scroll, you would know
• 2:38
  that there has been a lot of debate around which social media
• 2:41
  platforms should be excluded from the ban, with many of the
• 2:44
  platforms trying to push back against their inclusion.
• 2:48
  But as the ban comes into effect today, there are 10 platforms on
• 2:52
  the list and they are Facebook, Instagram, Threads X, YouTube,
• 2:56
  Snapchat, Reddit, Kik, Twitch and TikTok.
• 3:00
  As I said last week though, this list is dynamic, so apps and
• 3:04
  platforms can be added. And I guess there is potential
• 3:07
  for platforms to be taken off if they limit certain
• 3:10
  functionalities that they include for teens.
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  But who's to say if they will do that?
• 3:14
  Anyway, I thought I would first start off with a little bit of
• 3:18
  an update on how the rollout is going so far.
• 3:22
  I will say that I am recording this on Wednesday morning, so I
• 3:25
  definitely think there will be more updates to come, but I
• 3:29
  thought I would give you the rundown so far.
• 3:31
  So the platforms have been removing for lack of a better
• 3:34
  time, I guess under 16 year olds for weeks now.
• 3:37
  Last week for example, there were headlines circulating that
• 3:39
  Mehta had already started this process.
• 3:42
  On top of this, there has been talk of this 115 year old boy
• 3:46
  who has managed to clear Snapchats visual age check,
• 3:49
  which feeds into another question we've been asking for
• 3:51
  months being how accurate these age verification tools will be.
• 3:56
  Aside from visual age checks like, you know, taking a selfie
• 3:59
  and it being submitted to the platform, we know that social
• 4:03
  media apps are also using age inference technology where a
• 4:06
  platform will essentially guess a user's age based on what it
• 4:10
  already knows about you. So that could be like the type
• 4:13
  of content you consume, the type of people you interact with and
• 4:16
  also how long you've had an account.
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  And they are also actually allowing users to get
• 4:21
  verification from their, which I think is quite interesting.
• 4:25
  But when I opened social media today, everything was normal for
• 4:28
  me, which obviously makes sense. I am over 16 even though I get
• 4:32
  told I look like a child. But TikTok has actually issued a
• 4:36
  pop up to everyone in Australia that reads quote.
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  Users must now be 16 or older to use TikTok in Australia.
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  We'll use your age information to confirm you're old enough to
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  use TikTok and for other purposes as described in our
• 4:49
  privacy policy. Even though this pop up has come
• 4:52
  through, it is extremely unlikely that all the under
• 4:55
  sixteens across social media, not just TikTok, have been
• 4:59
  removed. In fact, I have seen this one
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  TikTok gaining traction that was posted yesterday by a user named
• 5:05
  Ruby. The clip was captioned POV.
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  It's December 9th in Australia which is obviously yesterday,
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  but she used the audio from the video that James Charles posted
• 5:14
  when the US TikTok ban kicked off in January.
• 5:18
  If you guys remember, I'll insert the audio here so you can
• 5:21
  hear it for yourself. I don't.
• 5:23
  Know if you guys can hear me or see me or if this is even going
• 5:25
  to work. I think I may have found a
• 5:26
  loophole. While the rest of America is
• 5:27
  banned, things are not good over here.
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  But the comment section of that TikTok has been absolutely
• 5:33
  flooded with users checking in and saying that they are still
• 5:36
  on the platform even though they are under the minimum age.
• 5:40
  Of course, like we can't verify these users ages, but I think
• 5:43
  it's fair to assume that not all of the under 16 year olds have
• 5:46
  been removed or even will be removed.
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  Granted, this is something that the government has seen coming.
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  They have admitted previously that the ban will likely not be
• 5:56
  perfect as it's being rolled out, which is honestly fair
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  enough when you think about how many users under 16 there are on
• 6:03
  these platforms. It will take a while.
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  Of course there are also testimonials emerging from under
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  16 year olds who have already been impacted by the ban and
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  many of them are sharing how they feel about it so far.
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  When I was researching for this episode, I saw that the BBC
• 6:19
  included commentary from a year eight student named Amy and she
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  wrote quote. I knew the ban was coming, but
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  actually being locked out of my Snapchat account hit harder than
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  I expected. When the app asked me to verify
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  my age, I had to choose between bypassing it or staying honest
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  and desperate to retrieve years of photo memories.
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  I asked my 17 year old sister to do the face verification.
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  I didn't fully realize what the ban would mean until it actually
• 6:42
  happened. When it did, I was overwhelmed
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  with panic knowing I'd lose access to Snapchat, TikTok,
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  Instagram, and YouTube. Basically all all my most used
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  apps. It hit me probably the hardest
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  that YouTube and TikTok, both pillars in my life that I've
• 6:55
  grown up with the place I go to everything from math
• 6:58
  explanations to get ready with me, vlogs, we're also going to
• 7:01
  disappear. I know if this happened to me
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  when I was under 16 I would have been absolutely devastated.
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  As you've probably gathered, I have been extremely chronically
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  online my whole life. Obviously that's not necessarily
• 7:13
  a good thing, but I am also an only child so I really depended
• 7:18
  on social media to talk to my friends.
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  So I definitely have a lot of empathy for the under 16 year
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  olds who are feeling quite slighted and upset about the
• 7:28
  ban. But also I can't acknowledge how
• 7:30
  dangerous social media can be for this age group, especially
• 7:34
  as they're being sucked into various harmful algorithms.
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  At the moment though I am seeing a lot of commentary from older
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  millennials, I feel like specifically who are claiming
• 7:43
  that the teens are being dramatic and that they managed
• 7:46
  without social media so this generation will also be fine.
• 7:50
  I don't really think this take is fair because obviously just
• 7:52
  so much has changed since then. Anyway, if you are based in
• 7:56
  Australia, I'm definitely curious to hear your thoughts on
• 7:58
  the rollout so far and if it's impacted anyone you know.
• 8:02
  Depending how this all goes, I'm also really curious to see if
• 8:06
  other countries follow suit, especially because I've seen
• 8:09
  headlines and articles talking about how the EU specifically is
• 8:13
  contemplating a similar ban. Apart from the rollout itself, I
• 8:17
  do have another two quick stories related to the ban.
• 8:21
  The 1st is that Reddit is preparing to challenge the
• 8:23
  social media ban in court. As it stands, we don't really
• 8:26
  have a lot of information on this potential case.
• 8:30
  But according to reporting from the The Australian Financial
• 8:33
  Review, quote, Reddit's lawsuit, which could be lodged within
• 8:36
  days, is expected to be through the High Court of Australia
• 8:39
  challenging the restrictions the social media ban imposes to
• 8:42
  teenagers implied right of freedom of political
• 8:45
  communication. So clearly this hasn't been
• 8:47
  filed yet. So I should add that when The
• 8:51
  Australian Financial Review did reach out to Reddit, a
• 8:54
  spokesperson did respond saying, quote, the only decision we've
• 8:58
  made is to comply with the law. So I guess there is a
• 9:01
  possibility that this this lawsuit will not be filed.
• 9:04
  But As for the steps that Reddit have taken, they did share more
• 9:09
  detail in a post on the R slash Reddit safety subreddit, where
• 9:12
  an admin noted that Australian users will be subject to an age
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  prediction model quote. We'll do this through a new
• 9:19
  privacy preserving model designed to better help us
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  protect young users from both holding accounts and accessing
• 9:25
  adult content before they're old enough.
• 9:27
  If you're predicted to be under 16, you'll have an opportunity
• 9:30
  to appeal and verify your age. In this same post, though, there
• 9:33
  are kind of indications that Reddit isn't fully supportive of
• 9:37
  the ban. Obviously, I am making
• 9:40
  inferences here, but as it's written, quote.
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  While we're providing these experiences to meet the law's
• 9:45
  requirement and to help keep teens safe, we are concerned
• 9:48
  about the potential implications of laws like Australia's social
• 9:51
  media Minimum age law. We believe strongly in the open
• 9:54
  Internet and the continued accessibility of quality
• 9:57
  knowledge, information, resources and community building
• 10:00
  for everyone, including young people.
• 10:02
  So I will definitely be keeping an eye on all this to see what
• 10:05
  happens here. But also the reason why I wanted
• 10:08
  to mention the potential Reddit challenge is because I'm curious
• 10:12
  if over the next few weeks or months this is something we
• 10:15
  continue to see more and more. Especially because this isn't
• 10:18
  even the first legal challenge to the ban.
• 10:21
  Recently at 215 year olds publicly challenged the ban in
• 10:25
  the High Court of Australia. They are actually backed by the
• 10:27
  Digital Freedom Project, which is a group that's hoping to
• 10:31
  protect the freedom of political communication online, especially
• 10:34
  for young people. And reportedly, the court agreed
• 10:37
  to hear a special case between the group and the government
• 10:40
  next year. So I guess we'll see what
• 10:42
  happens with that as well. These two examples, I think, go
• 10:45
  to show how the ban is continuously being questioned on
• 10:48
  literally every single front, like moral, political,
• 10:51
  logistical even. And even though the ban is now
• 10:55
  in place, I don't think that scrutiny is going to stop
• 10:58
  anytime soon. And that brings me to the last
• 11:01
  story I wanted to mention about the under sixteens ban today,
• 11:04
  and this is coming from a report by crikeys Cam Wilson, who has
• 11:08
  actually been interviewed for an infinite scroll episode before.
• 11:11
  So I would definitely recommend to check that out.
• 11:13
  But his reporting explores how one group called 36 months has
• 11:18
  been monetizing its role in promoting the teen social media
• 11:20
  ban. For context, if you've never
• 11:22
  heard of this group, 36 Months was initially billed as a quote
• 11:26
  UN quote social change initiative and was established
• 11:29
  by two influential Australian media figures, one being a radio
• 11:33
  host and the other being a founder of an advertising firm.
• 11:36
  So this group actually ended up playing a key role in calling
• 11:39
  for federal policy change, where Australian politicians
• 11:43
  frequently praised the group for campaigning for the minimal age
• 11:46
  of social media to be raised by by 36 months.
• 11:50
  Get it? That is why the group has called
• 11:52
  what it is, as the article reads, quote 36 months
• 11:56
  channelled A widespread frustration towards Big tech and
• 11:59
  concern about children into a savvy campaign for a simple,
• 12:02
  catchy idea that won over Canberra in just months with
• 12:06
  plans to cede its campaign to the rest of the world.
• 12:08
  This populist push didn't have time for, and sometimes even
• 12:12
  showed suspicion towards the work that was quietly underway
• 12:15
  to improve online safety for young Australians.
• 12:18
  Now I am I'm going to summarize the key points that came out of
• 12:21
  this piece, but I would definitely recommend you guys to
• 12:23
  read it. It will be LinkedIn the
• 12:26
  description, but Crikey reporting raised serious
• 12:29
  questions about how transparent 36 months has been about its
• 12:33
  intentions. One example was that one of the
• 12:35
  founders of the group wrongfully claimed that the experts that
• 12:39
  were questioning the ban were financially backed by Big Tech.
• 12:43
  Which is pretty ironic because 36 months itself is supported by
• 12:48
  major industry players, including Nova Radio, which is
• 12:51
  privately owned by Lachlan Murdoch's investment company.
• 12:54
  And on top of this, it also has had brands like Hyundai and
• 12:58
  Nestle fund the campaign with various paid sponsorships.
• 13:02
  The investigation also showed that the group pitching itself
• 13:05
  to government to make tech solutions targeting kids,
• 13:08
  including a jobs platform for teenagers and an AI tool to
• 13:12
  monitor student well-being in schools.
• 13:14
  These ideas actually haven't materialized yet, but a
• 13:16
  spokesperson for 36 months did confirm to Crikey that it has
• 13:20
  met with the education minister about some of these future
• 13:23
  plans. But while they haven't come to
• 13:25
  fruition, like I already mentioned, the organization has
• 13:28
  secured sponsorships from established brands, which is
• 13:30
  ultimately moving it away from its original positioning as a
• 13:34
  social good campaign and towards a for profit organization, which
• 13:38
  is a little bit sauce. But I think reporting like this
• 13:42
  has prompted some Australians to question whether the ban is
• 13:45
  solely about protecting younger users or whether commercial
• 13:49
  incentives and data collection of users was also part of the
• 13:52
  conversation. OK, I think now it's time to
• 13:55
  move on from the social media ban.
• 13:57
  I have really just been talking about it for ages at this point
• 14:00
  but I wanted to talk about this AI generated reality show that
• 14:04
  is making headlines. So this reality show is called
• 14:07
  Non Player Combat and is created by visual effects producer and
• 14:11
  Aimation Studio CEO Tom Padden. The series is being posted to
• 14:16
  the Aimation Studios YouTube channel and one episode has been
• 14:20
  published so far and that was on Monday.
• 14:22
  And when I was preparing this episode, it was only sitting at
• 14:25
  around 5:00 5K views. So the premise of the show as
• 14:29
  it's noted in the description is quote 6 NPCS, 1 battle arena.
• 14:33
  No idea they're not real. And various publications and
• 14:37
  viewers have gone on to describe the series as a mix of kind of
• 14:40
  The Hunger Games, Survivor, Fortnite, and Traders.
• 14:44
  When I was watching this, I was definitely getting Catching Fire
• 14:47
  vibes, specifically in the first episode.
• 14:50
  Viewers are of course introduced to the contestants and it
• 14:53
  includes a variety of people. Slash characters like a former
• 14:57
  Navy SEAL, a wilderness coach and an influencer.
• 15:01
  And these characters are all created with AI nations, Omni
• 15:04
  Gen. tool. I did only watch a little bit of
• 15:06
  this episode. I didn't watch the whole thing,
• 15:08
  but it was honestly such a weird experience because it's in such
• 15:11
  a familiar format. Like you have the confessionals
• 15:14
  introducing each character and they're talking heads with like
• 15:17
  their back story, but it's so clearly AI.
• 15:20
  It almost feels like a parody. And obviously over this year, we
• 15:23
  have spoken about time and time again how AI is infiltrating
• 15:27
  entertainment, but we haven't spoken about it, I don't think
• 15:30
  when it comes to reality TV. We've definitely spoken about it
• 15:33
  when it comes to music and acting, though.
• 15:36
  I feel like so much of the reason why people watch reality
• 15:39
  TV is for the human aspect of it.
• 15:41
  Like Love Island USA went so viral this year because I think
• 15:45
  people love to watch or couldn't look away from at least
• 15:48
  polarizing characters like Hooda.
• 15:51
  And this is something that I don't really think can be
• 15:54
  replicated with AI, at least at this stage, especially because
• 15:57
  everything is drawn from like patterns or previous content.
• 16:01
  So yeah, I don't really know how this show will do, but if any of
• 16:04
  you guys go and watch it, please share your thoughts.
• 16:07
  Like I'm intrigued but also scared.
• 16:10
  And my last story for Mini Tech Scroll 2025 crazy is a platform
• 16:16
  update, which is honestly kind of boring, but I wanted to
• 16:19
  quickly mention how TikTok is set to incorporate shared
• 16:22
  collections and shared feeds. So TikTok recently announced
• 16:25
  quote new ways for friends and families to discover, share, and
• 16:29
  connect on TikTok in a blog post on the website.
• 16:33
  And these new ways are shared collections and feeds.
• 16:36
  So a shared collection is probably exactly what you expect
• 16:39
  because for years, we've been able to organize saved content
• 16:41
  into a collection, but now we can collaborate with our friends
• 16:45
  and other uses. As TikTok explains.
• 16:47
  Per the blog post quote, to create a shared collection, both
• 16:50
  people must follow one another. When one person saves a video or
• 16:54
  accesses their collections, they can choose to start a collection
• 16:57
  with a friend or family member. Upon accepting the invite, they
• 17:00
  can change the name of the collection and start saving
• 17:03
  their favorite TikTok content together.
• 17:04
  Well I can definitely see how TikTok went from introducing
• 17:08
  collections to shared collections.
• 17:10
  I see less value in a shared collection than DMS. I mean
• 17:15
  maybe it's probably easier to access older shared content, but
• 17:19
  also you don't really get the opportunity to speak about it
• 17:22
  with your friends, which I feel like is part of the fun.
• 17:24
  But I say this now, I haven't even tried the format yet that
• 17:27
  is just based on first impressions.
• 17:28
  Aside from shared collections, shared feed is the other new
• 17:32
  feature and it will be rolled out in the coming months.
• 17:34
  But basically it will be a lead in the DMS tab that includes A
• 17:38
  curated selection of 15 videos that align with you and your
• 17:42
  friends, let's say shared interests.
• 17:44
  I think this is a really interesting development by
• 17:46
  TikTok and it's something that I think we're going to see pop up
• 17:49
  more and more on social media platforms.
• 17:51
  It kind of reminds me of how you can now see what people like on
• 17:55
  Reels or even how Spotify Wrapped had the wrapped party
• 17:59
  function this year. It's kind of making content
• 18:02
  consumption more social because I feel like back in the day with
• 18:05
  like the fast iteration of social media and messaging apps,
• 18:09
  it was really genuinely about being social.
• 18:12
  But the pendulum has since swung in the complete opposite
• 18:15
  direction, I guess, where it's so much more about consuming
• 18:18
  content now. And I feel like these updates
• 18:20
  are kind of a way of balancing the content consumption
• 18:23
  heaviness of social media these days with the ability to make it
• 18:27
  more social instead of us just watching.
• 18:29
  And also an ability to make it social with our friends as
• 18:33
  opposed to just random commenters.
• 18:34
  I'm definitely intrigued to see the shared feeds option.
• 18:38
  I'm interested in seeing what TikTok selects as like a shared
• 18:41
  interest with me and my friends. Well, that brings us to the
• 18:45
  ending of Mini Tech Scroll for 2025.
• 18:48
  I really hope you guys enjoyed the last episode of Mini Tech
• 18:51
  for the year. This feels so weird, but Lauren
• 18:55
  will speak to you guys tomorrow for a regular Mini scroll
• 18:58
  episode. And if you want Mini Scroll
• 19:00
  episodes over the break, feel free to sign up to Centennial
• 19:03
  World's Patreon. I know Lauren will be publishing
• 19:07
  a few on there over our holiday break, but otherwise we will be
• 19:11
  back in early January. Thank you so much for tuning in
• 19:15
  this year and sticking with me as I'm kind of finding my
• 19:18
  footing in the podcasting world. But yes, thanks for listening.
• 19:23
  Bye.