Social media
Australian Senate approves social media ban for children and teens
Children under the age of 16 will be banned from using social media in Australia from the end of next year after the Senate approved the world’s strictest rules, news.com.au reports.
The ban could see tech companies fined $50m if they don’t prevent under 16s from using their platforms. It means that anyone under the age of 16 are likely to be blocked from sites such as TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.
The Coalition argued the move was necessary to protect children and young teens’ mental health and wellbeing, although the legislation has been criticised for being rushed.
An inquiry into the new laws ran for just three hours, with Australians only given one day to lodge submissions. The late vote came on a busy day in the Senate where the government managed to hurry through a number of bills on the final sitting day of the year.
The late vote came on a busy day in the Senate where the government managed to hurry through a number of bills on the final sitting day of the year.
Radio
ABC chairman cops ‘watch out’ messages after Joe Rogan criticism
ABC chairman Kim Williams says he has received aggressive messages telling him to “watch out” after he declared his disdain for top-rating US shock jock Joe Rogan, reports The AFR’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
In an ABC Radio Melbourne interview on Thursday morning, Williams said he had been shocked by the “super sensitivity” and glass jaw from fans of Rogan, one of the world’s biggest podcasters.
Both Rogan and Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and owner of X (formerly Twitter), responded on social media after Williams described Rogan as someone who “preys on people’s vulnerabilities”, heightens anxiety and treats the public as “plunder”.
In an appearance at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, Mr Williams delivered a speech calling for greater investment in the ABC, which he said had lost $150 million a year over the past decade. Williams was asked how the ABC should be thinking about Rogan’s immense, global audience. The Joe Rogan Experience is the most popular podcast in Australia, according to Spotify.
Ray Hadley hits back at ‘lowlife’ Mark Latham in epic radio spray
When he’s not hanging out in a box at Royal Randwick, the permanently embittered Mark Latham is taking potshots against his numerous enemies from behind the shield of parliamentary privilege. There is literally no other reason for him to be an MP, The Sydney Morning Herald’s Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook report.
Among latest targets for Latham’s increasingly intemperate sprays has been shock jock Ray Hadley, who never shied away from delivering a verbal barrage during a lengthy career that comes to an end next month.
On Thursday, Hadley hit back. Rather spectacularly. On his 2GB morning show, he began by reading our colleague Alexandra Smith’s column documenting some of Latham’s recent antics before delivering some allegations of his own.
“I’ve refrained from commenting on the vile attack on me under parliamentary privilege,” Hadley said.
“I don’t have the luxury of that privilege to share any number of stories about Latham’s personal life and his apparent hatred of homosexuals.”
Latham has also had a few cracks at Hadley’s son Daniel, who quit the NSW Police after having a cocaine charge against him dismissed. He’s now at Racing NSW, another body with which Latham has a grievance.
“As a man, my son would buy and sell a lowlife like Latham every day of the week,” a fired-up Hadley said on air. “My son is not a coward that seeks to vilify people in parliamentary chambers where he would be protected.
“His courage in dealing with dark, dark days makes him a man to be admired, not attacked as he is by this grub Latham, simply because his last name is Hadley.”
Newsbrands
ACA crew stood down pending investigation
Nine newspapers are reporting an A Current Affair crew has been stood down pending an internal investigation by Nine.
On Monday ACA filmed a story on finance company executive Peter Aquino, who closed his business Construct Homes after taking loans from Oak Capital, a Melbourne private credit firm being sued by ASIC.
The Age reports when Aquino reportedly spotted Oak Capital’s Mo Ahmed, the crew followed Ahmed to the nearby Intercontinental Hotel.
But when Ahmed locked himself in a toilet, ACA cameras and reporter Seb Costello allegedly followed. Nine-owned AFR also reports legal action has been taken against the Nine Network over the actions of Costello and his film crew.
A Nine spokesman said: “While we are aware of a range of allegations made against Nine by an individual representing a company facing legal proceedings commenced by ASIC, we believe the legal claim has no basis.”
ACMA also has strict rules around invasion of privacy but that footage apparently has not gone to air.
Pro-Palestine activist alleges The Australian defamed them
Pro-Palestine activist Zee Mazloum has issued The Australian and its NSW political reporter Alexi Demetriadi with a concerns notice alleging an article published on November 8 titled “Activist Zee Mazloum posted vile Jewish threats” is defamatory, Crickey’s Daanyal Saeed reports.
The issuing of a concerns notice is the first step in defamation proceedings and generally provides the opportunity for a publisher to make amends by way of retraction, apology or similar.
The article alleged that an Instagram account run by Mazloum made a number of antisemitic threats directed at “Arab Jews” living in Brunswick in Melbourne’s inner-north, and alleged Mazloum had made “prolific Instagram posts targeting ‘local Zios’”.
It carried a screenshot of an Instagram story that contained those remarks superimposed on a photo of an Israel flag sticker with a “no” symbol across it.
The article noted that lawyers acting for Mazloum told The Weekend Australian that Mazloum denied writing or posting the remarks on Instagram.
Journalist Alex McKinnon first reported the claim, and writes Mazloum says that the image had been edited, with the abusive text superimposed on the Instagram story. McKinnon reported evidence of this had been sent to Demetriadi ahead of The Australian’s publication via Mazloum’s lawyer, Marque Lawyers principal Michael Bradley.
Streaming
How Paul Kelly’s classic song How to Make Gravy was turned into a different kind of Christmas film
Ever since it was released in 1996, Paul Kelly’s song How to Make Gravy has been embraced as an Australian Christmas classic. It is not a jolly festive hit. Instead, it’s a tale of regret and loneliness, as prison inmate Joe writes to his brother Dan. There’s love, too, and longing and, yes, it includes that gravy recipe (“just add flour, salt and a little red wine. And don’t forget a dollop of tomato sauce for sweetness and that extra tang”), The Sydney Morning Herald’s Louise Rugendyke writes.
The song’s fans are legion, so anyone wanting to turn it into a movie had better watch out. Enter musician Meg Washington and her director husband, Nick Waterman, who have boldly flipped the burgeoning Australian Christmas movie genre on its head with a beautifully moving story that speaks as much to Kelly’s song as it does to modern masculinity.
How to Make Gravy streams on Binge from December 1.
Television
Swinburne University of Technology research reveals how important Australian kids’ content is as government stalls content requirements for streamers
Do we still need Australian kids’ TV, or can we make do with PAW Patrol and Peppa Pig? For almost four years, this question has consumed Swinburne University of Technology researchers Liam Burke and Joanna McIntyre.
Since 2021, they’ve been conducting a longitudinal study as part of the Australian Children’s Television Cultures (ACTC) research project, asking parents about the value they place on children’s television being locally made.
The latest report from the project has found 83 per cent of parents think it’s important that kids’ content is Australian, ABC’s Yasmin Jeffery reports.
“Some of the reasons being that they want their children to see their experiences reflected on screen, and have a better sense of Australia and people across the country,” explains Dr Burke, an associate professor in cinema and screen studies.
The qualities that parents most identified as constituting “good” children’s TV were relatability and diversity, followed by positive educational messages and a distinctly Australian sense of humour.
Given this, it’s perhaps unsurprising the report identified Bluey as the number one TV show among children. It’s also the one parents are most likely to want to watch with their kids.
With its Queensland setting, diversity, localised jokes and turns of phrase from “bush wees” to bilbies, the International Emmy Award-winning ABC iview show couldn’t be more Australian if it tried.