Cameron Wilson

5 days ago | crikey.com.au | Cameron Wilson

An expert advising Australia’s $6.5 million teen social media ban tech trial has resigned over concerns about transparency and some of its initial findings. Other individuals and groups have also raised misgivings about the process. On Friday, the government-commissioned Age Assurance Technology Trial published a statement about its testing, saying it found that age assurance could be done in Australia in a “private, robust and effective” way.

5 days ago | crikey.com.au | Cameron Wilson

When I first heard the government would trial how to enforce the teen social media ban, it sounded like a good idea to help solve a tricky problem. Six months later, what I’ve gleaned from speaking to insiders makes me wonder whether the problem being solved is political, not technological. On Friday, the government’s tech tester put out a “preliminary report” — which was really astatement — that said it believes “age assurance” can be done in Australia in a “private, robust and effective” way.

1 week ago | crikey.com.au | Cameron Wilson

Australia’s federal government had a “world-first” idea for how to keep our kids safe online. Batting away expert concerns about how it would work, the government pushed ahead. It poured time and money into a scheme meant to stop children accessing certain parts of the internet. This was in 2007, not 2025, back when the Australian government pursued its infamous internet porn filter.

1 week ago | crikey.com.au | Cameron Wilson

Almost every Australian supports doing what it takes to enforce the teen social media ban, the Albanese government has declared. The source for this claim is a survey of nearly 4,000 people commissioned by the government into “online age assurance”, which is jargon for technologies and methods used to figure out someone’s age online.

1 week ago | crikey.com.au | Cameron Wilson

Conspiracy theorists are creating and training their own artificial intelligence models to create chatbots that help spread their extreme beliefs, as tech companies grapple with fears that the new technology is prompting delusions in some users. Once created, these chatbots will tell users about disproven links between vaccines and autism, and even assist them in trying to convince others by writing social media posts and letters for them.