Are we at a crossroads with social media? Joanne Orlando, who has spent 15 years researching young people’s use of digital technology, believes the answer is yes.

Orlando acknowledges there is a lot of community concern at the moment, but says “some of our responses are not based on evidence”. Calls to simply ban young people’s access to these platforms means they won’t learn how to use or manage them when they get older. It risks driving them underground, where they will be less likely to ask an adult for help if they need it, Orlando writes.

A ban also fails to recognise some of the benefits young people get from social media, such as social connection, support and inspiration. “A ban seems simple, but to really keep our kids safe online we need to do more complex work to reclaim control on social media,” she says. This means acknowledging the good and the bad of social media, and educating young people about how algorithms work and how to identify and respond to harmful content.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand government has now scrapped the previously planned reforms to online safety regulations, which would have tackled bullying and harassment and aimed to curb the spread of harmful materials such as child exploitation and self-harm content. As Fiona Sing and Antonia Lyons report, the government now says stronger regulations would be subjective and run counter to free speech – despite tech platforms being in favour.

These principles might be difficult to stomach when you consider the increasing prevalence of AI-generated child sexual exploitation content. Australia is the third-largest market in the world for online sex abuse material.

As criminology experts Terry Goldsworthy and Gaelle Brotto write, it’s a central concern of police across the country, whose investigations risk being slowed down by having to figure out whether content depicts a real child at risk, or an entirely digitally created one.

And speaking of digitally created people, last year Snapchat influencer Caryn Marjorie trained a chatbot to imitate her and then gave her fans the chance to interact with “CarynAI” for the bargain price of a dollar a minute. However, as Leah Henrickson and Dominique Carlon write in a cautionary tale for the AI era, the users (and the chatbot itself) took the conversations in such weird, sexual and unsettling directions that Marjorie shut the project down after just eight months.

PS. We are now in the final week of our annual donations campaign – many thanks to those of you who have generously given so far. For those who are able to, there is still time to make a tax-deductible donation to help fund our unique model of journalism.

Judith Ireland

Education Editor

We know social media bans are unlikely to work. So how can we keep young people safe online?

Joanne Orlando, Western Sydney University

A social media ban only delays young people’s exposure to these platforms. It does not help them learn how to deal with them.

Big tech companies were open to online safety regulation – why did NZ’s government scrap the idea?

Fiona Sing, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau; Antonia Lyons, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

The government says the online safety framework infringed on free speech. But some of the world’s biggest tech companies have said they aren’t opposed to some form of regulation.

Deepfake, AI or real? It’s getting harder for police to protect children from sexual exploitation online

Terry Goldsworthy, Bond University; Gaelle Brotto

Police efforts to sort through online child sexual exploitation material are being hampered by the rise in AI-generated imagery. Here’s how they’re working to combat the problem.

An influencer’s AI clone started offering fans ‘mind-blowing sexual experiences’ without her knowledge

Leah Henrickson, The University of Queensland; Dominique Carlon, Queensland University of Technology

Caryn Marjorie made $70,000 a week from her AI doppelgänger – until things got weird

No more recreational vaping for Australians. From October, vapes will be sold over the counter at pharmacies

Becky Freeman, University of Sydney

From October, people who vape for therapeutic purposes will be able to purchase them from pharmacies without a prescription.

Fines of $10 million will force supermarkets to think carefully before exploiting suppliers, but more could have been done

Allan Fels, The University of Melbourne

The Emerson review could have recommended binding arbitration and giving courts the power to force supermarket chains to divest stores, but what it has recommended will put the big chains on notice.

No nuclear veto: if the Coalition isn’t seeking community consent, is that really consultation?

Diane Sivasubramaniam, Swinburne University of Technology; Samuel Wilson, Swinburne University of Technology

The Coalition is sending mixed messages on community consultation when it comes to nuclear power. If the community never has the authority to influence the outcome, is it actually “consultation”?

Extreme wildfires are on the rise globally, powered by the climate crisis

Calum Cunningham, University of Tasmania; David Bowman, University of Tasmania; Grant Williamson, University of Tasmania

An analysis of 88 million wildfire observations over the past 21 years shows a strong increase in the frequency and intensity of the most extreme fires around the world.

Australia plans to hire more overseas doctors. Is it ethical to recruit from countries with doctor shortages?

Hilary Bowman-Smart, University of South Australia

Australia is recruiting more overseas-trained doctors to fill doctor shortages. But when a high-income country like Australia does this, we risk causing a ‘brain drain’ elsewhere.

Across Southeast Asia, people paying respect to Spirits living on their Land is a normal part of life

James Nguyen, Monash University

Spirit Houses are a part of daily life – and we can understand them as a form of Land Acknowledgement.

40 years after his death Michel Foucault’s philosophy still speaks to a world saturated with social media

Cameron Shackell, Queensland University of Technology

Knowledge, for Foucault, is not just what we know. It is who we are. It defines our options, not just intellectually, but in all respects.

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