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Online companies will be forced to do more to stop AI deepfake child abuse content

The proposed changes come after child safety advocates accused the federal government of not doing enough to keep kids safe online.
A Mac laptop resting on a bed in the dark

TikTok filters are the latest weapon in online activism — but do they work?

TikTok creators say using this filter will raise money for charity. It's the latest example of digital activism sweeping social media platforms, but it sounds a little too good to be true — so, is it?
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Screenshots from three TikToks showing various watermelon games.

Scam websites rife during Black Friday sales

ACCC cautioning consumers to be careful of scam websites advertising Black Friday sales.
ABC News Current
Duration: 3 minutes 14 seconds

What the trail of crumbs left by celebrity scammers tells us about who they target

Scammers are using multinational brands — including a food delivery company and beloved character Paddington Bear — in a bid to steal money from Australian Facebook users.
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A person's thumb edges towards a Facebook app icon on a smartphone.

Apple announces surprise adoption of 'the new SMS' pushed by Google

Issues between blue and green message bubbles could soon be a thing of the past, as Apple moves to adopt the RCS standard.
A close up of the Messages app displaying on an iPad screen, with a small notification badge in its top right

analysis:The 'fourth trimester' can be a hard time for mothers. Social media can help — but can also make things worse

Many perinatal specialists believe that new mothers need more support in the fourth trimester — the 12 weeks after birth. They're turning to social media for it.
Updated
An asian woman sits on a lounge holding her sleeping baby and laughing at something on her phone

'He's been carrying them for years': Shock as Queer Eye's Bobby Berk quits show

Fans of hit show Queer Eye are in shock after Bobby Berk, the show's interior design and home organisation expert, announced that the show's upcoming eighth season would be his last. 
The cast of Queer Eye on the red carpet of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

Actor and advocate Chloé Hayden is leaving Instagram, citing 'inescapable abuse'

Heartbreak High actor and disability rights advocate Chloé Hayden has taken a step back from Instagram, due to abuse affecting her mental and physical health.
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Woman in pink t-shirt adjusts a floral wreath on her head

How two Brisbane violinists became global disruptors of classical music

Brisbane violinists Brett Yang and Eddy Chen left coveted orchestra jobs to pursue YouTube stardom. This is how the duo built a social media audience of 7.5 million.
Brett and Eddy wearing suits, looking serious, smoke behind them, holding violins.

Streaming costs are rising, and there are more platforms than ever to choose between. Some people are going back to piracy

Continual price hikes and fragmentation of services have seen some Australians ditch their streaming services in favour of film and TV piracy. 
Netflix

Burning flags in a kids' game: Why protests about the Israel-Gaza war are happening in Roblox

Protests over the Israel-Gaza war have swept the globe — and the virtual worlds of video games are no exception.
Generic avatars in Roblox protest holding sigs that say FEAR with the word crossed out.

High Schoolers undergo social experiment to reduce screen time

Screen addiction is on the rise in young people. As a social experiment teens from across Australia limited their screen time to 30 minutes a day, they say the effects were immediate.
ABC News Current
Duration: 3 minutes 48 seconds

Meet the rapping psychology lecturer inspiring young minds through song

When he's not pondering the depths of the human mind, Michael Thai is coming up with psychology-themed song parodies for his students at the University of Queensland.
A man at a uni campus

How a Norwegian school project turned into a TikTok trend that is changing the way new music is released

If you spend any time on TikTok, you've probably heard snippets of songs that sound like an alien consuming helium. This is called "nightcore" music and it's only getting more popular.
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Womens and men images cut out and put on a blue background

Why can't customers be automatically switched to other carriers when their network goes down?

Canada, Japan, and the United States are among the countries that expect service providers to implement roaming capabilities to cover major network failures. 
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A woman uses her phone outside an Optus store as a man looks at his.

analysis:Broken dreams, bad predictions and big tech: Five things to know about AI

For the last few months, there's one question that I've been asked countless times: What do you think of AI? Here's what I've learned over months interviewing the top AI experts, writes James Purtill. 
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Illustration showing a big robotic arm

Has the cloud turned us into big tech's peasants?

Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis says capitalism is dead and that we are now "serfs" for the likes of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
Updated
ABC News Current

'Let that sink in!': Musk's words come back to bite as X looks like it has become 'worthless'

In the year since Elon Musk took over Twitter, the platform now known as X, has reportedly halved in value, and is considered "no longer safe" for users in countries where freedom of expression has increasingly come under threat.
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man in suit rubbing hands together next to logo of a white x on black background

Indigenous language app a game changer for learning, preserving First Nations lingo

Named after the Wiradjuri word for "change" or "refreshment", the ground-breaking mobile app Gurray translates English words into seven different Aboriginal languages.
A person holds a phone that shows the Gurray Indigenous language keyboard app

Google CEO defends paying Apple and others to make Google the default search engine on devices

Sundar Pichai says the intent of the payments is to make the user experience "seamless and easy".
An Indian man with facial hair, in a dark suit, smiles without teeth, outside, approcahing a court.

'A classic example of greenwashing': UN climate summit website criticised over 'low carbon' toggle

The COP28 summit reworks its website after a "low carbon" toggle is found to have little impact on its energy usage.
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An animated gif showing a digital toggle with a lightning bolt image inside it being switch from left to right, changing colour

What drives someone to contribute thousands of pages to Wikipedia? Passion helps

With millions of articles, Wikipedia is a hub for many things, and that includes regional WA. Meet the dedicated WA hobbyists who commit their time to the free online encyclopedia.
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A man sitting next to a laptop with Wikipedia open

Tech giant Meta being sued by 41 US states

Tech giant Meta has been sued by 41 US states over allegedly contributing to a youth mental health crisis.
ABC News Current
Duration: 6 minutes 20 seconds

'The most shocking thing I've ever seen': How one move in an ancient board game changed our view of AI

A board game contest between human and machine in 2016 marked the birth of modern AI. This is the moment the world changed forever.
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Lee Sedol during the Google DeepMind challenge match

Teenagers are using typewriters again, for a more 'tactile' experience

A "surprising" writing trend has emerged, according to typewriter enthusiasts who say school students are better engaging with the more tactile creative process.
Typewriter generic