N.Korea fires two ballistic missiles from Pyongyang airport, S.Korea says

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia’s states and territories on Friday unanimously backed a national plan to require most forms of social media to bar children younger than 16.

Leaders of the eight provinces held a virtual meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to discuss what he calls a world-first national approach that would make platforms including X, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook responsible for enforcing the age limit.

“Social media is doing social harm to our young Australians,” Albanese told reporters. “The safety and mental health of our young people has to be a priority.”

The government leaders had been discussing for months setting a limit, considering options from 14 to 16 years of age.

While Tasmania would have preferred 14, the state was prepared to support 16 in the interests of achieving national uniformity, Albanese said.

The legislation will be introduced into Parliament within two weeks, and the age ban would take effect a year after it passes into law, giving platforms time to work out how to exclude children. The government has yet to offer a technical solution.

The delay is also intended to allow time to address privacy concerns around age verification.

The main opposition party has given in-principle support to the 16-year age limit since it was announced on Thursday, suggesting the legislation will pass the Senate.

The minor Greens party was critical, saying the ban would prevent the emergence in Australia of future child environmental activists like Sweden’s Greta Thunberg.

More than 140 academics with expertise in fields related to technology and child welfare signed an open letter to Albanese last month opposing a social media age limit as “too blunt an instrument to address risks effectively.”

Critics say most teenagers are tech savvy enough to get around such laws. Some fear the ban will create conflicts within families and drive social media problems underground.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, argues that stronger tools in app stores and operating systems for parents to control what apps their children can use would be a “simple and effective solution.”

The government likens the proposed social media age limit to the laws that restrict the sale of alcohol to adults aged 18 and older across Australia. Children still find ways to drink, but the prohibition remains.

“We think these laws will make a real positive difference,” Albanese said.

But Lisa Given, professor of information sciences at RMIT University, described the legislation as “really problematic.”

“Many of our social networks are actually about the provision of extremely critical information to kids,” Given told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“There’s no doubt that they’re also facing bullying and other challenges online, but they actually need the social supports to know how to navigate the platforms safely and so they need more support from parents, from care-givers, not less access to a single or multiple platforms,” Given added.

Tama Leaver, professor of internet studies at Curtin University, described the government’s plan to remove 14 and 15-year-olds from their already established social media accounts was “strange.”

“If you’ve already developed that space in that world, to have it taken away really could do as much harm as the harms that are purportedly being fixed,” Leaver said.

“There are so many questions about this that have yet to be answered, but even if we had solid answers about how this might work technically and how this might get implemented socially, it’s still hard to believe that this would actually keep kids safe online,” he added.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said children would retain access to online education and health services.

The legislation would also include strong privacy protections surrounding age verification.

“Privacy must be paramount, including that of children,” Rowland said. “We should also be very clear about the realities. These platforms know about their users in a way that no one else does.”

Rowland said YouTube would likely be included among the mainstream platforms defined under the legislation as age restricted services.

But YouTube Kids could be exempted. Gaming and messaging services would not face age restrictions, she said,

“This legislation would strike a balance between minimizing the harms experienced by young people during a critical period of their development while also supporting their access to benefits as well,” Rowland said.

TOKYO (AP) — Sony’s profit rose 69% in July-September from a year earlier on the back of strong sales of its image sensors, games, music and network services, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said on Friday.

Quarterly profit was 338.5 billion yen ($2.2 billion), up from 200 billion yen in the year-earlier period, while consolidated quarterly sales edged up 3% year-on-year to 2.9 trillion yen ($19 billion).

Tokyo-based Sony’s latest quarterly results were boosted by healthy demand around the world for image sensors used in mobile products.

Sales also held up in its video games division. During the latest quarter, 3.8 million PlayStation 5 game consoles were sold globally, compared with 4.9 million units sold the same period a year ago.

Demand remained strong for PS5 game software, according to Sony.

The top-selling music releases from Sony for the quarter included “SOS” by SZA, David Gilmour’s “Luck and Strange” and Kenshi Yonezu’s “Lost Corner.”

One area where Sony’s business suffered was its pictures division, including TV shows and movies, which was impacted by production delays caused by the strikes in Hollywood.

Among the recent hit films from Sony was “It Ends With Us,” a romantic drama based on a novel.

Sony, which also makes digital cameras and TVs, maintained its 980-billion yen ($6.4 billion) profit forecast for the fiscal year through March 2025, up 1% from the previous fiscal year.

___

Yuri Kageyama is on X:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

TORONTO – While it was an evening meant to celebrate the progress made by LGBTQ+ leaders and organizations across Canada, the star-studded inaugural PTP Pink Awards carried an underlying sense that dark times are ahead.

Two days after U.S. voters re-elected Donald Trump as president, and a week after the Alberta government introduced sweeping legislation that could impact the lives of transgender people, the Thursday soiree unfolded with a guarded optimism summarized by host Priyanka as she opened the show.

“What a week, am I right?” the first winner of “Canada’s Drag Race” said to nervous laughter from the audience.

“The internet’s getting louder, people are getting more opinionated, and it’s great that everyone has a voice but oh … it’s hard!”

The celebrity drag queen tossed aside the negativity soon after by assuring the room that “what the doctor will order is queer joy.” And so for much of the night, queer positivity rang loudest.

Five notable LGBTQ+ Canadians, including actor Elliot Page and musician Rufus Wainwright, hand picked community groups they felt had made a difference.

Each organization received a $5,000 donation, a spot in an advocacy media campaign, and a portion of proceeds from a silent auction.

Page selected the Calgary-based Skipping Stone, which aims to connect transgender youth, adults and their families with support systems.

Before taking the stage, the “Umbrella Academy” actor spoke about keeping perspective on the threats befalling the trans community, especially as queer advocates worry a Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre would mean a pullback in their rights.

“The path to liberation is not linear and this backlash is very real,” he said on the pink carpet.

Page added that it’s important the LGBTQ+ community is there for one another, and “strategizing together in terms of how are we going to resist what has been happening and what else is potentially coming.”

Skipping Stone’s managing director Amelia Marie Newbert paused during her acceptance speech to note that at that moment it was likely Alberta’s legislature was “literally debating our right to exist, something that shouldn’t be debated.”

However, she noted Skipping Stone’s recognition was meaningful not only for the organization but for the province’s transgender community.

“It’s about (them) feeling like there’s hope,” she said.

“Knowing there are people standing with us, that hope is priceless.”

Fellow honouree Jeremy Dutcher selected 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations, a Toronto-based office that links the Indigenous community with local resources.

The two-time Polaris Music Prize-winning musician said he used that organization’s resources when he first moved to Toronto in his early 20s. But he emphasized how impressed he was by the efforts of other LGBTQ+ organizations in the room.

“None of this happens in a vacuum,” he said.

“There’s a constellation of people doing really incredible, transformative work that is making space for queer people.”

Other names honoured included queer activist Latoya Nugent, a refugee to Canada, who chose Among Friends, a program for LGBTQ+ refugee claimants that runs out of the 519 Toronto community centre.

Hockey player Marie-Philip Poulin, who was absent from the ceremony due to a game, chose You Can Play, which promotes inclusivity in sports.

Wainwright selected PFLAG Canada, the homegrown branch of the education and support organization for the LGBTQ+ community.

On the carpet, the U.S.-Canadian singer-songwriter wrestled with how to summarize his feelings about Trump’s re-election. He was an outspoken supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

“Look, it’s a disaster, obviously,” he said. “But I do think it’s part of a worldwide situation.”

“This is a human fight all of us are engaged in,” he added. “And the rubber has hit the road and we have to actually save the world.”

As one of the night’s musical performers, Wainwright settled behind a piano for a sombre performance of his 2007 song “Going to a Town,” which laments the decline of the United States. He noted that it was the first time he’d sung it since the election.

Rounding out the award winners was entrepreneur Salah Bachir, who received the Legacy Award for his philanthropy.

The Pink Awards were organized by Pink Triangle Press, the publisher of Xtra Magazine as well as an advocate for LGBTQ+ representation in Canadian media.

Managing director Jennifer McGuire said they were inspired to launch the show because of the growing hostile climate towards the LGBTQ+ community in many regions.

“We’ve seen an increase in hate crimes directed at the community, a clawback in rights targeted not only to trans people but beyond – reproductive rights, surrogacy rights, depending on the country,” she said

“It was an opportunity to turn the page on that and frame a public conversation about positivity and people doing good.”

Dutcher offered his take on the ongoing tumult and an assurance of brighter days, even if LGBTQ+ Canadians worry about what may be ahead.

“What we’re seeing is the death throes of a real sickness in our society and that’s going to pass, but it may pass through these parts before it’s done,” he said.

“As people of conscience, people of heart. I think we need to … come together and try to love each other because these are going to be strange times ahead.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.