Ten of the biggest platforms were ordered to block children from midnight on Wednesday (1300 GMT on Tuesday) or face fines of up to A$49.5 million ($33 million) under the new law

International News via Reuters:

Australia has become the first country to ban social media for children under 16, blocking access to platforms including TikTok, Alphabet’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook from midnight.

Ten of the biggest platforms were ordered to block children from midnight on Wednesday (1300 GMT on Tuesday) or face fines of up to A$49.5 million ($33 million) under the new law, which drew criticism from major technology companies and free speech advocates, but was welcomed by parents and child advocates.

The ban is being closely watched by other countries considering similar age-based measures amid growing concerns about the impact of social media on children’s health and safety.

In a video message that Sky News Australia said would be played in schools this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the ban aimed to support young Australians and ease the pressure that can come from endless feeds and algorithms.

“Make the most of the school holidays coming up. Rather than spending it scrolling on your phone, start a new sport, learn a new instrument, or read that book that has been sitting there for some time on your shelf,” he said.

“And importantly, spend quality time with your friends and your family, face to face.”

AUSTRALIA COULD SET PRECEDENT

The rollout ends a year of speculation about whether a country can block children from using technology embedded in modern life.

It also begins a live experiment that will be studied globally by lawmakers frustrated by what they say is a tech industry too slow to implement harm-reduction measures.

“While Australia is the first to adopt such restrictions, it is unlikely to be the last,” Tama Leaver, a professor of internet studies at Curtin University, said.

“Governments around the world are watching how the power of Big Tech was successfully taken on. The social media ban in Australia … is very much the canary in the coal mine.”

Governments from Denmark to Malaysia – and even some states in the U.S., where platforms are rolling back trust and safety features – say they plan similar steps, four years after a leak of internal Meta documents alleged the company knew its products contributed to body image problems among teenagers. Meta has said it has tools to protect children.

BAN COMES AS SOCIAL MEDIA USE STAGNATES

The ban initially covers 10 platforms, but the government said the list would change as new products emerge and young users switch to alternatives.

Of the initial 10, all but Elon Musk’s X have said they will comply using age inference – guessing a person’s age from their online activity – or age estimation, which is usually based on a selfie. They might also check with uploaded identification documents or linked bank account details.

Musk has said the ban “seems like a backdoor way to control access to the internet by all Australians” and most platforms have complained that it violates people’s right to free speech. An Australian High Court challenge overseen by a libertarian state lawmaker is pending.

For social media businesses, the implementation marks a new era of structural stagnation as user numbers flatline and time spent on platforms shrinks, studies show.

Platforms say they earn little from advertising to under-16s, but warn the ban disrupts a pipeline of future users. Just before the ban took effect, 86% of Australians aged eight to 15 used social media, the government said.

Some youngsters have warned the social media ban could isolate people.

“It’s going to be worse for queer people and people with niche interests I guess because that’s the only way they can find their community, and some people also use it to vent their feelings and talk to people to get help… So I feel like it’ll be fine for some people, but for some people it’ll worsen their mental health,” said 14-year-old Annie Wang ahead of the ban.

($1 = 1.5097 Australian dollars)

Reporting by Byron Kaye, Claire Beers. Writing by Alexandra Hudson. Editing by Andrew Heavens and Mark Potter

The fire has now been extinguished and the recovered bodies have been sent to a hospital for identification

International News via Reuters:

A fire swept through a seven-storey office block in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta on Tuesday, killing 22 people, police said.

The fire has now been extinguished and the recovered bodies have been sent to a hospital for identification, Susatyo Purnomo Condro, the head of Central Jakarta police, told reporters.

The fire erupted on the first floor at around midday and then spread to the upper floors, Condro said.

The building houses the office of Terra Drone Indonesia, a unit of Japanese firm Terra Drone Corporation, which provides drones for aerial survey activities with clients in the mining to agriculture sectors.

Some company employees were having lunch in the building at the time while others had left the office, Condro said.

Footage broadcast by Kompas TV showed dozens of firefighters trying to evacuate people, and some were carrying body bags from the building. Some employees were seen escaping from the upper floors using portable ladders.

“A police forensic laboratory team has arrived to investigate the cause of the fire,” Condro said.

“Based on information gathered so far, batteries from a drone caught fire, but the cause of the fire, the point of origin is still being investigated,” he said, adding that police would question the business owner as well as the building owner.

Terra Drone Co apologised in a statement for the stress and inconvenience caused to the local community and customers, adding that it was investigating the impact of the blaze on its business.

The blaze comes nearly two weeks after a huge fire swept through a high-rise apartment complex in Hong Kong on November 26. Authorities said on Tuesday the death toll now stood at 160.

Reporting by Ananda Teresia and Stefanno Sulaiman; Editing by David Stanway and Gareth Jones

The earthquake struck off the coast at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT) on Monday, and the Japan Meteorological Agency said a tsunami as high as 3 metres (10 feet) could hit the country’s northeastern coast

International News via Reuters:

Japanese authorities lifted tsunami warnings on Tuesday hours after a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake shook northeastern regions, injuring at least 30 people and forcing about 90,000 residents to evacuate their homes. 

The earthquake struck off the coast at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT) on Monday, and the Japan Meteorological Agency said a tsunami as high as 3 metres (10 feet) could hit the country’s northeastern coast. Warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and tsunamis from 20 to 70 cm (7 to 27 inches) high were observed at several ports, JMA said.

By the early hours of Tuesday, the JMA downgraded the warnings to advisories, and later lifted all advisories. There were no reports of major damage.

The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of Aomori prefecture, at a depth of 54 km.

On Japan’s 1-7 scale of seismic intensity, the tremor registered as an “upper 6” in Hachinohe city, Aomori prefecture – a quake strong enough to make it impossible to keep standing or move without crawling. 

“As of now, I have received reports of 30 people being injured and one fire,” Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters. 

East Japan Railway suspended some services in the area, which was also hit by a massive 9.0-magnitude quake in March 2011. Other train services are facing delays in northern Japan, the operator said.

Following the tremor, the JMA issued an advisory for a wide region from the northernmost island of Hokkaido down to Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, calling on residents to be on alert for the possibility of a powerful earthquake hitting again within a week.    

“There is a possibility that further powerful and stronger earthquakes could occur over the next several days,” a JMA official said at a briefing. 

No irregularities were reported at nuclear power plants in the region run by Tohoku Electric Power and Hokkaido Electric Power, the utilities said. Thousands of households had lost power immediately following the quake, but service resumed by Tuesday morning.

YEN WEAKENS BRIEFLY

The yen weakened against major currencies after news of the tremor, with the dollar and euro both touching session highs.

Japan is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, with a tremor occurring at least every five minutes. Located in the “Ring of Fire” of volcanoes and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin, Japan accounts for about 20% of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater.

The northeastern region suffered one of the country’s deadliest earthquakes on March 11, 2011, when a 9.0-magnitude tremor struck under the ocean off the coast of the northern city of Sendai. It was the most powerful ever recorded in Japan and set off a series of massive tsunami that devastated a wide swathe of the Pacific coastline and killed nearly 20,000 people.

Drawing on lessons from that disaster, when a magnitude 7-level earthquake had struck two days beforehand, the government now issues a one-week “megaquake” advisory whenever a significant earthquake occurs in the region. 

The 2011 tsunami also damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, leading to a series of explosions and meltdowns in the world’s worst nuclear disaster for 25 years.

Reporting by Mariko Katsumura, Chang-Ran Kim, Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Stephen Coates