Tax fix for productivity Tobacco wars hit ASX
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9 News
3 hours ago
- 9 News
Australia regulator says YouTube, others 'turning a blind eye' to child abuse material
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here Australia 's internet watchdog has said the world's biggest social media firms are still "turning a blind eye" to online child sex abuse material on their platforms, and said YouTube in particular had been unresponsive to its enquiries. In a report released on Wednesday, the eSafety Commissioner said YouTube , along with Apple , failed to track the number of user reports it received of child sex abuse appearing on their platforms and also could not say how long it took them to respond to such reports. The Australian government decided last week to include YouTube in its world-first social media ban for teenagers, following eSafety's advice to overturn its planned exemption for the Alphabet-owned Google's GOOGL.O video-sharing site. Australia's internet watchdog has said the world's biggest social media firms are still "turning a blind eye" to online child sex abuse material on their platforms, with YouTube in particular, unresponsive to its enquiries (SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett) "When left to their own devices, these companies aren't prioritising the protection of children and are seemingly turning a blind eye to crimes occurring on their services," eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement. "No other consumer-facing industry would be given the licence to operate by enabling such heinous crimes against children on their premises, or services." Google has said previously that abuse material has no place on its platforms and that it uses a range of industry-standard techniques to identify and remove such material. Meta - owner of Facebook, Instagram and Threads, three of the biggest platforms with more than 3 billion users worldwide - says it prohibits graphic videos. Google has said before that its anti-abuse measures include hash-matching technology and artificial intelligence. (Smith Collection/Getty) The eSafety Commissioner, an office set up to protect internet users, has mandated Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Skype, Snap and WhatsApp to report on the measures they take to address child exploitation and abuse material in Australia. The report on their responses so far found a "range of safety deficiencies on their services which increases the risk that child sexual exploitation and abuse material and activity appear on the services". Safety gaps included failures to detect and prevent livestreaming of the material or block links to known child abuse material, as well as inadequate reporting mechanisms. It said platforms were also not using "hash-matching" technology on all parts of their services to identify images of child sexual abuse by checking them against a database. The Australian regulator said some providers had not made improvements to address these safety gaps on their services despite it putting them on notice in previous years. (Getty) Google has said before that its anti-abuse measures include hash-matching technology and artificial intelligence. The Australian regulator said some providers had not made improvements to address these safety gaps on their services despite it putting them on notice in previous years. "In the case of Apple services and Google's YouTube, they didn't even answer our questions about how many user reports they received about child sexual abuse on their services or details of how many trust and safety personnel Apple and Google have on-staff," Inman Grant said. national Australia social media youtube CONTACT US Property News: Rubbish-strewn house overtaken by mould asks $1.2 million.
The Australian
3 hours ago
- The Australian
Chalmers' economic reform summit downgraded to red tape focus
Jim Chalmers has put a lot of effort into an economic reform roundtable that his government is now talking down as an ideas vehicle to cut red tape and drive housing productivity. Both the Treasurer and Anthony Albanese are lowering expectations to a point where major tax reform and proposals to rein in structural spending will be thrown in the 'too hard' basket. Chalmers can't be faulted for his energetic approach to the Prime Minister's productivity roundtable, which the Treasurer rebadged as an economic reform roundtable open to big tax, investment and growth policy ideas. By Friday, Chalmers would have met 75 chief executive and senior industry representatives. After meeting the Business Council of Australia this week, he would have met the BCA and ACTU twice since his June 18 National Press Club speech outlining Labor's priorities for 'economic reform in our second term'. From July 8 to August 15, Albanese government ministers will have held 41 ministerial roundtables that will feed in to Chalmers' three-day economic reform summit at Parliament House between August 19 and 21. There have been 900 submissions to Treasury ahead of the roundtable, which won't be publicly released. In addition to messaging the PM almost every day about the roundtable, Chalmers has also spoken with Treasury secretary Jenny Wilkinson for about 30 to 40 hours about ideas being floated to lift sluggish productivity. Despite Chalmers slaving away on what could have been a seminal moment for the second-term government's economic reform agenda, the roundtable is in danger of becoming a talkfest with generic promises of action. The 23 'core attendees', who include CBA chief executive Matt Comyn, former Treasury secretary Ken Henry, Tech Council of Australia chair Scott Farquhar, NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, ACTU secretary Sally McManus, BCA chief Bran Black and opposition Treasury spokesman Ted O'Brien, will be joined by 24 others invited to specific sessions. New invitees include ATO commissioner Rob Heferen, Tesla chair Robyn Denholm and Macquarie Group managing director Shemara Wikramanayake. At the end of three days of talks – which will not be subject to Chatham House rules, meaning participants can speak their minds – Chalmers is not expected to unveil a communique or secure broad agreement across a range of economic reform proposals. Instead, he will give the nation an update on the top issues and commit to going away and working on them. Major tax reform is expected to play second fiddle to a new primary focus: deregulation, cutting red tape, and sparking productivity in the housing sector. There is no doubt all levels of government need to axe red and green tape that is stifling productivity and stalling economic activity and investment. But that surely could be progressed without so much rigmarole. An alliance of up to 30 business and industry groups is calling for the government to match decisive action taken by British Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer and slash red tape by as much as 25 per cent by 2030. Without speeding up approvals, Labor's housing, renewables, emissions reduction and net zero targets will fall short. After one term of not moving aggressively enough, Chalmers must bring governments with him and rid the country of red tape and slow bureaucratic processes.
7NEWS
11 hours ago
- 7NEWS
The Bag That Won't Go Missing
If you've ever stood at the carousel wondering if your bag even made the flight, you're not alone. Lost luggage is one of the biggest headaches in travel. Now a new Aussie partnership claims it's solved it, letting you track your suitcase live from check-in all the way to your hotel. What's new? From August 4, Qantas and homegrown luggage brand July are rolling out the first airline-branded smart suitcase with built-in global tracking. No AirTags to remember, no Bluetooth fobs you must charge, just a sleek, hard-shell case that can tell you exactly where it is, anywhere in the world, straight from your phone. There are two versions of the Qantas x July case: A standard Qantas Edition in midnight black with red leather accents. A Frequent Flyer Edition in dark blue with Napa leather and tan details, exclusive to Gold, Platinum, and Platinum One members. Both come in carry-on and checked luggage sizes, complete with a neat Qantas luggage tag holder built in. 'You never want to lose your suitcase. It's a sad thing that happens, not often, but when it does, you never know where it is, and you wish you'd put tracking in from Day One!' July co-founder Athan Didaskalou said. How does it work? Inside the TSA-approved lock sits a tiny chip that talks to millions of Apple and Android devices around the globe. Open Apple's Find My app on an iPhone, or Google's Find My Device on Android, and you can see your bag's live location — whether it's still at the gate, on the carousel, or accidentally loaded into the wrong taxi. The tech runs on a long-lasting, low-energy battery designed to keep tracking for months without a recharge. It's basically set-and-forget. The idea is simple: once your bag leaves your hands, you don't have to cross your fingers — you can actually see where it is. How's this different from what we've already got? Plenty of travellers already chuck an AirTag or a Bluetooth tracker in their bag, but those only work properly if you're in the Apple ecosystem or within short range. This is the first time a major airline has built dual-network tracking directly into a suitcase, meaning it works out of the box on both iPhone and Android, anywhere in the world. No extra setup, no separate gadgets to buy or forget. 'AirTags are great, but you don't always put them in your bag,' Didaskalou said. 'Sometimes you forget or swap them between bags. 'When it's built in, you set it and forget it.' Part of a bigger shift This launch is more than just about saving you from a missing suitcase nightmare. It's another step toward end-to-end digital travel, where the whole journey is trackable and stress-free. SmartGates now let you skip manual passport checks with facial recognition. Digital declarations are replacing the old paper arrival cards, with Brisbane leading the rollout and Sydney next. Soon, smart boarding passes on iPhone will give live updates, from gate changes to delays, without even opening an app. And now, with this July collaboration, your bag finally joins the digital chain too. PRICES: Black carry on: $375 Black checked: $425 Blue carry on: $425 Blue checked: $475
