Australia plans "world-leading" social media ban for children under 16
CBSN
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Thursday what he called a "world-leading" plan to implement a social media ban for all children under the age of 16. While much of the detail of the proposed legislation has yet to be made clear, the Australian leader said at a news conference that the bill involves an age verification process where "the onus will be on social media platforms to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access" to their platforms.
Under the proposed legislation, social media companies would face sizable fines for allowing younger children to access their platforms, but there would be no penalties for users or parents of users who ignore the law, the Australian government said in a statement.
"Social media is doing harm to our kids and I'm calling time on it," Albanese declared Thursday. "I've spoken to thousands of parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles. They, like me, are worried sick about the safety of our kids online, and I want Australian parents and families to know that the government has your back."
South Korean prosecutors on Sunday detained a former defense minister who allegedly recommended last week's brief but stunning martial law imposition to President Yoon Suk Yeol, making him the first figure detained over the case, news reports said.
Bob Fernandez thought he'd go dancing and see the world when he joined the U.S. Navy as a 17-year-old high school student in August 1941.
Syrian insurgents have reached the suburbs of Damascus as part of a rapidly moving offensive that has seen them take over some of Syria's largest cities, opposition activists and a rebel commander said Saturday.
Most ruling party lawmakers were boycotting a parliamentary vote Saturday to deny a two-thirds majority sought by the opposition to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived imposition of martial law, as protests grew nationwide calling for his removal.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol apologized Saturday for the public anxiety caused by his short-lived attempt to impose martial law earlier this week, hours ahead of a parliamentary vote on impeaching him.
Washington — The family of Austin Tice, the freelance journalist who was kidnapped in Syria more than 12 years ago, said they have been told that he is alive and well, and they're frustrated with the U.S. government's inability to bring him home.
Thirteen children under the age of 14 died in central Mexico and authorities said they suspect contaminated IV feeding bags as the culprit.
A crocodile attacked and killed a woman as she worked on a palm oil plantation in central Indonesia, local police said, with her body later recovered from the animal's clutches.
Three mountain climbers — two from the U.S. and one from Canada — missing for five days on Aoraki, New Zealand's tallest peak, are believed to have died in a fall, the authorities said Friday.
A record number of unaccompanied migrant minors have traveled through Latin America and the Caribbean this year, according to estimates from UNICEF, the United Nations children's agency.
Crime-solving techniques applied to a medieval illuminated manuscript in Paris may have solved a centuries-old puzzle - the true identity of a leading Byzantine painter who injected humanity into the rigid sanctity of Orthodox religious art.