Australia is set to become the first country in the world to ban children aged 16 and under from having accounts on most social media platforms. Supporters of the hard line ban say it has already influenced social media giants to clean up their act, but there are concerns that tech-savvy children will easily be able to dodge the restrictions. 

Reducing ‘pressures and risks’ 
From Wednesday next week, 10 platforms will become age-restricted – Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Snapchat, X, YouTube, Reddit, Twitch and Kick. Under-16s will still be able to see publicly available content on the platforms but they won’t be able to have their own accounts or see logged-in content. Australian teenagers are already receiving notifications from Instagram and Facebook, advising them to save their data before access to their accounts is revoked. Companies that fail to take “reasonable steps” to comply will face penalties of up to A$49.5 million (£25 million).

The Australian government says the ban is intended to reduce the “pressures and risks” children can be exposed to on social media. It follows a study commissioned by the government that found that 96% of children aged 10-15 used social media, and that 70% had been exposed to harmful content and behaviour.

Migration to gaming apps 
Supporters say the ban is already working. What “appears to drive self-regulation” among social media giants is “the credibility of the threat of government”, said Timothy Koskie on ABC, so Australia’s “muscular and maximalist” approach has “already achieved results”. Meta announced Instagram “teen accounts” for young users around the world in September 2024, TikTok and Snapchat have expanded their age-related account controls, and YouTube has further restricted access to streaming for teens.

But it’s a “no-brainer” that Australian teens will migrate to other platforms, such as gaming apps with chat functions, where “you can still engage with people”, an internet studies professor told The Nightly. And age verification technology is not infallible. A joint study by the University of Melbourne and Princeton University found that teenage volunteers were able to pass the checks with tricks including “pointing the camera at video game characters, pulling silly facial expressions, as well as cheap disguises”, said ABC. VPN providers “are also expecting a surge in Australian users” next week.

Labour has been accused of breaking another manifesto pledge after a last-minute watering-down of a key clause in its flagship Employment Rights Bill.

The decision to change the so-called “day-one rights” to protection from unfair dismissal leaves the bill a “shell of its former self”, said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham. But the government hopes the concession will be enough to win over sceptical peers in the House of Lords and get the bill passed into law by next April.

What protections does the bill offer?
Protection against unfair dismissal will now kick in after six months in a job – in line with most European countries, and an improvement on the current two years. A compensation cap on successful unfair dismissal claims imposed by the Tories will also be lifted.

Other rights, such as the right to claim sick pay and paternity leave, and to apply for flexible working, will be enshrined from day one, and zero-hours contracts will be banned. The threshold for calling a strike will also be lowered, with a union requiring only a simple majority of members who voted, rather than at least 40% of those eligible to vote, as the current law dictates.

The enforcement of employment rights will be overseen by a new Fair Work Agency, which will have the right to inspect workplaces, issue fines and bring legal action on behalf of employees.

What has the reaction been?
The TUC’s general secretary Paul Nowak said the bill is “essential to better quality, more secure jobs for millions of workers across the economy”. But opposition politicians and business leaders have warned that the new provisions are likely to have the opposite effect.

With unemployment already at a near five-year high, “employers have stopped hiring, in part because a rising living wage and steep rises in their national insurance charges have made it too expensive, but also because the looming legislation makes it too risky”, said The Telegraph.

What happens next?
Former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, who led the passage of the bill through Parliament before she was forced to resign, reportedly plans to lay an amendment tomorrow to speed up the bill, so it can be implemented as early as next year.

Fans gather to watch car-drifting in the Umm Al Quwain desert, north of Dubai. The UAE’s Emirates Drift Championship revs off on 27 December, with drivers judged on their speed, agility, control and style as they perform controlled slides around a racetrack.

Fadel Senna / AFP / Getty Images

It’s been 200 years since the first public steam train made its 26-mile journey from Shildon to Stockton-on-Tees, marking the birth of Britain’s modern railway. But you don’t have to be a train buff to enjoy letting off steam at one of the many excellent railway-themed hotels in the UK. Here’s our pick of the first-class places to stay...

The Great Northern Hotel, London
In the middle of the redeveloped King’s Cross area and “a stone’s throw from St Pancras”, the “oldest railway hotel in London” is now a stylish boutique hotel, said The Guardian. Perfectly located for a “pre-Eurostar treat”, its rooms include “compact couchettes in the style of a continental carriage” and breezy “Victorian-era” suites “in gold and muted greens”. Expect “classic British dishes” at the Rails restaurant, and a “moodily lit” bar for nightcaps.

The Grand, York
Once home to the “thriving” North Eastern Railway company, The Grand (pictured above) retains much of its original “Edwardian splendour”, said Condé Nast Traveller. Look out for the “intricate wrought-iron balustrades, luscious garland ceiling plasterwork and skilfully carved stone flourishes”. Just a two-minute walk from the station, York’s only five-star hotel has all the ingredients you would expect, from bowler-hatted doormen to an outstanding restaurant.

Coed y Bleiddiau, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales
In the heart of Snowdonia National Park, this “remote, granite cottage beside the Ffestiniog Railway” was once the home of the rail superintendent, said The Telegraph. Now, it’s a charming two-bedroom rental. You can either “arrive by steam to the cottage’s private platform” (between November and March) or park and walk up the leafy woodland path.

Ukraine Is Not a War of Attrition. It Is a War of Will
Dmytro Kuleba in The New York Times
Whatever the “multi-point peace plan” to emerge from the latest “flurry” of diplomacy, “the takeaway remains the same”, writes Ukraine’s former foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba. Kyiv hopes circumstances will improve so “it can secure a better deal”; Europe hopes the war won’t “come closer to its own borders”, and Donald Trump hopes that Volodymyr Zelenskyy “will be unpopular enough, and his country exhausted enough”, to “accept any deal”. But if hope is the “strategy”, a “bad peace becomes inevitable”.

Is Starmer continuing to mislead public over the budget?
Ed Conway on Sky News
The prime minister has said the Budget had to raise taxes because the Office for Budget Responsibility “revised its forecast” to reveal a £16 billion black hole, writes Ed Conway. But the forecast “was not enough” to force tax rises: that decision “came down to” the government’s desire “to axe the two-child benefits cap” and “raise” fiscal “headroom”. Both are “logical reasons to raise tax”, but they’re not “responses” to the OBR’s “bad news”. Saying otherwise “seems pretty misleading”.

Stop acting like men are useless
Celia Walden in The Telegraph
There’s a “smorgasbord of useless male specimens on our” TV screens, writes Celia Walden, from “bumbling male detectives” to “hopeless boyfriends, husbands and fathers”. The “ubiquitous narrative” is that “men are derisory figures, there to be trashed”, while women are “everyday superheroes”. True, “there was some making up to do” after decades of belittling depictions of women, but “nothing kills a character quite like an agenda – woke or anti-woke”.