Jennifer Stokes, Adelaide UniversityK-pop stars Huntr/x are carb-loading, pre-show, on a private jet, when their snacking is rudely interrupted by demons. Rumi, Zoey and Mira break into song, maintaining the tempo as they defeat the demons, drop to earth, and land in a packed stadium concert to tell the screaming audience that’s “how it’s done, done, done”. This electrifying sequence launches viewers into the world of KPop Demon Hunters. Released in June 2025, engaging action and a catchy soundtrack rapidly led this work to become Netflix’s most watched film of all time. This week, the film won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, and another for Best Original Song with its identity-embracing anthem Golden. With content that celebrates Korean pop aesthetics and connects with diverse fandoms, KPop Demon Hunters was arguably destined for success. It’s a fine example of a film that is made for, driven by – and which reflects upon – our digitally-run attention economy. A wholesome story of self-acceptanceKPop Demon Hunters is a slickly animated musical and supernatural fantasy. The demon-slaying girl group Huntr/x protect humanity, using K-pop songs and physical strength to keep evil in the netherworld. The demons decide the best way to defeat Huntr/x is by establishing a rival K-pop band – the Saja Boys. Through their catchy songs, the Saja Boys capture the public’s attention to feed to the uber-demon Gwi-ma (meaning “evil ghost” in Korean) – positioning the demons for world domination. Huntr/x must use the power of K-pop – and learn to embrace their true selves – to save the world. The theme of battling conflicting internal identities resonates on multiple levels – for young people struggling to make meaning in today’s messy world, and for an Asian diaspora who may have never seen themselves reflected in such a cultural juggernaut. Ear worms to draw people inKPop Demon Hunters has dominated global charts since its release. Produced by Sony Pictures Animation and distributed via Netflix, the film was viewed more than 569 million times in eight months. It then made the leap to sing-along screenings around the world. The fast-paced story is propelled by a catchy soundtrack, which fuses Korean lyrics with Western pop elements. The fictional K-pop group Huntr/x became the first girl group to top the Billboard Hot 100 since Destiny’s Child’s Bootylicious in 2001. Frozen’s Let it Go only ever got to number five. Golden won a Golden Globe, and also became the first K-pop song to win a Grammy. A movie for the K–pop generationThe film itself is unashamedly pop. When the Saja Boys first perform onscreen, the girls can’t help but join the crowd in wiggling their shoulders. “It is annoyingly catchy,” Rumi concedes. Gen-Z language is embedded throughout the film, such as when Rumi reflects on her journey to become “the Queen” she’s meant to be. When Mira croons, “fit check for my napalm era”, she is both checking her outfit and prepping for an explosive battle. The word play here adds several layers of meaning. Those watching the music charts in the film closely will also spot an in-joke when they see a Huntr/x song rise above real-world group Twice (members of which were vocalists for several Huntr/x songs). The narrative both analyses internet culture and strongly connects with its potential, exhibiting attributes shown to increase viral success. The film’s high energy, fun tone and often celebratory sequences make it very shareable; fans were quick to create TikTok dances, memes and gifs. Its critical and commercial success is also grounded in deliberate cultural policy in the form of hallyu (aka the Korean wave). This cultural export strategy was first implemented by the South Korean government in the late 1990s to exert soft power through cultural products that draw positive attention to – and drive economic interest in – the country. KPop Demon Hunters’ visuals are grounded in Korean cultural references, from the traditional gat hats worn by the demon boy band, to the humour of the tiger-magpie duo Derpy and Sussie – motifs based on hojakdo folk art, which presented an early form of social critique through a bumbling aristocratic tiger and a wise common-folk magpie. From Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to the Sailor Moon anime and manga, to Wednesday, supernatural fantasy texts often depict young women fighting monsters as metaphors for contemporary moral dilemmas. So what are the metaphors here? The film’s literal “demonisation” of pop music isn’t subtle. Yet it acts as meta-textual commentary, actively countering narratives that frame pop culture as inherently negative or destructive. It also highlights the outsized power of celebrities and influencers in the world today, and how they can leverage our attention for their own ends. The Saja Boys play with the notion of influencer as “idol” – in both the celebrity and religious sense – causing viewers to reflect on what celebrities sacrifice for fame, and how it’s a misjudgement to see them as more than human. The Korean word saja has a dual meaning of both lion and Grim Reaper, subtly emphasising the risks of idolisation. For generations raised in the shadows of influencers, the film raises important moral questions. At a time when studios are increasingly leaning on safe options such as adaptations, franchises and sequels, KPop Demon Hunters gave us an original, clever story that caters to online cultures and underrepresented groups, while exploring a range of contemporary anxieties. That, indeed, is how “it’s done, done, done”. Jennifer Stokes, Associate Professor, Teaching and Learning Innovation, Adelaide University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
Singing, slaying and going viral: how KPop Demon Hunters rocked the internet – and the Oscars (2026-03-20T11:22:00+05:30)
How to maintain authentic friendships in the social media world? (2026-01-30T13:22:00+05:30)
 IANS Photo New Delhi, (IANSlife) Building a friendship is no less than forming any kind of relationship. While many meet soulmates through friends, there are also people out there who struggle to find genuine friends. Especially in the world of social media, in many instances we come across the 'friends for benefits' kind of relationship. Not everyone that comes into our life has good intentions, but hey! it is also how we turn the table. This Friendship Day, let’s find out how your favourite personalities from the internet are dealing on maintaining authentic friendships in the social media world. Palak Rathi, Gen Z Finance Content Creator, "Do you know what’s the best thing about social media? Accessibility. Accessibility to literally anyone and everyone. It’s up to us how we use that accessibility - to just network or to actually build meaningful relationships beyond networking. Don’t connect with people only when you need a favour or there’s some work to be discussed but rather keep talking to them once in a while, check on them, appreciate them, celebrate their small victories by maybe reacting to a story or sending them a sweet message or calling them up to congratulate them. While staying connected online is great, whenever and wherever possible - try to meet them in person. Make efforts. Look and build real friendships. And most importantly - stay genuine and don’t try to be someone who you’re not. Because only then you’ll be able to find people who you can really connect with on a deeper level rather than just likes and comments on the surface level. Talk about your interests, your likings, your struggles (trauma bonding is a thing, haha), your goals - just be yourself and you’ll be surprised to see how it will lead to the start of some extremely meaningful conversations and lifelong friendships. Engage with people whose interests align with you or should I say whose “vibe” matches with you. That will help you make friends and not just connections." Adete Dahiya, Gen Z Lifestyle Content Creator, "Whenever we talk about the impact of social media, romantic relationships often take precedence over anything else. But its impact on friendships and other interpersonal relationships is even more profound. Social media has made it so easy to stay in touch with friends and make new ones online - you can just like their photos on Instagram or react with an emoji to their stories, or just drop a short comment on their latest post and you’re done. But the flip side is that it has made it much harder to maintain meaningful connections and bonds. A few things you can do to counteract this is to schedule regular call times with your friends. It is essential to check in, speak to them face to face and get a deeper understanding of what is happening in each others’ lives. If you live in the same city, make it a priority to meet weekly. The key is not to become lazy because of social media but to use it to deepen your connection." Reshi Magada, Gen Z Finance Content Creator, "Maintaining meaningful friendships as a Gen Z individual navigating the social media environment needs a balance of virtual relationships and in-person connections. To begin, I value honest communication by being open about my views, feelings, and experiences. Sharing both highs and lows helps friends understand each other better. Second, I try to engage in real conversations that go beyond likes and comments. I send individual notes, check about their well-being, and show real interest in their life. In this way, I display that I value and care for my friends. Third, I maintain digital boundaries. To keep my friendships from being superficial, I restrict my screen time and prevent idle scrolling. Instead, I invest in face-to-face interactions and meaningful time spent together, which strengthens the bond. Finally, keep in mind that social media is a highlight reel, and comparison may stunt true friendships. I create a healthy climate for genuine friendships to grow by appreciating my friends' wins without feeling envious. Through these methods, I am able to form and retain genuine friendships in the ever-changing social media world." Caslynn Qusay Naha, Gen Z Finance Content Creator, "Maintaining authentic friendships in the social media world is crucial as we navigate the digital age. It's essential to remember that the principles that apply to real-life friendships can also be applied to our online connections. First and foremost, authenticity is key. Just like in face-to-face interactions, being genuine and true to yourself fosters trust and openness. Share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences honestly, and encourage your friends to do the same. Taking the time to actively communicate and stay connected with your friends is vital. Initiate conversations, respond to messages, and participate in online discussions. By showing interest in their lives and making an effort to stay connected, you demonstrate that you value friendship. Remember, it's not about the number of friends you have, but the quality of the relationships you build. Be present for your friends, celebrate their successes, offer support in their struggles, and be a positive influence in their lives. So, maintaining authentic friendships in the social media world is all about being genuine, avoiding comparison, actively communicating, and valuing the quality of your connections over quantity." |
How ‘digital twins’ could help prevent cyber-attacks on the food industry (2025-12-23T11:38:00+05:30)
Sabah Suhail, Queen's University Belfast and Salil S. Kanhere, UNSW SydneyEarlier this year, a cyberattack on British retailer Marks & Spencer caused widespread disruption across its operations. Stock shortages, delayed deliveries, and logistical chaos rippled through the retailer’s network. In 2025 alone, several other UK food businesses, including Harrods and Co-op, have been targeted by cyber-attacks. The food sector is highly dependent on different links in a chain. This makes it an appealing target for hackers, because a single weak link can compromise an entire supply chain. Because of the essential role of food for public health and safety – and its importance to the economy – it is regarded as critical national infrastructure. So how can the UK’s vital food sector be made more resilient to cyber-attacks? One possible way is to use what’s called a “digital twin”. A digital twin is a virtual replica of any product, process, or service, capturing its state, characteristics, and connections with other systems throughout its life cycle. The digital twin will include the computer system used by the company. It can help because conventional defences are increasingly out of step with cyber-attacks. Monitoring tools tend to detect anomalies after damage occurs. Complex computer systems can often obscure the origins of breaches. A digital twin creates a bridge between the physical and digital worlds. It allows organisations to simulate real-time events, predict what might happen next, and safely test potential responses. It can also help analyse what happened after a cyber-attack to help companies prepare for future incidents. For companies in the food sector, becoming resilient to cyber-attacks involves the ability to detect suspicious activity early, and keep operations running, even under attack. This will ultimately protect food quality and consumer trust. Simulating an attackLet’s focus on the example of a strawberry packhouse, where strawberries are sorted, cooled, and packed for distribution. Due to strawberries spoiling easily, controlling the temperature and humidity in these areas is essential to ensuring a high quality product. Sensors and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems maintain these conditions to keep the fruit fresh from the field to the shelf. But what happens if the HVAC system gets hacked, perhaps through weak passwords or software that isn’t regularly updated to account for new computer security vulnerabilities. Temperatures could rise unnoticed, causing spoilage before the fruit even reaches the supermarket. The results: food waste, lost revenue, delayed deliveries, and reputational harm. A single breach can reverberate through the chain, leading to wasted produce and empty shelves. A digital twin might be able to avert disaster under this scenario. By combining operational data such as temperature, humidity, or the speed air of flow with internal computing system data or intrusion attempts, digital twins offer a unified view of both system performance and cybersecurity. They enable organisations to simulate cyber-attacks or equipment failures in a safe, controlled digital environment, revealing vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them. A digital twin can also detect abnormal temperature patterns, monitor the system for malicious activity, and perform analysis after a cyber-attack to identify the causes. Over time, these insights can enable the strawberry packhouse, in our example, and by extension the broader supply chain, to strengthen its defences against hackers and reduce the future risk of a cyber-attack. As cyber-threats become more sophisticated, the question is no longer whether the food sector will be targeted again, but whether it will be ready when further attacks inevitably happen. Digital twins cannot prevent every cyber-attack, but by turning uncertainty into foresight, they give the food sector a fighting chance to stay safe, sustainable, and secure. Sabah Suhail, Research Fellow, School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Queen's University Belfast and Salil S. Kanhere, Professor at the School of Computer Science and Engineering, UNSW Sydney This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
How parents and teens can reduce the impact of social media on youth well-being (2025-12-04T12:10:00+05:30)
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Christine Grové, Monash University Knowing how to navigate the online social networking world is crucial for parents and teens. Being educated and talking about online experiences can help reduce any negative impacts on youth mental health and well-being. The Australian Psychology Society (APS) recently released a national survey looking at the impact of technology and social media on the well-being of Australians. Around 1,000 adults over the age of 18 and 150 young people aged 14-17 years took part. The survey found more than three in four young people (78.8%) and more than half of all adults (54%) were highly involved with their mobile phones. Young people are reportedly using social media for an average of 3.3 hours each day, on five or more days of the week. The vast majority of adults and teenagers reported their screens and social media accounts were a positive part of their lives. Many use social media channels to connect with family, friends and to entertain themselves. Too much social media use can effect self-esteemDespite social media playing a positive role for most, the survey found the high use of social media and technology can have a negative impact on youth self-esteem. Two in three young people feel pressure to look good and nearly a third of youth have been bullied online. Nearly half (42%) of frequent users look at social media in bed before sleeping. The survey also found 15% of teenagers reported being approached by strangers on a daily basis through their online world. Around 60% of parents never monitor their teen’s social media account and are wrestling their own issues about how much is too much screen time. Most are unsure of how to provide good guidance of appropriate social media use with their teens. Engage with your teen’s online worldParents and teens need to be informed about engaging with the online world. Parents can ask their teen to show them how they use social media and what it is. Try to navigate the social world together, rather than acting as a supervisor. Ask your teen to help you understand how they use the internet so you can make good decisions about social media use together. Here are a few tips to connect with your teen’s online world:
Difficult conversations about social mediaAn important step in navigating the risks of social networking is to have ongoing conversations about social media use with your teens. If you’re already engaged in your teen’s online world, it will be easier to have difficult conversations about some of the risks and ways to manage them. Many people believe internet browsing is anonymous. Educate your teen about their digital reputation. Whenever your teen visits a website, shares content, posts something on a blog or uploads information, they’re adding to their digital footprint. This information can be gathered under their real name and possibly accessed by future employers or marketing departments. This can happen without you or your teen knowing. Protecting your personal information and knowing it’s not truly anonymous are important conversations to have together. Cyberbullying can occur if online users try to intimidate, exclude or humiliate others online through abusive texts or emails, hurtful messages, images or videos, or online gossip and chat. Let your teen know to try not to retaliate or respond, and to speak to a trusted adult right away. Aim to block the bully and report the behaviour to the social media platform. Create a family media plan to help manage social media use with options to create different guidelines for each teen. In the plan, promote healthy technology use habits with your teen. This includes not using technology too close to bed time. Research showsusing technology at night can have a negative impact on sleep quality. Try to not to use technology for around 30 minutes to an hour before bedtime. Consider using devices in the living spaces in the house rather than in the bedroom when it’s time to go to sleep. Here’s some more information on how to talk to your teens about their internet use, and thriving in an online age. Christine Grové, Educational Psychologist and Lecturer, Monash University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
New online tool to transform how high blood pressure is treated (2025-11-04T11:11:00+05:30)
 IANS PhotoNew Delhi, (IANS): A global team of researchers from India, Australia, the US, and the UK has developed a novel online-based tool which can transform how hypertension is managed, allowing doctors to choose a treatment for each patient based on the degree to which they need to lower their blood pressure. The 'blood pressure treatment efficacy calculator' is built on data from nearly 500 randomised clinical trials in over 100,000 people. It allows doctors to see how different medications are likely to lower blood pressure. “We cannot overlook the importance of controlling high blood pressure effectively and efficiently. Achieving optimal control requires a clear understanding of the efficacy of antihypertensive drugs at different doses and in various combinations. Without clarity on what we want to achieve and how to achieve it, we will not meet our targets. Guidelines define the target blood pressure, while our online tool helps identify which antihypertensive drugs are best suited to reach that target,” said Dr. Mohammad Abdul Salam, from The George Institute for Global Health, Hyderabad. A single antihypertensive medication -- still the most common way treatment is started -- typically lowers systolic BP by just 8-9 mmHg, while most patients need reductions of 15-30 mmHg to reach ideal targets. Nelson Wang, cardiologist and Research Fellow at the Institute, noted that while the traditional way of doing this is by measuring blood pressure directly for each patient and adjusting treatment accordingly, BP readings are far too variable, or ‘noisy’, for it to be reliable. The new tool, described in research published in The Lancet, helps overcome this challenge by calculating the average treatment effect seen across hundreds of trials. It also categorises treatments as low, moderate, and high intensity, based on how much they lower blood pressure (BP) -- an approach already routinely used in cholesterol-lowering treatment. High blood pressure is one of the world’s biggest health challenges, affecting as many as 1.3 billion people and leading to around ten million deaths each year.Often called a silent killer as it does not cause any symptoms on its own, it can remain hidden until it leads to a heart attack, stroke, or kidney disease. Fewer than one in five people with hypertension have it under control. New online tool to transform how high blood pressure is treated | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com |
Details on how Australia’s social media ban for under-16s will work are finally becoming clear (2025-09-23T10:53:00+05:30)
Lisa M. Given, RMIT UniversityThe Australian government today released regulatory guidance on the social media minimum age law, which comes into effect on December 10. The law will restrict individuals under 16 from holding accounts on many social media platforms. Reasonable steps for tech companiesThis guidance follows a self-assessment guide for technology companies recently released by the eSafety Commission. Companies can use this to determine whether their services will be age-restricted. That guidance included details on the types of platforms to be excluded from the age restrictions, such as those whose “sole or primary purpose” is professional networking, to support education or health, or to enable playing of online games. Today’s guidance is aimed at services likely to be age-restricted, such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. It sets out what the government considers “reasonable steps” technology companies must take to “ensure they have appropriate measures in place” to comply with the legislation. Removing underage usersSocial media platforms will be expected to “detect and deactivate or remove” accounts from existing underage users. The government advice says this should be done “with care and clear communication”, which suggests account-holders will be notified. However, it remains unclear whether companies will delete a user’s content. Nor is it clear whether an underage person’s account could be reactivated once they turn 16. Preservation options may demonstrate a level of “care” expected by the legislation. This may be important for young people concerned about losing their creative content and social media history. Tech companies will also need to “prevent re-registration or circumvention by underage users whose accounts have been deactivated or removed”. This suggests companies may need to put measures in place to counter attempts to use virtual private networks (VPNs), for example, which allow users to hide their country of residence. They may also need strategies to check whether underage users are accessing accounts due to errors made by age-assurance technologies. How age assurance may workFor users over 16 who are erroneously restricted from accessing accounts, technology companies must “provide accessible review mechanisms”. Companies are also expected to take a “layered approach” to age assurance to minimise error rates and “friction” for users. They must also give users choice on how age will be assured, as they “cannot use government ID as the sole method”. This may allay some data-privacy concerns. However, the number of users who need to provide some form of personal information to assure their age will be significant. The government guidance makes clear companies must ensure they are “avoiding reliance on self-declaration alone” (that is, simply asking users their age). Companies must also be “continuously monitoring and improving systems” to demonstrate they are effective in limiting underage account access. Will the legislation achieve its goal?The guidance provides clarity on many practical questions about how the legislation will be implemented. It also demonstrates that Australians under 16 are not being banned, completely, from accessing social media content. Under-16s will still be able to view social media content online without logging into an account. This means things such as watching YouTube on a web browser. Young people may still access content through accounts held by older people. Think of when adult accounts remain logged in on shared devices. Parents and other caregivers will need to ensure they understand the new rules and continue to guide young people accessing content online. The eSafety Commissioner will also provide further resources to support people to understand the new laws. What won’t be requiredImportantly, the government “is not asking platforms to verify the age of all users”. The guidance explains such a blanket verification approach “may be considered unreasonable, especially if existing data can infer age reliably”. Some young people may keep their accounts, such as in cases where facial scanning technology estimates them to be over 16. The government “does not expect platforms to keep personal information from individual age checks” or retain “user-level data”. Rather, companies will be expected to keep records that “focus on systems and processes”. This suggests individual cases of young people accessing accounts may not mean companies have failed to comply with legislation. However, the eSafety Commissioner said in a press conference today that companies will be expected to “make discoverable and responsible reporting tools available”. Where some young people’s accounts are missed, the government will “talk to the companies about the need to retune their [age assurance] technologies”. What happens next?Technology companies are likely to start implementing restrictions using data they already have for account holders, to ensure compliance from December 10. If a person signed up to Facebook in 2004, when the platform launched, for example, that could demonstrate the account holder is over 16 without additional checks. However, the government is not prescribing specific approaches or technologies companies must use. Each service will need to determine its own strategy. This means Australians could face differing expectations for age assurance from each platform. What the government has made clear is there will be no delay in the start date for compliance. Communications Minister Anika Wells said there is “no excuse for non-compliance”. The next steps are now in the social media companies’ hands. Lisa M. Given, Professor of Information Sciences & Director, Social Change Enabling Impact Platform, RMIT University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
How To Keep Your Teenager Children Safe On Social Media? (2025-06-23T11:21:00+05:30)
 By Bharat Gatha, Social media, while being a tool for connection and learning, has its own risks, especially for our young ones. Let’s understand what these risks are and how we, as parents or caregivers, can help keep our teenagers safe. Social media can be a double-edged sword for teenagers. On one hand, it offers a platform for expression and social interaction. On the other, it exposes them to risks like cyberbullying, trolling, and exposure to inappropriate content. These negative experiences can severely impact a teenager’s mental health, leading to issues like anxiety and depression. The recent tragic case of Pranshu, a 16-year-old from Ujjain, highlights the devastating impact of such cyberbullying. It’s a stark reminder of the importance of our role in guiding and protecting our children in the digital world. How To Keep Our Teens Safe On These Platforms? Now, how we can help keep our teens safe on these platforms. The first step is understanding and monitoring their social media usage. This doesn’t mean invading their privacy, but rather being aware of what platforms they’re using and how they’re interacting with others online. Regular conversations about their social media experiences are crucial. It creates a safe space where they can share their online encounters without fear of judgment. Additionally, sharing our own social media habits with our children is important. This not only sets a good example but also opens up discussions about responsible online behavior. We should discuss the importance of not oversharing, especially personal or sensitive content, as once something is posted online, it’s out of our control and can lead to unwanted attention or cyberbullying. Furthermore, we should encourage our teens to take breaks from social media. This helps them understand that life exists beyond the digital screen and there’s much to enjoy and experience in the real world. It’s also a good practice for mental health. How To Monitor Teenagers’ Social Media Usage? Lastly, let’s discuss how we can effectively monitor our teenagers’ social media usage. It’s about balance. While we need to respect their privacy, we also have to ensure they’re safe. Employ strategies like setting time limits for social media use, having open discussions about the content they’re viewing, and being available to guide them through any negative experiences they may encounter. As parents or caregivers, we play a pivotal role in ensuring our teenagers navigate social media safely. Let’s use our understanding and open communication to help them enjoy the benefits of these platforms while protecting them from their potential harms. Remember, it’s about guidance, not control. How To Keep Your Teenager Children Safe On Social Media? |
How to preserve our privacy in an AI-enabled world of smart fridges and fitbits? Here are my simple fixes (2025-04-04T12:22:00+05:30)
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The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that the total entropy of a system – the amount of disorder – only ever increases. In other words, the amount of order only ever decreases. Privacy is similar to entropy. Privacy is only ever decreasing. Privacy is not something you can take back. I cannot take back from you the knowledge that I sing Abba songs badly in the shower. Just as you can’t take back from me the fact that I found out about how you vote. There are different forms of privacy. There’s our digital online privacy, all the information about our lives in cyberspace. You might think our digital privacy is already lost. We have given too much of it to companies like Meta and Google. Then there’s our analogue offline privacy, all the information about our lives in the physical world. Is there hope that we’ll keep hold of our analogue privacy? Toasters, locks and watchesThe problem is that we are connecting ourselves, our homes and our workplaces to lots of internet-enabled devices: smartwatches, smart lightbulbs, toasters, fridges, weighing scales, running machines, doorbells and front door locks. And all these devices are interconnected, carefully recording everything we do. Our location. Our heartbeat. Our blood pressure. Our weight. The smile or frown on our face. Our food intake. Our visits to the toilet. Our workouts. These devices will monitor us 24/7, and companies like Google and Amazon will collate all this information. Why do you think Google bought both Nest and Fitbit recently? And why do you think Amazon acquired two smart home companies, Ring and Blink Home, and built their own smartwatch? They’re in an arms race to know us better. The benefits to the companies our obvious. The more they know about us, the more they can target us with adverts and products. There’s one of Amazon’s famous “flywheels” in this. Many of the products they will sell us will collect more data on us. And that data will help target us to make more purchases. The benefits to us are also obvious. All this health data can help make us live healthier. And our longer lives will be easier, as lights switch on when we enter a room, and thermostats move automatically to our preferred temperature. The better these companies know us, the better their recommendations will be. They’ll recommend only movies we want to watch, songs we want to listen to and products we want to buy. But there are also many potential pitfalls. What if your health insurance premiums increase every time you miss a gym class? Or your fridge orders too much comfort food? Or your employer sacks you because your smartwatch reveals you took too many toilet breaks? With our digital selves, we can pretend to be someone that we are not. We can lie about our preferences. We can connect anonymously with VPNs and fake email accounts. But it is much harder to lie about your analogue self. We have little control over how fast our heart beats or how widely the pupils of our eyes dilate. We’ve already seen political parties manipulate how we vote based on our digital footprint. What more could they do if they really understood how we responded physically to their messages? Imagine a political party that could access everyone’s heartbeat and blood pressure. Even George Orwell didn’t go that far. Worse still, we are giving this analogue data to private companies that are not very good at sharing their profits with us. When you send your saliva off to 23AndMe for genetic testing, you are giving them access to the core of who you are, your DNA. If 23AndMe happens to use your DNA to develop a cure for a rare genetic disease that you possess, you will probably have to pay for that cure. The 23AndMe terms and conditions make this very clear:
A private futureHow, then, might we put safeguards in place to preserve our privacy in an AI-enabled world? I have a couple of simple fixes. Some are regulatory and could be implemented today. Others are technological and are something for the future, when we have AI that is smarter and more capable of defending our privacy. The technology companies all have long terms of service and privacy policies. If you have lots of spare time, you can read them. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University calculated that the average internet user would have to spend 76 work days each year just to read all the things that they have agreed to online. But what then? If you don’t like what you read, what choices do you have? All you can do today, it seems, is log off and not use their service. You can’t demand greater privacy than the technology companies are willing to provide. If you don’t like Gmail reading your emails, you can’t use Gmail. Worse than that, you’d better not email anyone with a Gmail account, as Google will read any emails that go through the Gmail system. So here’s a simple alternative. Under my plan, all digital services must provide four changeable levels of privacy. Level 1: They keep no information about you beyond your username, email and password. Level 2: They keep information on you to provide you with a better service, but they do not share this information with anyone. Level 3: They keep information on you that they may share with sister companies. Level 4: They consider the information that they collect on you as public. You can change the level of privacy with one click from the settings page. And any changes are retrospective, so if you select Level 1 privacy, the company must delete all information they currently have on you, beyond your username, email and password. In addition, there’s a requirement that all data beyond Level 1 privacy is deleted after three years unless you opt in explicitly for it to be kept. Think of this as a digital right to be forgotten. I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s. My many youthful transgressions have, thankfully, been lost in the mists of time. They will not haunt me when I apply for a new job or run for political office. I fear, however, for young people today, whose every post on social media is archived and waiting to be printed off by some prospective employer or political opponent. This is one reason why we need a digital right to be forgotten. More friction may help. Ironically, the internet was invented to remove frictions – in particular, to make it easier to share data and communicate more quickly and effortlessly. I’m starting to think, however, that this lack of friction is the cause of many problems. Our physical highways have speed and other restrictions. Perhaps the internet highway needs a few more limitations too? One such problem is described in a famous cartoon: “On the internet, no one knows you’re a dog.” If we introduced instead a friction by insisting on identity checks, then certain issues around anonymity and trust might go away. Similarly, resharing restrictions on social media might help prevent the distribution of fake news. And profanity filters might help prevent posting content that inflames. On the other side, other parts of the internet might benefit from fewer frictions. Why is it that Facebook can get away with behaving badly with our data? One of the problems here is there’s no real alternative. If you’ve had enough of Facebook’s bad behaviour and log off – as I did some years back – then it is you who will suffer most. You can’t take all your data, your social network, your posts, your photos to some rival social media service. There is no real competition. Facebook is a walled garden, holding onto your data and setting the rules. We need to open that data up and thereby permit true competition. For far too long the tech industry has been given too many freedoms. Monopolies are starting to form. Bad behaviours are becoming the norm. Many internet businesses are poorly aligned with the public good. Any new digital regulation is probably best implemented at the level of nation-states or close-knit trading blocks. In the current climate of nationalism, bodies such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization are unlikely to reach useful consensus. The common values shared by members of such large transnational bodies are too weak to offer much protection to the consumer. The European Union has led the way in regulating the tech sector. The General Data Protection Regulation, and the upcoming Digital Service Act and Digital Market Act are good examples of Europe’s leadership in this space. National laws set precedentsA few nation-states have also started to pick up their game. The United Kingdom introduced a Google tax in 2015 to try to make tech companies pay a fair share of tax. And shortly after the terrible shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, the Australian government introduced legislation to fine companies up to 10% of their annual revenue if they fail to take down abhorrent violent material quickly enough. Unsurprisingly, fining tech companies a significant fraction of their global annual revenue appears to get their attention. It is easy to dismiss laws in Australia as somewhat irrelevant to multinational companies like Google. If they’re too irritating, they can just pull out of the Australian market. Google’s accountants will hardly notice the blip in their worldwide revenue. But national laws often set precedents that get applied elsewhere. Australia followed up with its own Google tax just six months after the UK. California introduced its own version of the GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act, just a month after the regulation came into effect in Europe. Such knock-on effects are probably the real reason that Google has argued so vocally against Australia’s new Media Bargaining Code. They greatly fear the precedent it will set. That leaves me with a technological fix. At some point in the future, all our devices will contain AI agents helping to connect us that can also protect our privacy. AI will move from the centre to the edge, away from the cloud and onto our devices. These AI agents will monitor the data entering and leaving our devices. They will do their best to ensure that data about us that we don’t want shared isn’t. We are perhaps at the technological low point today. To do anything interesting, we need to send data up into the cloud, to tap into the vast computational resources that can be found there. Siri, for instance, doesn’t run on your iPhone but on Apple’s vast servers. And once your data leaves your possession, you might as well consider it public. But we can look forward to a future where AI is small enough and smart enough to run on your device itself, and your data never has to be sent anywhere. This is the sort of AI-enabled future where technology and regulation will not simply help preserve our privacy, but even enhance it. This is an edited extract from Machines Behaving Badly, published by La Trobe University Press on May 3rd 2022. Toby Walsh, Professor of AI at UNSW, Research Group Leader, UNSW Sydney This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
Protecting our digital heritage in the age of cyber threats (2025-02-05T12:48:00+05:30)
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One of the key functions of the government is to collect and archive national records. This includes everything from property records and registers of births, deaths and taxes, to Parliamentary proceedings, and even the ABC’s digital library of Australian news and entertainment. A new report released today from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) considers the important role these records play as the collective digital identity of our nation. The report’s author, Anne Lyons, explains how an attack on these records could disrupt the day-to-day functioning of society, and why we need to do more to protect them. Why are these records important?Given that we live in the digital era, our digital identity records have been transformed into electronic data and are stored virtually in cloud servers. These servers act as the memory centre of the nation, preserving Australia’s unaltered history. We can trust these records are accurate, confidential and not interfered with. All this digital information may be referred to as “digital identity assets”. These assets are worth protecting, because they are important for the functioning of government, and are a legacy for future generations. Collectively, they embody who and what Australia is as a nation, its journey, and its time and place in history. What could happen if they were hacked?The impact of any theft, manipulation, destruction or deletion of digital identity assets could be catastrophic. The courts would not be able to function without the relevant digital records. Manipulated property title deeds could create legal challenges. Passports and visas may not be able to be verified and issued. And historic records could be tampered with or forged. In the worst-case scenario, such an attack could interfere with the proper functioning of government, and shatter public trust and confidence in government institutions. Lyons paints a picture of what it would look like if property records were hacked:
What are we doing to prevent attacks?Three pieces of legislation have been passed since 2017 to protect the nation against crimes committed over the internet targeting telecommunications, water, electricity and gas equipment. These are the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act, the National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Act and the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Act. But cyber attacks are not only targeted at our nation’s critical infrastructure. Servers that host digital identity assets are also at risk. Nation states and individual hackers could gain access to databases using our email communications to gain access. Despite this risk, our lawmakers have failed to exert the same vigour in crafting laws that protect digital identity assets as they have exerted in efforts to decrypt the WhatsApp messages of criminal targets. There is no clear and specific cybersecurity governance framework in the law books geared towards detecting and preventing attacks against these assets. How to protect our digital heritage1. Assess cyber vulnerabilities alongside social onesGovernments need to improve their holistic situational awareness to counter threats. That means assessing cyber vulnerabilities in conjunction with societal ones. Online disinformation campaigns and malicious cyber activities are all referred to as hybrid threats. Hybrid threats – which could make use of digital identity assets – are challenging to detect and to make sense of due to their dynamic nature. Understanding the complex nature of a hybrid threat is referred to as cyber situational awareness. Outside of the cyber environment, situational awareness may refer to an awareness of cultural, ethnic and religious tensions in society that could be vulnerable to online exploitation. For example, in the 1980s the Soviet government used the HIV epidemic to sow social division in the United States. Under operation INFEKTION, Russia spread stories that the American government created the virus and spread it among its population. In cases like this, it’s feasible that digital health records could be hacked and altered to serve as fake evidence. In this way, societal vulnerabilities can become one part of a mixed bag of threats. Our ability to effectively resist and recover from malicious hybrid activities depends on our capacity to detect, analyse and understand the nature of the threat, in near real time. Metadata can be used for this purpose to show who accessed a server and from what location. To improve cyber situational awareness, access logs should be retained and the computer emergency response team must collect metadata from government departments themselves, and analyse the data in near real time. This is a growing trend in the cybersecurity sector and public bodies must gear up. 2. Store copies of historical records offlineWe also need to simulate how digital identity assets can be used against us and be prepared to counter the propaganda. Schools and universities can store multiple offline historic records, which can be used to verify accuracy when conflicting stories arise. Using National Archives as a central repository for digital identity assets is a single point of failure. Redundancy work-arounds must be created. 3. Engage the private sectorThis is a job too big and too important to be left to government alone. Historical societies and charitable organisations may need to store hard and soft copies of the same records all over the country. Relevant laws must mandate, cybersecurity situational awareness for telecommunications companies, ISPs, computer emergency response teams, law enforcement and security agencies, but in clear and responsible fashion. We must take a proactive approach that mandates the roll out of appropriate advance counter measures. A legal mandate that is largely based on past incidents may not be an effective strategy to prevent dynamic hybrid threats. This is how we will tell hackers to back off our national heritage. Stanley Shanapinda, Research Fellow, La Trobe University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
In China, social media apps are changing how people buy and read books – selling more than physical bookshops do (2025-01-24T11:07:00+05:30)
While the Australian book market was down 3% last year, genre fiction – popular on BookTok – was among the rare categories that grew. Since 2020, BookTok has been increasingly influential in how people (especially young people) read. Books popular on BookTok were among the top ten bestselling Australian titles of 2024. Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel It Ends With Us (also a 2024 film) was fourth, with Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015) and Rebecca Yarros’ Iron Flame (2023) the next highest-selling novels, in sixth and seventh place. In China, one of the world’s largest book markets and most digitised nations, social media is influencing what and how people read in new and evolving ways – through two super apps. Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, is the nation’s third most popular app, at 900 million monthly active users. Its version of BookTok is even more influential than its Western counterpart. Douyin integrates online sales directly into its platform, allowing publishers to pay for promotions and influencers to earn commissions on the books they sell. WeChat, China’s most popular app, at over 1.3 billion monthly active users, is integrating ebooks and social reading into the platform. This not only effectively encourages public reading, but boosts app usage and strengthens WeChat’s central role in Chinese people’s digital life. Douyin: buying books in the appPublishers are still grappling with how to navigate the reader-led dynamic of “social reading”. Traditionally, book sales are partly driven by publishers promoting their books to audiences. But BookTok is more organic, largely relying on readers sharing and recommending books to one another. While some influencers are sponsored by publishers, the average person on BookTok isn’t being paid. In China, though, there are more commercial opportunities for book creators and influencers to earn income on social media. Book discussions on Douyin share similarities with BookTok – such as short video formats and enthusiastic communities. But they go much further, by embedding the ability to buy books online. On Douyin, popular book-related videos don’t just generate interest: they include links for viewers to instantly buy featured books. It only takes a couple of taps to add books to users’ carts. Online creators can earn a commission in the process. Douyin’s algorithm, which promotes engaging content regardless of follower count, has empowered many creators – and even ordinary readers – to share their reading experiences, while gaining visibility and sometimes income. In fact, influencers with follower counts between 10,000 and three million contributed to over 70% of total book sales on Douyin.
Douyin’s livestreaming e-commerce is also deeply changing how Chinese people buy books. Popular influencers host hours-long live sessions to sell various products while interacting with audiences in real-time – books being one of the most popular categories. The book-themed livestreaming that seamlessly blends reading, social entertainment and online shopping, becomes highly engaging to readers. Influencer endorsements and exclusive discounts make these events effective in driving book sales. For example, Chi Zijian’s literary novel The Last Quarter of the Moon, which explores the life of an Evenki woman and the cultural transformation of her Indigenous, nomadic community in 20th-century China, had been promoted by influencer Dong Yuhui in his livestreaming shows and short video content since 2022. The book saw sales skyrocket from 600,000 copies over two decades to more than five million in recent a couple of years. Dong Yuhui, one of the most popular influencers on Douyin, was previously an English teacher but rose to fame as a livestreaming host. He is now affiliated with an e-commerce company. Influencers like him operate more like an online bookstore, negotiating big discount from publishers rather than relying solely on advertising fees or commissions. Douyin has changed how books are sold in China. In 2023, short video platforms occupied 26.6% of the book market share. Physical bookstores accounted for just 12%. BookTok in countries like Australia, the US and UK often focuses on young adult and genre fiction. But books sold on Douyin span a much wider range, including children’s books, educational titles, self-help and literary books. WeChat is reimagining social readingWeChat is a “super sticky app” that has been dubbed the “Swiss army knife” of social media for its versatility. It’s a communication and messaging platform, but also has dedicated functions that allow users to do things like paying bills and shopping online. WeChat has also entered the field of digital reading. WeRead (also known as WeChat Reading) was launched in 2015, with the slogan “making reading no longer lonely”. It leverages WeChat’s existing networks of trust and intimacy to foster a distinctive approach to social reading. With over 200 million active users, WeRead encourages reading as a communal activity. WeRead employs a gamified approach to create incentives for engagement. Users earn points and unlock free ebooks by completing tasks such as sharing highlights, posting comments, gifting books and participating in individual or group reading challenges. This strategy practically allows many readers to access site-wide ebooks for free, albeit only for limited periods, which may last just days or weeks. An annual unlimited reading subscription costs about A$40.
Popular ebooks on WeRead highlight the platform’s unique focus on networking through people they know. Acclaimed novels such as Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, and To Live by Yu Hua are among the top bestsellers, along with topical titles or classic literature. These are the kinds of books readers might proudly share with their boss, colleagues, or family to reflect their tastes and values. While WeRead offers free ebooks to many users, it does so without relying on advertising. Instead, it operates with subsidies from Tencent, the company that owns WeChat. In return, WeRead brings significant value to its parent company by driving app usage, gathering user data, and strengthening WeChat’s dominance in China’s digital landscape. This model shows digital reading can generate economic benefits beyond direct ebook sales or advertising.
The future of booksDouyin’s BookTok and WeChat’s WeRead are transforming reading books into a deeply social, interactive experience. Douyin’s discounts and WeRead’s free ebooks also makes books more accessible. They effectively promote reading among wider audiences. For publishers, these platforms offer new opportunities to market books and connect with readers. A growing number of Chinese publishers are creating their own accounts on Douyin to promote and sell books, leveraging social reading dynamics to achieve sales levels previously unattainable through traditional channels. However, concerns remain over the growing power and influence of tech giants. Critics worry Douyin’s focus on discounts and influencer-driven trends may undermine the value of books, potentially threatening the long-term sustainability of the publishing industry. Not only might readers be encouraged to buy books they are not genuinely interested in, but they may also expect books should always be cheap or free. Some users have concerns about privacy. Some users even sued WeRead for infringing their personal information, prompting Tencent to adjust its data collection processes. Despite these concerns, the deep integration of social networking, online sales and digital reading in China points towards a book world that is led by readers and centred on social media platforms. Could “social reading”, as shaped by China, become a wider trend? These innovations undoubtedly stem from China’s unique conditions: the domination of super apps and its vibrant mobile reading culture. But they provide a vision of what the future of reading may look like: deeply connected with social networking and digital life. And a book business that is increasingly linked to social media – even becoming an integral part of its ecosystems. Xiang Ren, Lecturer in Media and Communication, University of Sydney This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
