Oliver Conway

Hello, I'm Oliver Conway.

We're recording this at 16 Hours GMT on Tuesday 9th December.

Australia becomes the first nation in the world to ban under-16s from social media.

The Sudanese army is accused of killing nearly 1,700 civilians in airstrikes.

And the EU investigates Google over the use of creative content to train AI.

The challenges of a world record attempt in Antarctica...

As we record this podcast, Australia has become the first nation in the world to ban anyone under the age of 16 from using social media.

A law which came into effect at midnight local time requires apps like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to block access under the threat of large fines.

Existing profiles will be deactivated.

14-year-old Sophia from Brisbane was one of the first to get locked out.

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the ban gives youngsters a chance to spend time doing other things.

Start a new sport, learn a new instrument or read that book that has been sitting there on your shelf for some time.

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

So how does it all work?

I heard from our technology correspondent Chris Vallance.

From the point of view of the government, this is a delay rather than a ban.

Most of these platforms that fall under this require their users to have a minimum age of 13.

Now this goes up under this law to 16.

So essentially what this applies to is a list of 10 platforms at the moment.

Those are eight of the usual suspects, if you like, meta apps.