Tama Leaver

In a new #OnlineFirst article, Tom Willma examines how avatars are represented and conceptualized in contemporary digital media, moving beyond traditional theories of identity embodiment.

Read the full article here: doi.org/10.1177/1329...

YouTube video by Apple Accessibility | I’m Not Remarkable | Apple

You have to hand it to Apple. Sometimes they just make bloody brilliant ads: youtu.be/KmFPWxjmnqE?...

Black text on white background underneath the Australian coat of arms at the top. Larger text near the top says "SENATOR DAVID POCOCK", "MEDIA RELEASE" and the headline in the largest print says "ARC RESTRUCTURE RISKS JOBS"?.

“This feels like yet another attack on our research community that is already under siege”

Senator @davidpocock.bsky.social has issued a media release about the ARC's proposed restructure and job cuts 👇

Or loves, even.

Ssshhhhh.

Maybe it's me that lives Bluey that much?

oh your spotify wrapped music age is 86?? and yet you think age estimation technology is accurate???

Emails reveal planned job cuts at research funding body Research council staff face jobs amid 'secret' restructure.

This is quite an investigation into ARC’s proposed restructure & job cuts by @jennaprice.bsky.social.

You know you’ve botched your “review” when several staff complain to a Senator!

ARC also ran a witch hunt to find people who might’ve “leaked”.

Ugly stuff.

(I was delighted to be one of 14 researchers to work on this important project, led by Michael Dezuanni and Kim Osman from the QUT Digital Media Research Centre & ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child. )

Young Australians’ perspectives on the social media minimum age legislation [Report]

📘New Report: Young Australians’ perspectives on the social media minimum age legislation📘

With the #socialmediaban for teens kicking in on 10 December, hearing their perspectives on it, and social media generally, is so vital!

💡 Read the full report here: doi.org/10.60836/tr3...

Indeed, this will be an interesting one to watch!

It would be such a disruption if it actually got paused, postponed or cancelled now with the entire Labor govt's reputation hanging on the ban working!

Read my🧵about our new #AIstories publication, by @annesigrid.bsky.social - read on for floating motifs, cannibalism and more! And honestly just to understand more about what actually characterises LLM-generated storytelling.

Australian Small Business Idea:

Limited edition "I was on Yope before the #SocialMediaBan" t-shirts and rashies for teens, available for one summer only.

LOL (he says like a really old person)

Cover of the M/C Journal ‘experience’ issue.

Delighted to launch M/C Journal issue 28.5: ‘#experience’, edited by Jo Jung, Harrison See, and Lelia Green – and just in time for the #AANZCA25 conference too… #mcjournal

journal.media-cultur...

NEW: With less than two weeks to go, we still don't know if all of the tech platforms listed as being in the ban are going to comply.

Twitch and Kick have both confirmed to Crikey that they will. But there's still two who won't say:

www.crikey.com.au/20...

CAUL announces landmark new Taylor & Francis agreement, while pausing negotiations with Elsevier - Council of Australasian University Librarians The Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL) has struck a landmark new open access in principle agreement with global publisher Taylor & Francis, marking a major step toward fairer and mor...

Great to see CAUL have struck a new, better deal w Taylor & Francis kicking off in 2026. For Australian and ANZ authors, this, amongst other things, will mean gold open access journals (like @socialmedia-soc.bsky.social) will now be included in the #openaccess deals, when they weren't this year!

Got milk?
#Pluribus

I haven't (but to be fair, I haven't looked for them, they might exist)

YouTube video by Tiera Tanksley Howard University AI Panel

I need everyone, esp anyone working in education or tech (but really everyone) to WATCH THIS CLIP of @drtanksley.bsky.social discussing the technologies infiltrating our schools & psyches and how she is addressing it with our young people. youtu.be/5mtcSL4S3HQ

Streaming platform Twitch latest to be banned for kids - ABC listen Children under 16 will be banned from the streaming platform Twitch from December 10, after it was added to the Federal Government's list of blocked platforms.

I had a few last thoughts for the day about Twitch being added to the #SocialMediaBan for under16s in Australia on Radio National's PM program this afternoon:

No way. Anywhere we can gather as a family has been age restricted now.
This is bad. We don't all live in the city with soccer mums that can afford after school activities. This will impact children in poverty and state care only. Like it's designed to do.

For parents, carers and trusted adults: take the feelings, concerns and quite possible trauma teens are feeling seriously. Be there to talk, be there to offer support, take these feelings seriously. If needs be, there's help out there, too, from Headspace, Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800) and others.

For teens: don't panic, you'll be able to find your feet, your people, your space another way if you need to. But do take some steps to prepare, including downloading the content you care about, and thinking about how you'll (re)connect with friends a different way.

We know the #SocialMediaBan for under16s in Aust kicks in on Dec 10th, but for a lot of teens it only felt real a day or 2 ago when they started getting notifications that their Meta accounts were flagged for deactivation.

For teens & for parents, we hope there's some useful advice in this piece.

Australia is about to ban under-16s from social media. Here's what kids can do right now to prepare Daniel Angus, Queensland University of Technology and Tama Leaver, Curtin University

I'm very pleased this piece co-authored with @antmandan.bsky.social is out in the @aunz.theconversation.com this morning.

theconversation.com/australia-is...

All good points, and all quite hard to convey during the soundbite political messaging surrounding the ban!

It was odd the Kick (basically a Twitch clone) was included & Twitch wasn't, but adding platforms so late makes talking about this ban even more complicated/confusing.

And to be fair to the platform, 2 weeks isn't a huge amount of time for Twitch to get age gating in place for the under16s, either.

We’ve informed Twitch that we consider it an age-restricted social media platform in accordance with Australia’s social media minimum age legislation.   Following its own self-assessment, we assessed… | eSafety Commissioner We’ve informed Twitch that we consider it an age-restricted social media platform in accordance with Australia’s social media minimum age legislation.   Following its own self-assessment, we assessed Twitch as meeting the criteria for an age-restricted social media platform. This is because it has a sole or significant purpose of online social interaction with features designed to encourage user interaction, including through livestreaming content.   Twitch is a platform most commonly used for livestreaming or posting content that enables users, including Australian children, to interact with others in relation to the content posted.   From 10 December age-restricted social media platforms will be required to take reasonable steps to prevent under 16s from having accounts on their platform.   We’ve published our views on whether some platforms will be age-restricted social media platforms to provide additional certainty for Australian families and industry.    But we expect all online platforms that operate in Australia to assess their obligations under Australian law. We’ve provided an assessment tool to help them understand if they’re required to comply with the social media minimum age and remain in ongoing discussions with industry about compliance obligations.   Learn more about the upcoming social media age restrictions on our website: https://lnkd.in/gtn4aE_c 

So at almost the last moment, Twitch has been added to the list of age-restricted social media platforms for Australia's #SocialMediaBan for under16s, which is officially active in less than three weeks.

I believe the expression is: 'building the plane while it's flying'.

Removing access to Instagram, Threads and Facebook for under 16s in Australia To comply with Australia’s upcoming social media age ban law, starting 4 December, we will begin removing access to Instagram, Threads, and…

For parents/carers/schools/support orgs: the reality of the ban is only sinking in today for a large number of teens. It's our job to take their concerns, their feelings & their potential trauma seriously & help them through it as best we can.

medium.com/@MetaANZ/rem...

There is an appeals process, which involves a 'video selfie' or, failing that, uploading government-issued ID.

While I don't know how it would be possible to comply with the legislation in a more effective way, it's still a pretty clunky process.

It's a relief to see Meta warning teens and encouraging them to consider downloading the content they'll lost access to. Meta is already flagging there will likely be a meaningful number of false positives, that is people who are 16 or over who are flagged as being under 16 for a range of reasons.