Social Media
Roblox under pressure as Canberra circles child safety
The Australian’s Jack Quail reports that Roblox is facing renewed scrutiny after reports children using the platform were exposed to grooming and sexual exploitation.
The $66bn gaming giant has long traded on its huge pre-teen audience, but that scale is now drawing political heat.
Communications Minister Anika Wells has written to the US-based company expressing “grave concern” and pushing for an urgent meeting on what safety measures are actually working, not just what’s been promised
Online
Why Dr ChatGPT is not your GP yet
Hypochondriacs, we’re gonna need to find a new way to spend our Saturday nights, because according to AFP, turning to a chatbot for medical advice is a bad idea.
Rebecca Payne from Oxford University says the technology is nowhere near ready to play doctor, and can miss serious red flags and steer users in the wrong direction.
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Google ads surge as YouTube looks beyond ads
Marketing Dive’s Peter Adams reports that Google capped off Q4 with a strong advertising finish, lifting ad revenue 13.6% to $82.3 billion and pushing annual revenue past $400 billion for the first time, according to parent Alphabet.
Search remained the growth engine, with ad revenue up 16.7%, while YouTube grew ad takings 8.7% to $11.4 billion over the holiday quarter, fuelled by direct-response formats.
Entertainment
KPop Demon Hunters sequel talks heat up
Songwriter Mark Sonnenblick says a sequel to Netflix’s most-watched film KPop Demon Hunters is officially in motion. Nothing is locked yet, but the conversations are real and moving.
And, as the BBC’s Pete Allison reports, the timing tracks.
In the past year alone, Sonnenblick has taken home a Golden Globe, a Grammy and scored an Academy Award nomination for co-writing Golden, the animation’s standout song.
Oscars quietly pulls the plug on screenings
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has made a low-key but eyebrow-raising call.
It will stop hosting in-person screenings of Oscar-nominated films, a shift first flagged in a January members bulletin and later surfaced by Scott Feinberg in The Hollywood Reporter.
For decades, these screenings were a fixture across Los Angeles, New York, London and beyond, giving members a communal way to watch contenders before voting.
Vale
Tributes flow for cartoonist Jon Kudelka
Celebrated Australian political cartoonist and author Jon Kudelka has died aged 53, following a glioblastoma diagnosis early last year.
As The Australian’s James Madden details, his passing has prompted an outpouring of grief across media, politics and the arts.
In a statement, his wife, Maggie Kudelka, said he was deeply loved by family, friends, and fans, and admired for art that combined dry humour with compassion, never shying away from calling out political and anti-science nonsense.