Plus: Using an FOI to prove that traffic light cycles should be shorter ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

September 24, 2025 | Read online
# Teen social media ban confusion, UN cell tower 'attack', kill cookie pop-ups Plus: Using an FOI to prove that traffic light cycles should be shorter
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Edition 2425
"The studio, including computer & sound foam on the wall. The microphone is out of view, though the boom is visible on the far left." (Flickr: Conover Media)
Good afternoon!
Several friends of the Sizzle (Josh Taylor, Stilgherrian) flagged that there is an auction of “Australia’s Largest Arcade of Retro Amusement Machines” currently underway.
# The News
### Teen social media ban could include GitHub and Steam (but I’m like 99% sure it won’t)
Tech companies like Reddit, GitHub, Twitch, Steam and Pinterest have been asked by the eSafety Commissioner to say if they’ll be part of the teen social media ban (ABC News). A few weeks back, I reported that Julie Inman Grant had asked “a comprehensive list of tech companies” to use a self-assessment form to see whether they would qualify as a “age restricted social platform” (Crikey, $). Now, thanks to friend of the Sizzle, Ange Lavoipierre, we know who is on the list of 16 companies — and they run some very different platforms. And, to add a fun twist, the decision of which companies come under the ban is probably not even up to the eSafety Commissioner, anyway!
The Sizzle: I’ve seen some people assume that this list is indicative of who will be in the ban. My read is a bit different: The rules for the ban, drafted under Michelle Rowland and now published under Anika Wells, don’t specify which platforms but rather give broad exemptions.
This puts the eSafety Commissioner’s office in a funny position: it’s been given the responsibility of enforcing the rules (i.e. fine companies that don’t comply) but doesn’t know for sure which ones are in scope. Nor does the industry, according to what tech lobby group DIGI’s policy director Dr Jennifer Duxbury’s told a parliamentary inquiry this morning. So, this self-assessment is supposed to help both sides here — walking the companies through whether they will qualify, and then asking them to say if they think they will to the eSafety Commissioner. (In my mind, this self-assessment makes it pretty clear that GitHub won’t be included, for example, and you can try it out for yourself).
Honestly I’d feel the same way about answering some of these questions (Supplied)
The fundamental problem is that the teen social media ban law was designed to give the government the most amount of flexibility. But this leaves everyone else in the dark. Even, it appears, its own regulator. And when you don’t give people simple, clear rules, it places you at risk of scare campaigns and fuckups.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### I have questions about the Secret Service’s thwarting of a supposed cell tower attack on the UN
The Secret Service has thwarted a SIM farm in New York City that it claims threatened US government officials and could’ve disrupted cellular telecommunications while the UN General Assembly was underway (Guardian). Authorities said the seized set-up had 300 SIM servers and more than 100,000 SIM cards within 50-ish kilometres of the UN which, they said, meant they could’ve jammed NYC’s entire network. The Secret Service said the data shows “ties to at least one foreign nation” and known cartel members, but didn’t identify who was threatened, what the threat was or who was involved (Bloomberg, $)
Looks like my NBN set-up TBH (Image: AP)
The Sizzle: Let the record show that I’m sus on this idea that this was a sophisticated threat to the UN. A lot of details seem a bit off: spread out over 50KMs? Vague mentions of criminal and foreign actors? No one actually directly saying this was linked to the UN meeting?
My completely un-educated guess is that this was a scammer SMS spammer (WIRED, $) set up that was spraying out vaguely threatening messages that just caught a government official in its wake… and now this has turned into A Very Big Deal when it’s not really.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### It’s time to kill the ‘do you accept this cookie’ pop-up
Europe might soon defeat the terrible Frankenstein’s monster that it set loose on the world: the ubiquitous “do you accept cookies on this website” pop up (Politico). In 2009, the EU revised its “e-Privacy Directive” law that required websites to ask users for permission before loading cookies. Now, those Brussels bureaucrats are floating the idea of tweaking the rule to stop the endless pop-ups. Suggestions include either dropping requirements to ask for cookies for “technically necessary functions”, or to create a standard that allows a user to set their browser’s preferences once for every website.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
Half of Australians have no idea that age checks are coming to search engines (Crikey, $) TikTok’s Chinese owner may choose between US and Trump’s billionaire backers (The Guardian) Here’s every problem the teen social media ban will fix, apparently (Crikey, $) One in three Aussie kids have seen porn online (eSafety Commissioner) ACMA proposes digital ID for prepaid mobile SIM verification (iTnews) Track Dezi Freeman’s radicalisation from family photographer to alleged cop killer (Crikey, $)
Rest of the world:
YouTube will let creators who spread covid misinformation back on the site (The Verge) Behind Grok's 'sexy' settings, workers review explicit and disturbing content (Business Insider, $) EU targets Apple, Google and Microsoft over online financial scams (Financial Times, $) The Internet Coup is Here, and the World is Still Asleep (Tech Policy Press) This Startup Wants to Use Homomorphic Encryption to Keep Your LLM Prompts Private (IEEE Spectrum) Gmail just fixed my biggest notification headache (The Verge) Apple Working on Feature to Add Your Passport to Wallet App in iOS 26 (MacRumors) One of TikTok’s network boffins says it causes ‘massive data wastage’ (The Register) Tesla leak reveals potential specs for affordable Model Y – here are 9 key features that could be missing (TechRadar) Charlie Kirk asks God to 'break' Grindr after outage takes hookup app offline (Pride.com) Nintendo Alerted After DHS Uses Pokémon to Promote ICE Raids Tearing Families Apart (The Daily Beast, $) How a vibrator helped me debug a motorcycle brake light system (BikeSafe)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### Using a FOI to prove that traffic light cycles should be shorter
Nothing brings me pleasure like seeing someone use Australia’s freedom of information systems — let alone a fellow Sizzler. That’s why I’m sharing Jake Coppinger’s quest to prove that shorter traffic light cycle times are better for everyone. It led him to uncover a secret 2018 test from Transport for NSW that proved this — using documents obtained via a $441 information request — then subsequently ignored! I highly recommend you read it.
Now that’s a sexy graph
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & electronics
Belkin Connect 8-Outlet Surge Protector with Dual USB-C 30W Ports - $49.98 at EBGAMES FFALCON 55" U65 4K LED Google TV 2025 & Crest Mouse Pad - $344 at The Good Guys - wow a mouse pad??? Nikon Z5ii Body - $1973 at digiDirect
Computing
Lexar Professional Silver Pro 512GB Class 10 U3 UHS-II V60 SDXC Memory Card - $160 at Amazon US via AU WD Red Plus 8TB 3.5" NAS HDD - $269 at Centrecom Lenovo ThinkCentre M70q Tiny PC i5-10400t 16GB RAM 256GB SSD Windows 11 Pro (refurbished) - $329 at Value Gadgets (Refurbished) Seagate 20TB BarraCuda 3.5inch SATA Hard Drive (ST20000DM001) - $465 at Shopping Express Gaming PCs: Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 32GB RAM, Kingston 1TB at Nebula PC 9070 XT for $2298 5070 Ti for $2448 RTX 5080 16GB for $2848
Mobile
Telstra’s 24 month mobile broadband pan with a $850 JB Hi-Fi gift card & Ring battery video doorbell - $69/Month at JB Hi-Fi Motorola Edge 60 Fusion 12GB/256GB Storage - $425 at The Good Guys
# The End
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