Technology

I trust everyone had a lovely weekend, or for those just getting back into the office, a wonderful summer break!

The Australian government's proposed ban on social media for children is a misguided attempt to address the perceived harms, and along with the new misinformation bill, will infringe on freedom of expression and privacy while failing to address the real issues.

Lower electric vehicle prices are the result of healthy market competition, not a bubble bursting.

The federal government wants to create a big new database to protect us from ourselves; who would an autonomous vehicle choose to save, a pedestrian or its passengers; a tale of two central banks; and the UK election in one chart (it's not looking good for Rishi).

Are smartphones poison to young people; why the Victorian and Western Australian Budgets really irk me; the yanks may have finally spent all their pandemic savings; Europe is confronting the realities of industrial policy; and if you think housing is bad in Australia, at least it's not this bad.

Australia's eSafety commissioner has been given the impossible task of censoring "harmful" online content - globally. Instead of a censorship tzar of debatable value, a better approach might be to focus resources on promoting critical thinking and demand-side interventions to reduce harmful content.

The NBN was a costly mistake that has failed to earn a commercial return, hindered competition, and its business model is being undermined by new technologies. Might it be time to rethink the experiment?

Facebook leaving Australia shows that the media bargaining code backfired. The government misdiagnosed the problem and harmed consumers while benefiting the big media companies. It's time to cut our losses, accept that the code was a mistake, and focus on real solutions to support local media.

Here are a few short takes for you to chew over on the weekend, from the week’s happenings that probably didn’t need a full post.

As a replacement for last Friday’s missing Fodder courtesy of the long weekend, here are a few short takes for you to muse over to start your week, from last week’s happenings that probably didn’t need a full post._