Tech giants grilled over Australian Social Media ban

**Luke Wilson** (0:01)
Tech companies defend themselves, as Australia looks at tougher enforcement of its social media ban. It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service. I'm Luke Wilson. We'll hear from the Swedish trade union that's ending its nearly three-year strike against Tesla next week, and investors are suing the pop star Selena Gomez over her mental health startup.
Tech companies have given evidence to an Australian parliamentary inquiry about the country's social media ban for under-16s. Data suggests since it came in eight months ago that the majority of Australian teens are still on the platforms. But the companies have told politicians not to focus on early data and that they don't need to face tougher penalties. The BBC's Katie Watson is in Sydney.

**Katie Watson** (0:51)
I've just come off watching the stream where there have been the likes of Meta and TikTok discussing what they are doing. So really reiterating that they are trying to kick people off. They're doing what they can. Meta put out some data saying that over 750,000 people have now been kicked off their platforms. But certainly there's a grilling that are they doing enough, what more needs to be done. And of course this is a process that is going to take a long time. And there will be court cases, the eSafety Commission has actually hired its own external lawyers because they know there are lots of court cases that are going to have to deal with platforms really pushing against this ban. And of course we're seeing it being rolled out in other countries too.

**Luke Wilson** (1:26)
What can other countries learn from Australia? Tony Allen is chief executive of the Age Check Certification Scheme, which worked with the Australian government on verification systems.

**Tony Allen** (1:36)
The problem that we are seeing is that the kids there just aren't encountering them. So it's not that they're getting round them or circumventing them or doing other things. That one is a small amount of them that are doing that. But most of them, the vast majority, according to the stats, have either never even been asked for an age assurance or simply been asked to confirm that they're at their age, which is, of course, is of no use whatsoever.

**Luke Wilson** (1:58)
Now, the companies themselves, they say they've taken hundreds of thousands of accounts off following this ban. But is there more that tech companies can be doing to make sure this works?

**Tony Allen** (2:08)
Yeah, absolutely there's more they can do. The tech is there. The tech does work. It can be done. It has to be rolled out and it has to be implemented properly so that kids are actually being put through the age assurance measures that are there and do work.

**Luke Wilson** (2:23)
And what do you think this means for tech companies going forward? Are they going to have to change how they operate because of these social media bans?

**Tony Allen** (2:31)
Well, these companies face an existential problem if they don't tackle the challenges and the difficulties that children face on their platforms and what they do. If they don't take this seriously and don't start developing age-appropriate products, age-appropriate design, then they will be regulated out of the space.

**Luke Wilson** (2:52)
Tony Allen, chief executive of the age check certification scheme. In the last hour, a proposed social media ban for under-15s in France has been struck down by the country's top court.
Randeep Somal is fund manager at M&G Investments, and the S&P 500 in the US closed at record high yesterday, Randeep. What are we seeing today?

**Randeep Somal** (3:13)
Hi, Luke. Yes, it got through 7,800 this morning. It's taken a bit of a breather and come back, but it has been on a very strong run. We're coming to the end of reporting season, and so far, it's been positive on the whole, especially on the AI-related names. We saw Sandisk up 14%, Micron up four, and that's also followed with the July inflation data being flat. So the risk of another interest rate rise has gone down in the US.

**Luke Wilson** (3:39)
And copper prices have hit an all-time high. What's driving that?

**Randeep Somal** (3:43)
A similar theme, the demand for copper keeps growing strongly, not just for electrification, but also for data centers, the electricity and all the communications wiring that's required. And then you couple that with the fact that there's been a lot of rain in Chile, one of the world's largest copper producers. It means inventories are down, and we've got copper at $6.40 a pound.

**Luke Wilson** (4:03)
Randip Somal from M&G, thank you.
Donald Trump has announced tariffs have up to 100% on imports of drones and their components to reduce reliance on Chinese technology. The White House also says it's found more than 40 nations have helped China sidestep tariffs by routing exports through other countries. Henrietta Trayes is co-founder of Veda Partners, which advises investors on political events.