VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

An illustration of social media apps. (Image: iStock) - 

VOInews, Sydney : Australia's centre-left government on Thursday (Nov 21) introduced a Bill in parliament that aims to ban social media for children under 16 and proposed fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$32 million) for social media platforms for systemic breaches.

Australia plans to trial an age-verification system that may include biometrics or government identification to enforce a social media age cut-off, some of the toughest controls imposed by any country to date.

The proposals are the highest age limit set by any country and would have no exemption for parental consent and no exemption for pre-existing accounts.

"This is a landmark reform. We know some kids will find workarounds, but we're sending a message to social media companies to clean up their act," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement.

The opposition Liberal party plans to support the Bill though independents and the Green party have demanded more details on the proposed law, which would impact Meta Platforms' Instagram and Facebook, Bytedance's TikTok and Elon Musk's X and Snapchat.

But Albanese said children will have access to messaging, online gaming, and health and education related services, such as youth mental health support platform Headspace as well as Alphabet's Google Classroom and YouTube.

The Albanese-led Labor government has been arguing excessive use of social media poses risks to physical and mental health of children, in particular the risks to girls from harmful depictions of body image, and misogynist content aimed at boys.

A number of countries have already vowed to curb social media use by children through legislation, but Australia's policy is one of the most stringent.

France last year proposed a ban on social media for those under 15 but users were able to avoid the ban with parental consent. The United States has for decades required technology companies to seek parental consent to access the data of children under 13.

"For too many young Australians, social media can be harmful. Almost two-thirds of 14 to 17-year-old Australians have viewed extremely harmful content online, including drug abuse, suicide or self-harm," Communications Minister Michelle Rowland told parliament on Thursday.

The law would force social media platforms, and not parents or young people, to take reasonable steps to ensure the age-verification protections are in place//CNA-VOI

FILE PHOTO: U.S. dollar and Euro notes are seen in this November 7, 2016 picture illustration. Picture taken November 7. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo

VOInews, Tokyo : The euro plunged to a two-year low on Friday after data showed a tumble in euro zone business activity, and caused markets to up bets on ECB rate cuts, while bitcoin hit a record high just shy of $100,000.

The common currency dipped over 1 per cent at one point to its lowest level since November 2022, and was last down 0.6 per cent on the day at $1.0412 after the data, which showed the bloc's dominant services industry contracted and manufacturing had sunk deeper into recession.

Markets also raised their expectations of European Central Bank rate cuts, and see a more than 50 per cent chance of a larger-than-usual 50 bp rate cut in December.

Francesco Pesole, currency strategist at ING, said in advance of the release that the PMI figures were "arguably the most important data input for the European Central Bank and the euro".

"The release has risen from being almost disregarded to a de-facto critical input for policy decision, given the Governing Council’s greater focus on forward-looking indicators of growth."

The euro also fell 0.44 per cent against the Swiss franc. It weakened against the pound but then pared declines after soft British PMI data.

The euro has been weakening against the dollar since Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election. Recent escalations in fighting between Russia and Ukraine and political uncertainty in Germany, the bloc's biggest economy, have further weighed on the currency in recent weeks.

Britain's pound was also under pressure, down 0.5 per cent at $1.257, after British retail sales fell by much more than expected in October, and PMI data showed British business output had shrunk for the first time in more than a year.

Further signs of slowing economic growth could cause the Bank of England to soften its monetary stance. The index that tracks the dollar against six main peers was up 0.43 per cent at 107.5, its highest since November 2022.

The index has appreciated sharply this month on expectations that President-elect Donald Trump's policies could reignite inflation and limit the Fed's ability to cut rates, keeping other currencies under pressure.

Trump floated the idea of appointing Kevin Warsh as Treasury Secretary on the understanding that he could later be Federal Reserve chairman, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter//CNA-VOI

Director of National Library E. Aminudin Aziz and Director General of Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Achim Bonte at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin after signing an MOU to restore the Nusantara Manuscript. (Photo: Perpusnas) - 

VOInews, Berlin : This collaboration in the library sector is a follow-up to the implementation of one of National Library's National Priority programs for 2024, namely mainstreaming Indonesian manuscripts. This is to create one archipelago manuscript data that is spread throughout the world.

The signing of the cooperation document was carried out by Plt. Director of National Library E. Aminudin Aziz and Director General of Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Achim Bonte at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Building, Germany, on Wednesday (20/11/2024).

Plt. The Director of the National Library was accompanied by Principal Secretary Joko Santoso, Head of Legal, Organization, Cooperation and Public Relations Bureau Sri Marganingsih, Head of General Affairs Chaerul Umam, and Librarian Anastasia Linawati.

"Currently the National Library is focusing on three National Priority programs. The first is increasing the love of reading, building reading habits and increasing literacy, the second is about mainstreaming Indonesian manuscripts, and the third is library standardization," explained Aminudin.

It was stated that the National Library has many Indonesian manuscripts spread throughout the world and hopes to be able to connect with related parties. This is the reason for signing the collaboration with the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.

"We believe that many manuscripts from Indonesia exist abroad and we are trying to connect with partners so that the manuscripts can be used for research and understanding the past," he continued.

Meanwhile, Bonte hopes that this collaboration can be followed up in several activities.

"We can jointly build cooperative partnerships in terms of exchanging experts and research, so this is where we signed this collaboration," he explained.

In addition, both parties can exchange information and hold joint exhibitions.

According to a release received by Voice of Indonesia on Friday November 22nd 2024 in Jakarta, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin stores around 750 Indonesian manuscripts. These manuscripts consist of various media such as European paper, lontar, and others which contain various knowledge. One of the physical Nusantara manuscripts is the Panji Story which is included in UNESCO's Memory of the World (MoW) and is stored at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin.

With this collaboration, researchers or information users will be given ease in accessing Indonesian manuscripts at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.
Both parties hope for maximum utilization of information seekers.

Law Number 43 of 2007 concerning Libraries article 42 regarding cooperation states that the National Library is the center of the library network, so the National Library establishes partnerships with domestic and foreign parties//VOI

Minister of Culture, Fadli Zon at the Ngopi Pagi event when giving his remarks. (Photo : detik.com) - 

VOInews, Jakarta : Minister of Culture, Fadli Zon, said that the establishment of the Ministry of Culture in President Prabowo Subianto's administration is a big step. This is because the field of culture was previously always integrated with other fields, but in President Prabowo's Red-and -hite Cabinet, this field is made a separate ministry.

During the Minister of Culture's Ngopi Pagi event with the Cultural Community at the Ministry of Culture Office, Thursday, Minister Fadli Zon quoted Article 32 of the 1945 Constitution, which mandates the Indonesian state to promote national culture.

“The state promotes Indonesian national culture in the midst of world civilisation by guaranteeing its people to maintain and develop their respective cultures. So, this has actually been since 79 years ago. There has been a constitutional order to promote culture. It already exists, and it is very strong.” Minister Fadli Zon said. 

Minister Fadli Zon added that the formation of a ministry of culture is part of President Prabowo's commitment to culture. He said that since he and Deputy Minister of Culture, Giring Ganesha, were inaugurated, he and Giring have travelled around Indonesia to meet cultural communities to absorb their aspirations.

According to Minister Fadli, Indonesia's national cultural wealth, which he called too diverse, is a wealth that should be appreciated and valued, and even used as a national strength//VOI