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Today's Topics:
1. Worn Down by Worry, Parents Look Longingly at Australia?s
Social Media Ban (Stephen Loosley)
2. China?s burgeoning undersea sensor net aims to turn the ocean
transparent (Stephen Loosley)
3. Linux will be unstoppable in 2026 (Stephen Loosley)
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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2025 21:10:03 +1030
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "link" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] Worn Down by Worry, Parents Look Longingly at
Australia?s Social Media Ban
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
New York Times
27th Dec 2025
Worn Down by Worry, Parents Look Longingly at Australia?s Social Media Ban
After the country barred children under 16 from using social media, many
parents have been asking whether similarly tough action is needed in their own
countries.
By Adam Satariano and Lynsey Chutel, NYT Reporting from London Dec. 27, 2025
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/27/world/australia/australia-social-media-ban.html
A frustrated father in Spain, whose teenage daughter regularly sidesteps
parental controls that block social media, wants the government to ban apps
like TikTok and Instagram for children.
In France, a mother of three worries about social media?s effect on young
people and will not give her children smartphones until they are 15. But she is
skeptical that a government prohibition is the answer.
A mother in Chile says it is a parent?s job, not the government?s, to teach
children how to use social media responsibly.
Since Australia this month barred children under 16 from using social media,
parents around the world have been debating at school drop-offs and
playgrounds, and on group chats and online forums, whether similarly tough
action is needed in their own countries.
In Australia, surveys show that most parents support the new rules, while young
teenagers have talked about using VPNs and other workarounds.
Several countries are weighing whether to adopt similar laws. The Malaysian
government has announced plans to bar children under 16 from using social media
starting in 2026.
Denmark could impose the toughest restrictions in Europe, though the measures
would not go as far as Australia?s. The government has said it would block
anyone under 15 from using the platforms as soon as next year, although parents
would be allowed to give children from the age of 13 permission to use social
media.
In the United States, several states have passed laws to restrict children?s
social media use, including some requiring parental consent.
Many parents in interviews said they were aware of the impact of smartphones on
their own lives, and wanted to protect their children from the most harmful
effects.
But many also said they felt as if they were fighting a losing battle and were
worn down by the time, arguments and technological know-how needed to keep
their digitally savvy kids off social media. Parents who feel that way welcomed
government action.
Israel P?rez, a designer in Barcelona, said his 14-year-old daughter was
constantly pestering him to lift the restrictions he has imposed on her social
media use. He said an Australia-like law would help create new social norms and
give parents more support in pushing back against such an online culture.
?I really see it as necessary, not as a drastic or excessive measure,? he said.
?Even with parental controls, they bypass them. Even with attentive parents, if
a phone is given, like in our case, it?s hard to control.?
In Denmark, Anne Kroijer, a mother of four who lives outside Copenhagen, took
action herself. She persuaded about three-quarters of the parents in her eldest
daughter?s class not to buy smartphones for their children. They got older flip
phones instead that do not have many apps or a large touch-screen.
?It?s so incredibly uninteresting that she forgets it half the time,? said Ms.
Kroijer, who is a founder of a group to help parents wean their children off
social media.
Justine Roberts, the founder of Mumsnet, an online community for parents in
Britain, said that screen time was one of the most common topics on the site?s
message boards, and that support for government intervention has grown. In a
poll of its users conducted this year, Mumsnet found that 83 percent said they
would back an Australia-like ban in Britain, while 58 percent said they would
be more likely to vote for a political party that committed to such a policy.
?That level of support speaks to real frustration, and to a belief that this is
now a public health issue, not just a parenting problem,? said Ms. Roberts. Her
company also helped develop, with the handset maker Nothing, a ?safety first?
smartphone for children that filters certain content and has tools for parents
to limit apps and track notifications.
Not all parents believe new laws are needed, and some worry about government
overreach. Others see new technologies and social media as an inevitable part
of their children?s daily lives.
Charlotte Valette, a mother of three in Paris, said she was grateful that her
children?s school bans smartphones. Strong parental controls also help parents
restrict the content children see while giving the kids ?an opening to the
world.?
?I am not so enthusiastic about the idea of a state taking such a drastic
measure,? Ms. Valette said.
In Santiago, Chile, Paulina Abramovich, a mother of three children ages 11, 15
and 20, said she was fairly relaxed about her children using social media. Her
youngest does not use Instagram, but watches a lot of YouTube videos, which she
said has helped him in school. Her middle son mainly plays video games.
?I am a mother who has given her children complete freedom in the use of social
media, but I have thought more about the trust I have in them and in their
education for self-control,? she said.
In Kenya, a country betting on technology to bolster its economy, it will be
hard to persuade parents to take away their children?s smartphones, said Calvin
Odera, a social worker in Nairobi, the capital.
Mr. Odera said that as soon as he gets home, his 5-year-old son starts clawing
at his pockets to have his phone. But while he has restricted screen time, he
said it would be difficult for the government to restrict platforms that have
become instrumental in the daily lives of Kenyans.
?People are very sensitive about it,? he said.
In Germany, the government held a yearlong review of a petition brought by
parents to Parliament calling for an age limit on social media use. The public
debate showed that opinion was split.
One respondent in the public debate forum on the petition wrote: ?So, you?re
supposed to register on social media with a digital ID card now, or some other
method to verify your actual age? That seems rather absurd.? The person added,
?The clock can?t be turned back.?
Verena Holler, who lives in Hamburg, Germany, was one of the parents supporting
the petition. She kept her children off social media until they were 16,
holding firm even as they complained that hardly anyone played during recess,
and that all they could do was watch others play games on their phones. ?It?s a
global crisis,? she said.
In Malaysia, Shoaib Sabri, the father of an 11-year-old daughter, supports his
country?s proposed ban, citing concerns over early exposure to adult content on
platforms like YouTube. He monitors his daughter?s viewing history and uses
Apple settings to keep tabs on the apps she downloads.
?I know exactly what she is watching,? he said.
William Kvist, a former professional soccer player and father of two in
Denmark, has spent years pushing for stricter limits on smartphones and social
media for young people. He now works part time for a boarding school that
limits students? screen time and believes much of the world is catching up with
his view.
?Three years ago, people were looking at me weird when I talked about this, but
people see now that there are real consequences,? Mr. Kvist said. ?The tailwind
has really grown.?
Roser Toll Pifarr? contributed reporting from Barcelona; Zunaira Saieed from
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and S?gol?ne Le Stradic from Paris.
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:49:57 +1030
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "link" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] China?s burgeoning undersea sensor net aims to turn
the ocean transparent
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
China?s burgeoning undersea sensor net aims to turn the ocean transparent
The PLA is building a self-healing ?kill web? to surpass today?s brittle kill
chains.
By Tye Graham and Peter W. Singer | October 15, 2025
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2025/10/chinas-burgeoning-undersea-sensor-net-aims-turn-ocean-transparent/408815/
The People's Liberation Army is building an ?invisible net? across the western
Pacific, a five-layer, seabed-to-space sensor architecture known as the
Transparent Ocean strategy that challenges the ability of U.S. and allied
submarines (our ?black sharks?) to maneuver and hide.
The threat was on display in August during the PLA Navy and Russia's Joint
Sea-2025 exercises near Vladivostok. In joint anti-submarine warfare drills,
Chinese and Russian forces linked their communications and shared
hydro-meteorological and air-sea tracks in real time.
The goal, according to Chinese state media, was to leave deep-diving submarines
with nowhere to hide.
This exercise served as an early demonstration of a mature, automated kill web
that China plans to spread across multiple seas and oceans.
Intended to enable persistent, real-time tracking across vast areas, the web
will consist of five layers:
Ocean Star Cluster (space): A constellation of satellites, centered on the
Guanlan interferometric radar altimetry and ocean-profiling lidar system. This
layer provides wide-area surveillance and flags specific locations, cueing the
lower layers to wake up and focus.
Air-Sea Interface (surface/near-surface): Smart buoys, wave gliders, and
unmanned surface vessels hold station across vital straits and shelves. They
sample the upper ocean and act as crucial routers, translating slow underwater
acoustic data packets into high-bandwidth satellite or cellular bursts for
transmission ashore.
Starry Deep Sea (water column): Deep floats, long-range gliders, and autonomous
underwater vehicles patrol below the mixed layer for weeks, profiling the ocean
environment and towing acoustic payloads. They fill the gaps identified by the
orbital layer.
Undersea Perspective (seabed): This is the backbone of the entire grid.
Connected by undersea cables, observatories and hubs host passive arrays,
precise clocks, and navigation beacons. They provide essential docking, data
offload, and recharging for visiting vehicles, allowing unmanned submarines to
loiter quietly and redeploy without surfacing, which drastically extends their
endurance and reduces exposure.
Deep Blue Brain (data fusion): The core command layer that fuses the entire
picture and orchestrates sensing. It's the tasking and decision-support hub
that merges data from space, air, surface, and seabed, ready to hand targets to
combat networks.
In an influential primer, ?From Kill Chain to Kill Web,? PLA theorists warn
that a traditional, linear ?kill chain? collapses when a single node is
destroyed. Their response is the ?maritime adaptive kill web,? a resilient,
mesh-style network that offers multiple paths from sensor to shooter and
promises instant bypasses for any node failures.
A mature Transparent Ocean system is designed to automate this flow at scale.
For instance, a Dalian Naval Academy study demonstrated a space-guided sea
strike model that can compute 45 alternative paths and rank them by strike
power and closure time. A PLA team developed an algorithm that reassembles
broken chains by matching surviving nodes to the next?best route. This ability
to instantly reroute broken kill paths, a measurable metric for the PLA, is key
to keeping the web fighting under fire.
This concept has moved quickly from the lab to the ocean, with a number of
building blocks in the Transparent Ocean blueprint coming to fruition over the
last decade. It also shows the sea-bed side of civil-military fusion efforts.
On the sensor side, Zhejiang University?s Zhairuoshan observatory first linked
seabed probes to shore in 2014 and proved real-time undersea data flow. Today,
the China Academy of Electronics and Information Technology runs a cross-domain
maritime network that spans space, air, shore, surface, and subsea platforms to
support situational awareness and environmental monitoring. Ocean University of
China reported building the first Kuroshio Extension observation system, a
chain of anchored moorings and repeat stations complemented by a roaming layer
that keeps watch on one of the Western Pacific?s busiest water highways.
China?s extra-large uncrewed undersea vehicle, or XLUUV, effort is also
maturing, with multiple large prototypes and a growing undersea force that
provides the test beds to refine payloads, autonomy, and logistics for vehicles
that will seed and service the sensor web. With backing from the government?s
?Deep Sea Key?Technologies & ?Equipment? initiative, the Chinese Academy of
Sciences? Shenyang Institute of Automation kicked off ?Project 912? in 2018 to
build an Orca-class XLUUV. More recently, Tianjin University?s Haiyan deep-sea
gliders have shown ultra-long endurance in the Pacific, while Blue Whale
wave-gliders act as surface relays, holding station for weeks and backhauling
data from subsurface nodes to shore. Advances in quieting, batteries, and
acoustic arrays have since moved from labs and academic settings into PLA
trials, which is exactly what a kill web needs: more sensors, more routes, and
faster handoffs.
The relay tier is also growing. New cross-domain buoy designs and systems can
switch among satellite links, cellular networks, and acoustic modems, closing
the gap between UUVs, seabed sensors, and coastal command posts. The PLA Navy
has also begun collaborating with various state-sponsored institutions to
develop algorithms that enable communications buoys to select the best link on
the fly and move data in real time from the water column to shore, a potential
sign that a fieldable relay layer exists today.
China is also working to develop the power systems needed for Transparent
Ocean. Chinese studies stress that persistent deep-depth UUVs patrols will rely
on endurance and efficiency. This mirrors Western research efforts on
long-duration UUV autonomy and energy harvesting. As a result, China?s
near-term priorities in the power realm include higher-specific-energy
batteries, seawater metal-air cells for expendable nodes, and pierless
recharging at seabed docks and cabled hubs.
Reliability remains the bottleneck in contested waters. Optics need clear water
and precise alignment. Cellular communications die offshore. Acoustics degrade
in cluttered littorals. Hence the emphasis on multi-pipe relays and ?wake-up?
schemes that sip milliwatts of power until needed. Recent Chinese studies
describe cross-domain communication buoys that select the best link in real
time, whether satellite, cellular, or acoustic. Likewise, Harbin Engineering
University patents detail ultra-low-power acoustic wake-ups that let dormant
nodes sleep for months and join the net only when cued.
The U.S. and its allies should watch for Transparent Ocean work, especially in
key choke points such as the South China Sea, waters around Taiwan, the Luzon
Strait, the Straits of Malacca, and approaches to Guam.
A wider, denser and more effective Chinese sensor network will leave allied
submarines with fewer places to hide, while faster cue-to-fire loops shrink the
window within which they can be targeted. This will significantly complicate
operations not just in a potential future war, but also peacetime covert and
intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance operations.
To contend with the changing seas, the United States and its allies should
adopt a ?mesh-vs-mesh? approach that recognizes that hiding is a shrinking
option and instead builds on twin pillars of counter-sensing and counter-UUV
operations. Each will require the U.S. Navy and its allies to develop new
tactics and doctrine. Sensors can be foiled with deception and jamming, along
with building more resilient, interoperable communications. In turn, UUVs can
themselves be hunted, disrupted or even defeated through both kinetic and
electromagnetic means.
Working with partners in the region will also be essential to out-cycle
Beijing?s new web of observation. Australia?s Ghost Shark can send
payload-capable UUVs forward, while Japanese investments in long-range
underwater communications can strengthen command and control around the Ryukyu
Arc.
Allies should stitch these efforts into more cohesive acquisitions and a
shared, rehearsed playbook. Near-term priorities must include joint deception
drills and seabed docking trials that remove human logistics from
long-endurance UUV operation, as well as being prepared to deploy or even
pre-position counter-UUV patrol boxes where PLA buoys and gliders already
operate.
* Tye Graham is a Senior Researcher with BluePath Labs and a retired U.S. Army
Foreign Area Officer.
* P.W. Singer is Strategist at New America and the author of multiple books on
technology and security, including Wired for War, Ghost Fleet, Burn-In, and
LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media.
Share This:
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2025 02:59:43 +1030
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "link" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] Linux will be unstoppable in 2026
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Linux will be unstoppable in 2026 - but one open-source legend may not survive
Linux and open source are gearing up for a big year, with desktop growth, Rust,
and security leading the way.
Written by Steven Vaughan-Nichols, Senior Contributing Editor Dec. 29, 2025
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-and-open-source-2026-predictions/
Clearly, AI will play a larger role in Linux and open source next year, but
that's true of pretty much all technology.
However, while AI will be used to help develop the Linux kernel, no one is
predicting, a la Windows, that AI will be used to rewrite the entire codebase
by 2030. That said, open source will remain at the heart of AI.
The continued rise of the Linux desktop
For Linux, I see more desktop distributions aimed at ex-Windows users. As a
result, the Linux desktop, which has already been growing faster than ever,
will continue to grow even faster. Microsoft is helping by continuing to push
AI down Windows users' throats. Attention Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO:
Windows fans don't want AI. Sure, some do. Most, however, don't.
In addition, as my colleague on the Windows side of life, Ed Bott, points out,
Microsoft's current course toward more restrictions on which applications
Windows can run, and a monthly subscription model for Windows, is almost
certain to disillusion even hardcore Windows users.
All this means Linux's opportunity for growth will only continue to grow. Now,
we'll see if Linux can take advantage of its new chances. You see, as Linus
Torvalds himself pointed out long ago, we have too many Linux desktops.
Imagine yourself at a grocery store in another country, and you want a new
breakfast cereal. You're presented with over a hundred different boxes, and you
don't know a thing about any of them. How will you decide? Or will you just
throw up your hands and order Windows 12 via Amazon from back home because you
can't make heads or tails of all the local cereals?
It's the same with Linux. If you go to DistroWatch, you'll find over a hundred
desktops. I can't tell them all apart, and I cover this stuff for a living. We
need a distro to step forward to become the top choice.
That has never happened because every Linux distribution maker thinks their way
is the best way. The closer you look, the more differences you'll find between
the distros. For example, there are more than half a dozen viable Linux desktop
interfaces such as KDE Plasma, GNOME, Cinnamon, etc.
I have some ideas on how to address this issue, but that's a story for another
day. For now, even though there are still too many Linux desktops, the Linux
desktop will continue to grow.
Rust becomes 'normal' in kernel and core tools
Earlier this month, Linux kernel developers formally ended the "Rust
experiment," declaring Rust a permanent core language for Linux. Indeed, the
Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) graphics maintainers are already talking about
requiring Rust for new drivers within about a year.
Even before, the Debian Linux developers had decided that, by May 2026, all
further development of its core APT package manager would be done in Rust. Why?
Because Rust is memory safe. This stops in their tracks many kinds of security
problems that C, Linux's main language, has proven all too prone to over the
decades.
Don't think, however, that it's all peaches and cream now for Rust on Linux.
As Miguel Ojeda, leader of the Rust for Linux project, has said, "Rust is here
to stay, ... this does not mean that everything works for every kernel
configuration, architecture, toolchain, etc."
There's still a lot of work to be done. That said, Ojeda also noted that
Android 16 devices based on the 6.12 Linux kernel include the new Rust-based
anonymous shared memory allocator (ashmem). That means millions of devices are
already using Rust for Linux in production. Rust is here. Rust is real. And
Rust is already at work.
However, unlike Microsoft, which appears to plan to move all of Windows to Rust
by 2030, there are no such plans for Linux. Someday, all of Linux may be
written in Rust, but I can't see it happening until the 2050s, and maybe not
even then. After all, for pure performance, short of writing code in assembler,
nothing's faster than C.
Oh, and for Windows' Rust plans? Good luck with converting that mess of a
codebase into Rust in four years. Fourteen? Maybe.
Immutable Linux goes mainstream
Immutable Linux distributions are gaining traction because read-only system
images, atomic updates, and transactional package layers significantly simplify
rollback and reduce "dependency hell." Analysts are explicitly framing
immutability as a "new era of security and stability."
Now, immutable Linux distros, such as Fedora Silverblue, OpenSUSE MicroOS, and
Ubuntu Core, have been around for a while. Previously, though, only Linux
enthusiasts used them in containers. Enterprise Linux is now switching to them.
The leading example of an immutable business is the new Red Hat Enterprise
Linux (RHEL) 10. While you can still use the old tools to maintain RHEL, you
now have the choice of going the immutable route. As time goes on, I expect
more enterprise distributions to follow this trend. It's much easier to manage.
Security and supply-chain hardening across the stack
Some inherent changes, such as Rust's integration into Linux, are guaranteed to
make Linux more secure.
Linux and open source are also on track to become more secure in 2026, as the
ecosystem simultaneously hardens the kernel, professionalizes supply-chain
defenses, and scales coordinated security programs like the Open Source
Security Foundation (OpenSSF) across vendors and governments.
Starting with Linux, the Kernel Self-Protection Project and similar efforts are
pushing more exploit-mitigation features upstream. Simultaneously, risk-based
patching and AI-assisted triage are making it easier to prioritize and deploy
fixes at scale.
At the same time, open-source supply-chain attacks have driven widespread
adoption of Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs), Supply Chain Levels for
Software Artifacts (SLSA), and signed provenance.
Sigstore is now integrated into major platforms like GitHub and GitLab, which
will make verifiable signing routine by 2026. That's important because, more
than ever, developers need to know what's actually in any given program and who
really wrote it.
It's not just, by the way, that this just makes good security sense. In Europe,
with the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) now in force, it's the law. The CRA
requires anyone, by the end of next year, who sells any product containing
software, including open-source programs, to have an SBOM. Period. End of
statement.
Open source becomes essential for AI agents
Last year, over in AI land, everyone was talking about how 2025 would be the
year of Agentic AI. Leading the hype pack was OpenAI founder Sam Altman, who
said, "In 2025, we may see the first AI agents join the workforce and
materially change the output of companies." He was wrong. Agents aren't ready
yet.
Also: Why AI agents failed to take over in 2025 - it's 'a story as old as
time,' says Deloitte
If AI agents are really going to be all that -- and I'm not convinced they will
be -- it will be because of the open-standard Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF).
This new, open standards industry-backed consortium gets pretty much everyone
who's anyone in AI agents on the same page for sharing data and making
interactions easy for agents. Without interoperability, agents will go nowhere.
Firefox falls
I started this story by mentioning how people are annoyed with Microsoft for
forcing AI on its users. Their bad temper is nothing -- nothing -- compared to
how Firefox users are reacting to Mozilla pushing AI into their favorite
browser.
When Mozilla declared that AI would be Firefox's future, its users quickly
said, and I quote from the Mozilla Connect list, "Once again, Mozilla is
SPRINTING to chase after the stupidest tech-brained trends and not actually
focused on improving the product at all."
This was followed up by comments such as "Stop chasing slop and actually work
on making sure your browser competes with Chromium in REAL areas like speed and
functionality, not in digital hallucinations." And one I especially liked: "I
would LOVE a function that helps me remove AI slop from my everyday browser. I
would really encourage Mozilla to develop this."
Mozilla backed off quickly.
Also: Why I'm deleting Firefox for good - and which browser's never let me down
On Mastodon, Mozilla retreated to "Firefox will have an option to completely
disable all AI features. We've been calling it the AI kill switch internally.
I'm sure it'll ship with a less murderous name, but that's how seriously and
absolutely we're taking this."
I think the damage has already been done. As I've been saying for years,
Firefox has been declining.
The people in charge of the project keep chasing one new tech craze after
another, such as briefly accepting cryptocurrency donations and Firefox Hello,
a built-in WebRTC video and voice calling feature, while abandoning popular
features such as built-in RSS support (Live Bookmarks) and legacy add-ons/XUL
extensions.
Mozilla has also pursued such massive projects as its own device operating
system, Firefox OS; a Virtual Private Network (VPN); and Mozilla Monitor Plus,
a paid data-broker scan and removal service. What Mozilla hasn't been doing,
many Firefox users have complained, is improving Firefox's performance.
Also: I've tried nearly every browser out there and these are my top 4
(spoiler: none are Chrome)
The result has been that Firefox's popularity has been sinking into irrelevance
for years. Over the last 90 days, Firefox's market share has sunk in the US to
a mere 1.7%. At one time, Firefox had a 34.1% market share. It will never see
those numbers again. I fear, by this time next year, thanks to how annoyed its
most loyal users are, it will drop below 1%.
Firefox was once one of open source's greatest success stories. Now, its day is
almost done.
Well, it couldn't all be great days ahead, could it? Still, taken all in
all-in-all, I expect 2026 to be a banner year for both Linux and open-source
software.
--
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