Australia to age-assure Google & Bing - Asian Tech Roundup

Plus: Chinese students use AI to get around AI detectors

Welcome to Computing's weekly roundup of tech news in Asia. This time we look at Australia’s attempt to protect children from unsafe content in search results and Chinese students’ cat and mouse game with AI detection software.

The Australian government recently passed a landmark law restricting access to social media for under-16s. It is now doing something similar with search, with a new ruling requiring search engines to implement a variety of measures to enhance online safety for Australian children. Measures include developing policies to handle online pornography and self-harm material, implementing age assurance measures, applying default safety settings for account holders identified as children, and providing parental controls.

The new rules only apply to search engines that are part of a service – so Google and Bing – rather than standalone search engines. From next year, Australian’s signing up for a Microsoft or Google account will need to go through age assurance checks. If the account holder is identified as a child, the strictest search settings will be applied by default to filter out potentially harmful content. For search engines, compliance measures must be in place by no later than six months after the law comes into effect.

Chinese students are claiming that AI tools used by schools and universities to detect AI-written content are falsely accusing them of cheating. So, you guessed it, they’re turning to AI tools to get around them.

Australia

• Up to 6 million people’s personal data has been exposed in a cyberattack against a third-party customer service platform used by Australian airline Qantas. Source
• After introducing a law to age restrict social media, Australia is pursuing something similar for Google and Bing search engines, bring in age assurance for new Google and Microsoft account holders and requiring the providers to filter content by default for children. Source

China

• China and the US reached a deal that will see the resumption of shipments of Chinese rare earth minerals to the US. Source
• And the US has lifted some restrictions on the export of chip-design software to China. Source
• Chinese search giant Baidu began making its previously proprietary LLM Ernie open source on June 30th, a move which builds Chinese AI momentum and places pressure on US competitors such as OpenAI and Anthropic which remain proprietary. Source
• The Canadian government has ordered Chinese surveillance camera manufacturer Hikvision to cease operations in Canada, citing national security concerns. Hikvision has called the Canadian governments concerns “unfounded.” Source
• The French government has accused Chinese threat actors of hacking several ministries via Ivanti server flaws. Source
• An analyst has predicted that China will have 30% of the world’s global foundry production capacity by 2030, making it the biggest semiconductor producer globally. It is expected to trade places with Taiwan which currently holds the highest output capacity at 23%, followed closely by China at 21%. Source
• Chinese students are using AI tools to get around AI detectors, which they say wrongly accuse them of cheating. Source
• Scientists from the University of Hong Kong are reportedly experimenting with 3D printing of functional organ tissue. Source
• A study by Chinese researchers has found that GenAI chatbots in call centres are often more trouble than they’re worth, with operatives having to intervene constantly to correct mistakes. Source

India

• India needs a law to regulate how people talk about the judiciary and courts online, said a retiring judge, who believes that posts by people ignorant of the judicial process risk undermining the law. Source
• Streamer JioStar has been granted exclusive rights to broadcast India’s cricket tour in England, after it sued four other websites for broadcasting illegally. Source
• Advertisers running securities and investments ads on Meta services in India, will need to verify the person or organisation benefiting from and paying for the ad by providing their SEBI registration information. Source
• Apple assembler Foxconn, has told more than 300 Chinese employees working in India to return home, for reasons that are not yet clear. Source
• Voters in Bihar’s municipal elections have been permitted to cast their preferences via an Android app. The stated aim is to improve voting rates, but the move has raised privacy and data protection concerns. Source
• Encrypted email Proton Mail has been found to be non-compliant with IT Act by the Karnataka High Court as it doesn’t not have a server in India. However, Proton Mail’s lawyer disputed that having an Indian server is required by the law. Source

Japan

• Japanese carrier SoftBank announced its intention to beam broadband services from airships, or to give them their proper name, High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) vehicles, from 2026. The aim is to ensure that broadband is available in the event of an emergency which disrupts terrestrial networks, and to expand coverage of its 5G networks into rural areas. Source
• Japan’s NTT Data Group has filed an IPO, seeking to raise approximately $864 million for its Singapore datacentre REIT. Source
• Chipmaker Renesas Electronics says it is “doubling down” on producing gallium nitride (GaN) power devices as analysts predict the GaN revenue for power applications will grow by 36% annually. Source

South Korea

• South Korea’s stock market rose 30% in the first half of 2025. Much of that growth came after newly elected President Lee Jae-myung pledged support for stablecoin backed by the national currency. Source
• Samsung inadvertently (or otherwise) apparently leaked pictures of its upcoming “multifold” device. Source
• Samsung’s last Korean rival LG has now completed its exit from the smartphone market which it announced in 2021. LG will no longer offer support, new parts or software updates for its devices. Source

Elsewhere in Asia

• North Korea: US officials arrested a US national suspected of running a fraudulent scheme to insert remote North Korean IT workers in US tech companies to earn money for the North Korean regime. Source
• Taiwan: Taiwan is developing offshore wind resources in the contested Taiwan straits to power its semiconductor industry. Source
• Pakistan: Microsoft is leaving Pakistan, relying on partners in the country to serve customers there. Source