In today’s Digest, we discuss the BBC threatening legal action against Perplexity AI over content scraping, Australia’s social media ban tech trial, and the ASA slamming stereotyping of older people in ads.
BBC Threatens Perplexity AI Over Content Scraping
The BBC has issued a legal threat to Perplexity AI, accusing the search engine start-up of scraping and reproducing its content to train AI models without permission. The move marks the first time the BBC has taken formal action against an AI company for unauthorised use of its content and highlights broader industry tensions over the role of public service media in the AI arms race.
In a letter seen by the Financial Times, the BBC claims that Perplexity’s “default AI model” was trained on BBC material and has demanded the start-up cease all scraping activity, delete any stored BBC content, and propose financial compensation for the alleged copyright infringement.
As open web content becomes increasingly valuable training material for generative AI models, media owners are pushing back against what they view as systemic IP violations.
Perplexity however dismissed the BBC’s allegations as “manipulative and opportunistic,” further claiming that the broadcaster’s position reflects a “fundamental misunderstanding of technology, the internet, and intellectual property law.” The company also accused the BBC of acting in alignment with “Google’s illegal monopoly” for its own benefit.
Australia’s Under 16 Social Media Ban Moves Closer to Implementation
Following Australia’s decision to implement a social media ban for children under the age of 16, the Age Assurance Technology Trial, commissioned by the Australian government, has been in progress. It involved more than 1,000 school-aged children and several hundred adults.
Tony Allen, CEO of the Age Check Certification Scheme – the UK-based organisation overseeing the trial – said that age assurance could be carried out efficiently and effectively in the country. The trial reportedly found no significant barriers to rolling out the tech, although he added that no solution “worked perfectly in all deployments”, according to Reuters. Elsewhere, it has been reported that the tools used in the trial could only estimate ages within an 18-month range for 85% of cases.
From December 2025, Australia is set to become the first country in the world to mandate that platforms take “reasonable steps” to block users under 16. Platforms including Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok could face fines of up to AUS$49.5m (£25.6m) for non-compliance.
UK Watchdog Slams Stereotyping of Older People in Ads
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has criticised the advertising industry for its outdated and “offensive” portrayal of older people, spotlighting a recent TV campaign from Strathmore Foods as a key example. In the ad, an elderly man launches into a tirade after a child asks “grandad” to return a mud-covered football that landed on his pristine car. Later, he’s shown eating a microwave meal alone, chuckling as the now-deflated ball sits pinned to the table with a kitchen knife.
The ASA found it reinforced depictions of older adults as grumpy, isolated, and intolerant. In its latest report, the ASA highlights a broader industry issue: the persistent reduction of older demographics to clichéd roles. The Guardian reports that research from surveys and focus groups involving over 4,000 UK adults revealed more than a third believe people of 55 are routinely negatively stereotyped in advertising. Nearly half of respondents said ads portraying older people as unable to understand or use technology were potentially offensive.
The report also underscores concerns about ageism in beauty marketing, with more than a fifth of those of respondents stating that campaigns encouraging consumers to fight ageing can cause real psychological harm and shape societal bias.
