Screen time limits in classrooms, and Footy semi-finals bring the action

0:00Squiz Kids, acknowledges the traditional owners of the layers on which we podcast. The Turbial and Combo Mary People. Squiz Kids! It's your daily news fix. One, free, fresh. Hello and welcome to Squiz Kids Today. Your fresh take on what's happening in the world around you. I'm Bryce Corvid. It's Monday, September 14. With Squiz Kids today, screen time limits for classrooms. England's planet saving zoo. Forty semi-finals bring the action and hooray for democracy. That's what's making news. Kids style. The low down. And we begin the week with news that kids in New South Wales classrooms will have their screen time severely reduced from next year as the state government there tries to improve performance in reading, writing and arithmetic.

1:00Last week you might remember we talked about an international report finding that Aussie primary kids ability to read, write and do maths had declined in the past three years, with the finger of blame being pointed at digital devices in the classroom. And yesterday, the new South Wales government wasted no time announcing that from the start of next year, kids screen time in classrooms will start to be limited to as little as 15 minutes per day. The new laws will also require kids to write with pen and paper for at least one hour per day. And we'll start to introduce limits on the use of laptops, tablets and other digital devices in homework. Experts yesterday said it was about finding a balance. Making kids how to use digital devices because we live in a digital world, but making sure those devices don't impact their learning.

2:00Digital detox kids, get ready, it's on its way. On the subject of the digital age we're living in, some of the most powerful companies behind the AI revolution have called for a slow down in development of the technology. The topic, OpenAI and Elon Musk's Space X are all big tech companies rushing to create AI robots that can perform most of the tasks that humans perform. But with warnings last week that the robots are developing much faster than anyone expected, there's been a call to put the brakes on for a bit. What interesting times we live in. Each day we give the world global spin and find a new story from wherever it stops. And today we've landed in England, where a zoo has decided to keep endangered species only.

3:01The Bristol Zoo in England South has decided that instead of being home to lots of different species, it will only house endangered ones to try to help keep them alive for future generations to enjoy. The zoo has spent the past year scaling back the variety of animals it keeps to focus on those species that are threatened in the wild, including a type of lemur, a kamerunian giraffe, a special lowland gorilla and a madagascan frog. Combined with breeding programs and a focus on educating visitors, the zoo is helping to slowly but surely restore populations of geckos, pigeons, crayfish and even red pandas. One endangered species at a time. How clever. And we are well and truly at the pointy end of the footy season, with finals played in both major Aussie codes at the weekend, with some teams knocked out and others marching

4:06into do-or-die showdowns next weekend. In the AFL, the Brisbane Lions got the job done against the Adelaide Crosse, setting themselves up for a semi-final face off with Hawthorne next weekend. Meanwhile, free mantle kicked its way into their first semi-final since 2015, making light work of the Jolong cats, meaning they will now take on Sydney for a shot at a grand final birth. In the NRL, the Newcastle Knights brought an end to South Sydney Rabbit-O's season, the Red Cliff Dolphins scored their first ever preliminary finals birth with a win over the New Zealand Warriors, the sharks gave the North Queensland Cowboys a season early mark, and the Panthers were just too strong for the Roosters. Meanwhile, the NRLW is heating up too, after the last round of the women's footy competition took place this weekend, with the Roosters, Titans, Broncos, Tigers, Knights and Raiders, all booking a spot in the finals. In the much-hyped NFL game on Friday, where American football took over the Melbourne

5:09Cricket Ground, the San Francisco 49ers beat the LA Rams. As my son Flynn likes to say, how good's footy? And today we're offering a great big Squizz Kid salute to every kid in an Aussie Primary School who has won themselves an Aussie of the Month award. What's the Aussie of the Month award? You've heard of the Australian of the Year award, right? Aussie of the Month is a special category awarded to school kids across the country who have demonstrated something called active citizenship in their school. So what's active citizenship? It's doing something for the good of your community, whether that's holding a fundraiser for a local charity, organising a cleanup of your local park or school playground, or giving up your free time to help out a newcomer to your school or community.

6:10I've stuck a link to the Aussie of the Month initiative in today's episode notes, and the reason it's especially important this week is because tomorrow my friends is international day of democracy. What's a democracy? It's a way of running a country, where the people who live in that country have a say on how the joint is run. And that might sound like a totally normal thing, because that's how things are organised here in Australia, but according to a research outfit, there are currently only 87 countries in the world that are classified as democracies, and some 92 countries that are considered to be autocracies. And autocracy is where all the power in a country is held by one single person. So be sure to take a moment tomorrow and give thanks to the fact that you live in a democracy, and let's try not to take it for granted. Time for the quiz.

7:11This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you've been listening. Question number one, in which country is Bristol Zoo and its project to protect endangered species? That's right, it's in England. Question number two, which Aussie state is about to introduce strict screen time limits in classrooms? That would be New South Wales. Question number three, who won the NFL game in Melbourne on Friday between the LA Rams and the San Francisco 49ers? Well done if you said the 49ers. Shout out. It's Monday September 14. Today marks the beginning of the Festival of Ganesh, an important date in the Hindu calendar,

8:15celebrating the birth of Lord Ganesh, the elephant-headed god of wisdom and prosperity. It's also a special day today for these quiz kids, celebrating a birthday today and tomorrow. Ryan from Vermont South, Gabe from Yas, Tyler from Petrie, Christian from Bellevue Hill, Hannah from Pacnum, Isaac from Asply, Alistair from Taramara, Lucy from Mudgey, Isaac from Ashmont, Jackson from Gunnela Bar, Harry from St James, Tim from Little St James and Jamie from Mitchum. And the late birthday shout outs today go to Anna from Belrose and Mark from Erskinville. And today's classroom shout outs go to Class 6C with Ms. Heck at Whitsunday Anglican School in MacKye, Class 5L with Ms. Lee at Epping Public School and Class 3K with Mrs. Lemonsick at Francis of Assisi Primary School in Kallu. Don't forget if you've got a birthday coming up and you'd like a shout out or if you're

9:18after a classroom shout out or parents if you'd like to shout out a class or a wonderful teacher drop us a line at squizzkidsatthesquizz.com.au or fill out the form on our website. Well that's all we have time for, thanks for listening to Squizz Kids today. We'll be back again tomorrow with a Squizz The World episode taking us to the remarkable country of Panama, where a huge engineering and construction project that started back in 1881 created a famous 82km canal connecting the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Imagine that. In the meantime, get up there and have yourselves a most excellent day. For an hour. Hello there, Squizz Kids listeners.

10:18I'm Anna Pikeett. And I'm Andrew Williams. We host Squizz Today, a daily news podcast for adults which is published at 6am every weekday to get you across the big stories in less than 10 minutes because we know you're busy. And we also know that the news can kind of be a lot. So that's where we come in. We unpack the issues that are making headlines. We make sure there's a sprinkle of quirky and lighter stories in there, a good mix so you can start your day feeling informed but not overwhelmed and the news can be overwhelming. Absolutely. And we also present Squizz Shortcuts where we take a look at the backstory to the big news stories, things like why Australia is in $1 trillion of debt to why we keep hearing about smart classes. The topics are wide and varied. It can be what the country's planned for AI is or why you're suddenly seeing Robert Irwin everywhere. It's also you can impress your mates at your next barbecue or fill someone in when you see them at the cafe. It's a lot of fun and we'd love for you to join us. Just search Squizz Today wherever you get your podcasts and like, follow and subscribe. And if you're more of a reader than a listener and you prefer your news in an email, we also

11:19have a daily newsletter. You can sign up for that at our website, the squizz.com.au.