Squeeze Kids acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands on which we podcast the Turrbal and Convermeri people.
Squeeze Kids!
It's your daily news fix.
Fun.
Free.
Fresh.
Hello and welcome to Squeeze Kids today, your fresh take on what's happening in the world around you.
I'm Christy Kidgerina.
It's Thursday, December 4th.
In Squiz Kids today, Rage Bait takes the crown.
Kids comment on social media ban.
Trinity Library transforms and dodgeball till you drop.
That's what's making news, kid style.
What if I told you that schools were banning birthday cakes starting next week?
Or that Minecraft servers were shutting down forever, or that your favourite footy team had been kicked out of the comp overnight.
Totally untrue, but did your tummy do a little flip?
Did you feel a spark of, wait, what?
If so, you've just been hit with something called rage bait, and it's just been crowned the Oxford University Press Word of the Year.
Rage bait is any online post designed to make people angry or upset, because anger gets clicks.
And comments and arguments and that means more engagement.
And what is it that social media platforms love?
Oxford's language experts choose a word of the year to capture what the world's talking about.
This year, more than 30000 people voted and the experts picked rage bait because it exploded in use during 2025 thanks to big conversations about online safety, misinformation and how tech can manipulate our emotions.
Other front runners included Aura Farming.
When someone carefully curates a super cool online vibe and Biohack, which is all about using lifestyle tweaks or tech to improve your body or brain, which just goes to show the words we use don't just describe the world, they help tell the story of it.
Spin the globe.
Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops.
And today we've landed in Dublin Ireland, where one of the world's most famous libraries is having a massive clear out.
Warning I'm about to go full library.
Geek on you proudly, because what is IMO, the world's most famous library, Trinity College Dublin's old library, is about to close for a gigantic restoration.
And when I say gigantic, I mean hundreds of thousands of books being carefully moved cleaned, tagged and tucked away while the 300-year-old building gets a makeover.
For the very first time since the 1700s, the famous Long Room with its dark oak shelves, arched wooden ceilings and rows of ancient books it's almost empty.
Staff wearing gloves and dust masks have already packed up nearly 200000 books, gently vacuuming, measuring and tagging them so that they can be safely stored in climate-controlled rooms.
Staff say that with the weight of the books removed, the 300-year-old building physically shifted.
Floorboards creaked, timber joints eased and tiny nails rose from the floorboards.
Some of the books are older than the library itself, including the Book of Kells, one of Ireland's greatest treasures.
It's a 1200-year-old handwritten and hand-painted copy of the Christian Gospels.
They have a copy of Shakespeare's first folio and even the first book ever printed in the Irish language.
The best bit?
They're digitising the whole collection so that anyone, anywhere in the world can explore it online.
Sport time!
If I said that we're all heading outside for a game of dodgeball, would you be out of your seat in like three seconds?
Okay, but what if I told you we were going to play for a whole two days and nights non-stop?
Still keen?
That's exactly what 24 dodgeball players from across the United Kingdom have just done at a dodgeball centre in England.
The athletes from England Scotland, Wales and Ireland played from 9am Saturday until 9am Monday, aiming to break the Guinness World Record for the longest ever dodgeball match and raise money for charity while they're at it.
The previous record was just over 41 hours.
It was set back in 2012.
This team smashed past it shortly after 2am on Monday and kept going until they hit the full 48 hours.
Players were allowed short breaks and quick naps, but otherwise it was dodge duck, dip and dive through the whole thing.
The marathon match was filmed, live-streamed and watched by official witnesses, and now Guinness is reviewing all the evidence before confirming the new world record.
News Hounds!
Every Thursday, Squizzy the Newshound sticks his snout into Squizz Kids HQ to report back on fishy things he's sniffed out on the internet.
And today his nose is twitching because Australia's kids have spoken loudly about the upcoming social media ban.
The fabulous people at Behind the News surveyed more than 17,000 Australians aged from 9 to 15.
Well, mostly 9 to 15, Squizzy did notice about 190 people claiming to be 67 years old.
Anywho, Squizzy's floppy ears perked right up.
Almost 80 of respondents said they use social media every day and most of them said they don't plan to stop, even when the ban kicks in on December 10.
Only 9% thought the ban was a good idea, and just 6% believed it would work.
Kids shared all sorts of opinions, from worries about staying connected with friends to mental health concerns to worries about privacy and safety.
But one comment really stopped Squizzy in his tracks.
One 10-year-old wrote, they shouldn't be banning us, they should be teaching us.
And whilst the ban is coming, learning how to spot dodgy posts, question what you see and stay safe online is still the most powerful tool of all.
Teachers, with just a couple of weeks left in the school year and your class probably having seen Home Alone about 10 billion times, why not give your students what they're asking for?
Run New Sounds.
It's our nine-part media literacy podcast with teacher guides and student workbooks.
Easy, fun, and the perfect end-of-year plug-and-play lesson.
Music Oh my days, 21 sleeps to Christmas.
And here at Squiz Kids HQ our ears are peeled for hoof steps because the big bloke in red could land on our rooftop any day now.
And we need to be ready because he's agreed to take the Squiz Kids Q&A hot seat again this year.
But he's super busy, so we need your Santa questions by tomorrow.
Hop on our website and record your question directly, or you can email your questions to squizkids at thesquizcomau.
But while we're waiting for the Slater Touchdown, has one of Santa's scout elves arrived at your place.
Remember, they're watching, they're reporting back to Santa and they are getting up to some crazy capers.
We have got your best elf pics up on social media.
So get an adult to take a look at Instagram and make sure to send us yours and we'll post it.
A huge shout out today to Zachariah, to Xavier, Noah and Matilda, to Freddie, Ishan and Mahi, to Alexandra and her elf Trixie.
To Mila and Cooper, whose elf took what can only be described as a terrifying ride on a ceiling fan.
And to Asher, Xanthi, Matisse and Oakley, Mrs Smith and everyone at Gladstone Public School.
And guys, we hope your elf was okay after travelling to school on the car aerial yesterday.
And yes, there's a Lego prize pack for the wackiest elf hiding spot.
And for all you Lego lovers out there yeah, I see you.
You can help share the superpower of play with kids who need it most.
All you have to do is build a heart out of Lego bricks and share it with the hashtag build to give or pop into one of the Lego stores.
Each heart means that Lego will gift a set to a child in need these holidays.
You'll find all the info in the episode notes.
Woo-hoo!
Time for the quiz.
This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you've been listening.
Question number one.
What is the Oxford University Press Word of the Year?
Music Of course, it is rage bait.
Question number two.
What is the name of the book?
One of Ireland's greatest treasures a 1200-year-old handwritten and hand-painted copy of the Christian Gospels.
It's usually housed in Trinity College Library.
What is it called?
It is the Book of Kells.
That's K-E-L-L-S.
Question number three.
How many hours did dodgeball players in the UK play for to set a new world record?
That would be 48 gruelling hours.
Shout outs.
It's Thursday, December 4.
The second test match in the Ashes men's cricket series.
That's the famous competition where England plays Australia.
It starts today in Brisbane.
It's also a special day for these quiz kids celebrating a birthday today.
Olivia from Forest Lake.
Alice from Fig Tree Pocket.
Makia from Parabadoo.
Zach and Ella from West Albury.
Karina from Logano.
Noah from Mount Crosby.
Kayla from Illawong.
And Chloe from Riverview.
Classroom shoutouts.
Today go to Classes 4B and 4G with Ms Payne at St Thomas More Catholic Parish Primary School in Roos.
Class 5A with Ms Foster.
Ascot State School.
And lastly, but definitely not leastly, Class 4S with Miss Bartlett at St Clement of Rome Primary School in Berlin.
And remember, if you're celebrating a birthday over the Christmas break, send us your birthday shout out by Friday, December 12.
And we'll make sure to include you in the weekly quizzes that are going to be going out every Friday over the school holidays.
And if you've got a classroom shout-out, you can drop us a line at squizkidsatthesquizcomau or fill out the form on our website, but make sure you're quick.
And that's all we have time for.
Thanks for listening to Squiz Kids today.
We'll be back again tomorrow with the Kids vs Adults Weekly News Squiz your chance to see who's been paying most attention to the week that just was.
In the meantime, get out there and have a most excellent day.
Over and out.
Thank you.
