ABC asked Australian parents what they thought about the social media ban on under-16s – here’s what they said

With Geraden CannABC

Dani said it took just four months for her 13-year-old son to become “addicted” to mobile phone app Snapchat.

“When he woke up in the morning, he would go straight to the phone,” she said.

The Melbourne mother said she had tried to take measures to restrict its use, even drafting a “contract” setting out the rules, but that wasn’t enough.

“There were a lot of notifications, notifications were constantly coming on his phone… You couldn’t talk to him because he wanted to check his notifications,” she said.

This experience turned Dani into a staunch supporter of the federal government. Taking action to ban social media for under 16sIt will come into force from the end of 2025.

He said the ban would give him a stronger reason to say no when his younger daughter asks him to join social media.

“It’s a general rule, it’s like my kid wants to go buy cigarettes but it’s not happening,” Dani said.

“It’s black and white, and I think that’s what we really want as parents right now.”

The ABC spoke to several Australian parents to find out how those who will be at the forefront of implementing the ban are feeling.

Here’s what they told us.

One parent says Australia should be ‘proud’ of this stance

When Dani’s son asked for a Snapchat account, they agreed to a four-month trial period.

He would be allowed one hour a day, phones would be kept downstairs at night, and he would only communicate with friends.

It wasn’t enough.

In a short time, the number of his 50 friends exceeded 1000 as he joined other schools’ chat groups.

Dani said her son’s phone was ringing constantly and the first thing he did every morning was go downstairs and check his phone.

He was told to remove himself from chat groups.

“He was in tears because when you pick yourself up it’s like ‘(they) left the conversation,’ and as a kid you feel a little embarrassed to leave that social circle and make that announcement,” Dani said.

According to Dani, this was one of many tools deliberately put in place to prevent children from becoming disengaged.

“This is a system that perpetuates that feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out),” he said.

As her son’s Snapchat trial period was coming to an end, Dani read a story about a young victim of sexual blackmail.

The victim had been tricked into sharing nude photos with someone he thought was a girl his own age, after only a few minutes of flirting.

He then received a phone call from a middle-aged man demanding money or the photo would be distributed to all of the boy’s contacts; This threat was later carried out.

The boy later took his own life. For Dani, reading this story was the final straw.

When Dani shared the story with her son and told him he would no longer be allowed to use Snapchat, she said his son became defensive and upset.

“It was around nine o’clock on a Sunday night and I thought my child wasn’t going to talk to me for weeks,” she said.

“About half an hour later I heard her coming down the stairs, she came up behind me and I’m not kidding, she put her arms around me from behind and said, ‘Mom, thank you for being good to me, great parent, I didn’t know how to say it, you know, I was getting addicted to Snapchat and I needed you to be determined’.

“I was in tears.”

The ban was criticized by academics who claimed it was rushed and would not work.

But the government’s swift response gave Dani strength.

“I call them strength,” he said.

“I’m proud to be in a country that puts this issue at the forefront of its agenda and listens to parents.”

He expected the bill to be more effective for younger children than for older children who grew up with social media.

Speaking to parents of older children at school, Dani got the impression that things were “getting out of control” and these parents described their children’s deeply ingrained social media addictions.

“They’re all like ‘oh my god, we can’t go back, if I take Snapchat away from my kid they’re going to throw things at the wall.’

I hope banning will help prevent the harm of cyberbullying

The cyberbullying of Colleen’s 13-year-old daughter began during Covid, during long hours of schooling online in her room.

“My daughter was called all kinds of names and told to go kill herself,” Colleen said.

Online conversations her daughter thought were private were also shared on Snapchat.

“I had no idea this was going to continue,” Colleen said.

“It was heartbreaking.”

She said her daughter’s experience revealed that young people don’t always understand the consequences of posting information online.

“I don’t think their teenage brains have the capacity to understand exactly what they’re doing, which is to put information or images out into cyberspace and not realize that you can never get it back,” Colleen said. in question.

He said he was “100 per cent” behind Australia’s social media ban on under-16s but had doubts about the government’s ability to impose rules on social media giants.

He said he wanted to see the government take strong action if companies failed to take the ban seriously within six months of it coming into force.

“That’s when I would expect to see the government impose fines and really get tough,” he said.

Colleen said she also wants to penalize parents who knowingly allow their underage children to use social media.

The ban is a ‘blunt instrument for a subtle matter’, other parents say

Perth-based technology and innovation worker Lisa said she did not support the ban, although she acknowledged social media was harmful.

Lisa is the mother of a 15-year-old and a 20-year-old.

He said the ban was a “toothless tiger” and “a blunt instrument for a nuanced issue” that would ultimately not work.

“The point of trying to stop students from using social media is not going to work because they will just use a different platform,” he said.

“This ban will never keep up with technology, children are smart, resourceful and will find a way.”

Instead, Lisa favors a corporate responsibility approach that would force social media companies to produce safer products and admit that their products are harmful.

Scott is a father of three young boys and also runs a youth mental health service.

She said she has seen each of her sons go through a phase where phone use becomes counterproductive.

While Scott favored tackling screen addiction by offering children an alternative such as playing sports, he said the ban was “a step in the right direction”.

“I think it’s a bold step, I don’t think it’s a perfect step, and I think the results will require really close monitoring,” he said.

He said the world will watch with interest how the ban progresses.

“Anxiety, depression, isolation and disconnection are a global epidemic, and one factor mitigating this is the disconnection caused by young people spending too much time on screens and not enough time in the real world,” he said.

Social media can provide the balance needed to maintain a ‘sense of belonging’

Although Katarina’s children are now too old to be affected by the ban, Katarina thinks they will both benefit from it.

The Melbourne woman has a 19-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son.

While he supports the ban, he said caution should be taken with young people relying on social media for community and support.

“There are advantages to using social media,” he said.

“Potentially for a lot of young people who don’t have a lot of friend groups at school, this gives them a sense of belonging.”

He said he wants lawmakers to pay particular attention to Snapchat because disappearing messages allow bullies to get away with what they do.

He also felt that children would benefit from signing up from an older age, when they would be better able to understand the pitfalls of social media.

“By the time they get to 16, I hope they have developed the ability to be more resilient, to have more self-awareness,” he said.

Katarina predicts that the success of the ban will depend on parents enforcing it.

“If you find a parent who is not okay with that, who might allow their child to participate in it in some way, then that’s going to cause friction,” he said.

“Parents need to be united on this.”

Snapchat says it can help investigations even if messages are deleted

Many of the parents interviewed by the ABC criticized Snapchat for its addictive nature, failure to set usage limits and the rapid disappearance of messages sent through the app; This makes cyberbullying difficult to prove.

Snapchat declined to comment on parents’ concerns.

But a Snapchat spokesperson said the company has regulatory concerns.

“Whilst there are many unanswered questions about how this law will be implemented in practice, we will be in close contact with the government and the eSafety Commissioner throughout the 12-month implementation period to help develop an approach that balances privacy, security and practicality.” the spokesman said.

“Snap will, as always, comply with all applicable laws and regulations in Australia.”

If a Snapchat user is being bullied or sees this happening to another user, they can block the user or secretly report the account, chat, or group to Snapchat’s Trust and Safety team.

Despite their differences of opinion, each parent had one thing in common; They all said they would implement this from day one.

According to Dani, doing this would allow the next generation to experience childhood; This was something he felt social media denied until the last moment.

“Let’s go back to the old school days when kids were communicating, playing outdoors, having the childhood that we had, and let’s give that back to them because that was taken away from them,” he said.

– ABC