Australia takes on Big Tech to safeguard kids’ futures
Social media ban for kids rests on the principle that prevention is effective than cure
The world is watching with great interest after Australia’s bold move to ban social media for children under 16. The country’s Parliament has passed the strictest laws to make platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and X illegal for children in the country.
Critics question its implementation, and walking this talk will not be easy. Predictably, words like freedom and choice (without an emphasis on protection) have also been thrown into the mix. Yet, despite all misgivings the ban needs to be welcomed unequivocally by adults and given a chance to succeed.
Yes, children are defiant and born in the digital age they know ways and means (read VPN) to go around any digital ban. Australia’s action may not be perfect, but it allows a deeply troubling issue to be mainstreamed. It has sparked global conversations and social media concerns are out of the sporadic boroughs of chatter.
Importantly, not every child will look to breach the ban. Last year, France introduced legislation to block social media access for children under 15 without parental consent. Half of the users reportedly circumvented the ban using a VPN, but the remaining others interest me. The cup, even half full is better than all empty.
The Australian government has done what should have been the parents’ rulebook. A few years earlier I wrote a book, ‘Stoned, Shamed, Depressed’ on the challenges of Indian kids driven by social media but applicable to a similar demographic anywhere globally. I assumed the protagonists would be in their late teens.
Curveballs from all directions
My research however took me to middle school playgrounds where tweens were the new teen and kids as young as 8 had social media accounts. What are these children doing on platforms where even adults are unprepared for the dangers? It is like being in a sci-fi movie based in outer space where curveballs are thrown from all directions.
Sadly, most of the adults I spoke with had abdicated with a sense of inevitability. Parents were resigned more readily to their kids’ peer pressure than the children themselves. Nor was YouTube meant to be a babysitter; self-harm clips are known to be embedded between cartoons on YouTube kids.
Adults are also guilty of ‘sharenting’ — parents who cannot stop posting pictures of their children online. A Microsoft study found that 42% of children surveyed had problems with their immediate relatives sharing their photos. Privacy and consent begin at home.
But for families, there is no crisis unless it is drug addiction or alcoholism. All the while equally dangerous challenges like Deepfakes are floating casually, outdone by the next discovery. There are threats of bullying, body shaming, grooming and sexting — this generation communicates through Instagram DMs — add sleep deprivation and this is a generation that forgot to call it a night.
In 3 months alone in 2019, Facebook removed 11.6 million pieces of content that involved child exploitation. Also flagged have been cases of identity fraud. The failure to assess the depth of the problem let alone look for a solution leaves the door open for countries like Australia. At least some children can breathe again. Nations like Ireland and Norway are debating similar measures seriously.
Social media is as much a cesspool as it is a heartbreaking place, especially for the young. Here conformity to perfection is a prerequisite. Thus, children hide their personas, identities, and even names. They are not who they are. Gratification and validation are all instant and anonymity bestowed by social media is a gift that keeps giving. In front of us is an assembly-line generation that keeps its eyes firmly down, glued to a gadget.
Prevention better than cure
I have spoken to countless children with stories to share but no one to listen. Kids told me that Snapchat has the biggest culture of sharing intimate images, a teenager opened up about being solicited endlessly on Instagram and there have been endless cases of children blackmailed by predators on social media.
What freedom are we speaking about? Psychologist and award-winning author Erik Erikson says, ‘Adolescents need freedom to choose, but not so much freedom that they cannot, in fact, make a choice.’ Allowing impressionable children to have unchartered use of social media when they are too young to learn its pitfalls is like giving a minor, car keys. The Australian ban rides on the understanding that prevention is better than a solution.
It has also put tech companies on notice. These organisations have ignored internal memos red-flagged and prioritised profit over children and their mental health. Meta received more than 1.1 million reports of users under 13 on Instagram since early 2019 yet reportedly disabled only a fraction of those accounts. It is high time Big Tech was made accountable with social responsibility.
Somebody had to stop the perpetuation of the myth that with the virtual seeping in there is no way around social media which an Australian expert once described as a ‘slow-moving train crash.’ How did we allow gadgets to give our kids a sense of belonging? The children are living a trial by social media. It is time to wrestle back control.