Take your hand off my kids ipads

[SSwans2011]

Not only is this a remarkably overreaching policy, it also just won't work and has the capacity to backfire spectacularly. Kids are tech savvy enough to figure out apps like Signal exist where they will be even harder to track.

I really don't understand who the ALP are trying to win over with this, and better yet, why they would do it on the eve of an election.

 

[HairyO]

Isn't Snapchat one of the worst platforms for teens being exploited?

They really should just call it the Tik Tok Bill. But do what America is doing and claiming its about national security.

 

[PiCkLeJuiCe]

They really should just call it the Tik Tok Bill. But do what America is doing and claiming its about national security.

The bill will backfire when it requires people to upload POI to a server that the PRC has a backdoor into.

 

[Cmarsh]

Why exactly are they doing this? Because some kids are killing themselves as there is a perception bullying on social media is cause and effect for this?

Most often suicide is multifactorial. Young people vulnerable to suicide will often have a history of traumas extraneous to any online bullying that may be occurring that may contibute to their suicidality.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Why exactly are they doing this? Because some kids are killing themselves as there is a perception bullying on social media is cause and effect for this?

Most often suicide is multifactorial. Young people vulnerable to suicide will often have a history of traumas extraneous to any online bullying that may be occurring that may contibute to their suicidality.

Social media is, quite possibly, an existential threat to the major parties. Controlling the media is an essential part of how they operate. The spotlight only goes where they want it to.

Controlling a few newspaper and TV station owners is pretty easy.

Social media has changed that, it gives anybody a worldwide platform and they can’t control it.

They will do anything to weaken social media, demonise it, impose huge costs on it, make it difficult for it to operate, etc.

This is just another measure. The “excuse” they have chosen is it’s impact on kids.

It might seem like a hopeless fight… from their angle they feel like they don’t have a choice.

 

[Sydney Kicker]

I'm going to strongly disagree with some posters I normally agree with. Here goes...

Social media is a catastrophe for Australian youth. I'm sure it does help a few people but for the vast majority of young people it's an overwhelming negative. It causes kids to cut themselves. It causes stress and depression. It drives people to suicide.

Have a look at the prevalence rates for psychological distress coming out in the HILDA study for the 15-24 age group. Have a look at how they have grown over the last 12 years.

Number of young Australians in psychological distress continues sharp rise

Annual Hilda survey of 17,000 Australians shows ‘clear trend of younger people becoming lonelier and feeling more isolated’

www.theguardian.com

Psychological distress is likely to be one of the greatest public health challenges we face over the next decade.

As to the correlation with social media use and psychological distress, the longitudinal data is still developing and we'll know more in the next few years. But it's looking like this is the number one correlate. And while correlation doesn't necessarily imply causation there is enough evidence now to suggest it's the new tobacco when it comes to severe health impacts.

As a father to a 15 year old, I would rather lower the legal drinking age or let 15 year olds drive a car than let them access social media. That's how harmful it is.

And to those who suggest the parents and schools should be accountable. You obviously don't have a teenage child in the Australian public school system. As others have suggested, you would need to supervise them 24 hours a day.

While a ban isn't foolproof - kids will get around it, lowering the overall quantum of use would be of immense benefit to the nations health and wellbeing moving forward.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10310995/

 

[zumahawk]

Also rather Orwellian. Want to go to YT? Drivers license plz. FB/Insta etc...? ID plz.

This is just to push a Digital ID, to access the net, on all of us. This has nothing to do with child safety, if it did, they would ban gambling ads and the like.

It has everything to do with child safety. Having a pre teen child this ban is everything. What social media does to society is enormous let alone school aged children. Go Albo!

 

[peetoo]

I'm going to strongly disagree with some posters I normally agree with. Here goes...

Social media is a catastrophe for Australian youth. I'm sure it does help a few people but for the vast majority of young people it's an overwhelming negative. It causes kids to cut themselves. It causes stress and depression. It drives people to suicide.

Have a look at the prevalence rates for psychological distress coming out in the HILDA study for the 15-24 age group. Have a look at how they have grown over the last 12 years.

Number of young Australians in psychological distress continues sharp rise

Annual Hilda survey of 17,000 Australians shows ‘clear trend of younger people becoming lonelier and feeling more isolated’

www.theguardian.com

Psychological distress is likely to be one of the greatest public health challenges we face over the next decade.

As to the correlation with social media use and psychological distress, the longitudinal data is still developing and we'll know more in the next few years. But it's looking like this is the number one correlate. And while correlation doesn't necessarily imply causation there is enough evidence now to suggest it's the new tobacco when it comes to severe health impacts.

As a father to a 15 year old, I would rather lower the legal drinking age or let 15 year olds drive a car than let them access social media. That's how harmful it is.

And to those who suggest the parents and schools should be accountable. You obviously don't have a teenage child in the Australian public school system. As others have suggested, you would need to supervise them 24 hours a day.

While a ban isn't foolproof - kids will get around it, lowering the overall quantum of use would be of immense benefit to the nations health and wellbeing moving forward.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10310995/

I’m sure it would be cumulative, but the study of 15-24 only overlaps the proposed ban by 1 life year

 

[zumahawk]

I'm going to strongly disagree with some posters I normally agree with. Here goes...

Social media is a catastrophe for Australian youth. I'm sure it does help a few people but for the vast majority of young people it's an overwhelming negative. It causes kids to cut themselves. It causes stress and depression. It drives people to suicide.

Have a look at the prevalence rates for psychological distress coming out in the HILDA study for the 15-24 age group. Have a look at how they have grown over the last 12 years.

Number of young Australians in psychological distress continues sharp rise

Annual Hilda survey of 17,000 Australians shows ‘clear trend of younger people becoming lonelier and feeling more isolated’

www.theguardian.com

Psychological distress is likely to be one of the greatest public health challenges we face over the next decade.

As to the correlation with social media use and psychological distress, the longitudinal data is still developing and we'll know more in the next few years. But it's looking like this is the number one correlate. And while correlation doesn't necessarily imply causation there is enough evidence now to suggest it's the new tobacco when it comes to severe health impacts.

As a father to a 15 year old, I would rather lower the legal drinking age or let 15 year olds drive a car than let them access social media. That's how harmful it is.

And to those who suggest the parents and schools should be accountable. You obviously don't have a teenage child in the Australian public school system. As others have suggested, you would need to supervise them 24 hours a day.

While a ban isn't foolproof - kids will get around it, lowering the overall quantum of use would be of immense benefit to the nations health and wellbeing moving forward.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10310995/

Post wins the day.

 

[Chief]

As to the correlation with social media use and psychological distress, the longitudinal data is still developing and we'll know more in the next few years. But it's looking like this is the number one correlate. And while correlation doesn't necessarily imply causation there is enough evidence now to suggest it's the new tobacco when it comes to severe health impacts.

From what I remember, it was thought just as likely that depressive kids are on social media more.

I just can't see that it will achieve anything other than legally force everyone to register their online identities in a system that will likely be pillaged by state actors or criminals or Phil from IT support.

They're already talking about leaving out Snapchat for God's sake.

 

[SSwans2011]

Social media is a catastrophe for Australian youth. I'm sure it does help a few people but for the vast majority of young people it's an overwhelming negative. It causes kids to cut themselves. It causes stress and depression. It drives people to suicide.

I agree with most of the sentiment in this post and I appreciate link to the journal article which I will have to read myself, but my main point of contention would be this paragraph. I personally don't think social media causes any of these things. I do think it exacerbates the harm done by existing causes, but I suspect that if you take social media away from depressed youths, other such triggers will pop up or become more pertinent elsewhere in other online communities.

Ironically, I would guess that one of the big catalysts for the increases in (reported*) mental health conditions would be due to the exposure/education surrounding mental health that social media has platformed (which is not a bad thing), which would naturally lead more people to identify symptoms within themselves. I think the more pertinent issue is that our health system is not currently capable of meeting the increased demand that comes from that increased awareness, at least without leaving patients on a waitlist for over a month. Admittedly, that, and general accessibility to treatment, is probably a far more difficult issue to tackle than social media reform.

*I wanted to specifically note this because the suicide rate per capita and median age of people that have died by suicide in Australia has not seen a major increase/decrease in the last few decades which is inconsistent with this idea that the prevelance of youth with mental health conditions is increasing. Perhaps the article touches upon it, but I haven't read one yet that provides a nuanced explanation to this, which makes it hard to infer whether mental health conditions have increased in youths or if general awareness of mental health conditions has increased leading to more diagnoses.

 

[zumahawk]

From what I remember, it was thought just as likely that depressive kids are on social media more.

I just can't see that it will achieve anything other than legally force everyone to register their online identities in a system that will likely be pillaged by state actors or criminals or Phil from IT support.

They're already talking about leaving out Snapchat for God's sake.

At the very least it will take off thousands of children off social media. Parents will still have to parent. It won't be perfect but it's something.

 

[Chief]

At the very least it will take off thousands of children off social media. Parents will still have to parent. It won't be perfect but it's something.

I think it's a massive change for a result that could be achieved some other way.

 

[Kram]

I wouldn't be a strict parent broadly at all but there is no way I'd let kids on any social media.

 

[zumahawk]

I think it's a massive change for a result that could be achieved some other way.

What other ways are there? Just like children can't drink alcohol they shouldn't be allowed on the socials.

 

[Chief]

What other ways are there? Just like children can't drink alcohol they shouldn't be allowed on the socials.

Honestly don't know.

Unless they tokenise identities or something, and that token is issued and then the personal details are destroyed, it's a massive destruction of civil liberties.

 

[zumahawk]

Honestly don't know.

Unless they tokenise identities or something, and that token is issued and then the personnel details are destroyed, it's a massive destruction of civil liberties.

Something needs to be done. It's the wild west out there currently with misinformation, bullying, addiction to platforms and mental health issues are all rife. Is it a massive destruction of civil liberties that children can't do other things adults do like gamble, drink etc? It's the right call unless social media companies do the right thing and regulate their platforms properly.

 

[Chief]

Is it a massive destruction of civil liberties that children can't do other things adults do like gamble, drink etc?

Gambling and drinking don't require the person submit their personal details to a new central government ID database. Doesn't place a control on people's ability to communicate. Doesn't block vulnerable kids from reaching out via a popular communication channel. All that stuff.

They're not the same.

I agree social media is not good for many kids, but this solution has so many holes and unintended consequences it can't get through.