FOLLOW LIVE: Social avengers combat social media menace
A team of social media avengers are assembling in a first-of-its-kind summit to combat the growing dangers teens face online. Follow the social media summit LIVE.
NSW
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A team of social media avengers are assembling in a first-of-its-kind summit to combat the growing dangers teens face online.
The summit in Darling Harbour will bring together policymakers, academics, and young people to explore the impacts social media is having on young brains and how to protect kids from harm.
The first of its kind Social Media Summit is being jointly hosted by the NSW Government and the Government of South Australia.
LIVE STREAMED: FOLLOW THE SUMMIT
It will feature keynote speeches from San Diego State University psychology Professor Dr Jean Twenge, and Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.
The summit will bring together policymakers, academics, and young people to explore the impacts social media is having on young brains and how to protect kids from harm.
Child psychology experts will discuss how social media is shaping kids’ childhood and adolescence, while Ms Haugen is expected to outline how a lack of oversight and accountability from big tech companies has harmed children worldwide.
Minister for Youth Rose Jackson and the Advocate for Children and Youth Zoe Robinson will lead a workshop of youth delegates.
AGE LIMIT ‘NOT UNWORKABLE’
The state Premier who first proposed a legislated social media age limit says he is “more than happy” to ban kids under 16 from the platforms, in line with The Daily Telegraph’s Let Them Be Kids campaign.
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas had originally called for kids under 14 to be banned from social media, with 14 and 15 year olds requiring parental consent to join.
On the sidelines of a social media summit in Sydney, Mr Malinauskas has now backed a consistent limit of 16.
“I’m more than happy to see a flat rule being applied from 16 for everyone,” he said.
“I think consistency matters across the country.”
Earlier, the social media summit heard that kids aged between 13 and 15 are most at risk of harm.
NSW Premier Chris Minns dismissed the suggestion that an age limit would be unworkable.
“Do we really believe that the richest, most powerful technology companies in the entire world … are unable to tell what age you are? It’s ridiculous,” he said.
DISTURBING US TREND ECHOED HERE
An American academic who has published more than 190 papers examining the link between social media and youth mental health has backed calls to raise the minimum age to 16, amid concerns those aged between 13 and 15 are the most vulnerable.
Social media summit keynote speaker Dr Jean Twenge, Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University in the US, revealed that disturbing trends in her home country are echoed in Australian data.
Emergency room admissions for self-harm quintupled among 10 to 14-year-olds between 2001 and 2022, according to the US Center for Disease Control’s data.
Meanwhile Australian figures also show the number of teenage girls hospitalised for self harm has almost doubled in the same period.
Dr Twenge said while some psychologists dismiss the statistical correlation between social media use and poor mental health as “small”, in reality “heavy” users of social media are between 40 and 200 per cent more depressed than “light” users.
“The folks who dismiss this as too small are dismissing a lot of problems for public health.”
The author and academic said in finding solutions to the crisis, governments have a huge responsibility to regulate the platforms – and setting a legislated minimum age would be “a game-changer” for parents.
“What parent or educator or developmental psychologist said, 13 — right at the beginning of puberty — that is the best time to introduce social media? Of course, it’s not,” Dr Twenge said.
“That’s also where we see the strongest links to depression with social media use, it’s also where we see the biggest increases in self harm and the biggest increases in depression.
“We … have to work on changing the norm.”
WE MUST LET THEM BE KIDS
Kids’ access to social media must be regulated to protect their “optimism and infectious youthfulness,” South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has told the Social Media Summit.
The social media summit, hosted by the SA and NSW government, comes after News Corporation’s Let Them Be Kids campaign called for legislation to keep children off social media until they reach 16.
Mr Malinauskas was the first state leader to call for mandatory age limits on social media.
The SA Premier said that legislating a minus age will “arm not just young people, but also parents, (and) society writ large, with the tools that can allow us to implement a clearer path (and) a more positive definition of what healthy relationships can look like.”
“We have the power to do something that is powerful and meaningful. We have the capacity and the ability to ensure that young people and future generations are able to harness the good of social media, but also dispense with the bad,” he said.
Mr Malinauskas has called for legislation to ban kids under 14 from social media, and require 14 and 15 year olds to get parental consent before they can get an account.
NSW Premier Chris Minns told the summit that kids who spend more time on social media are more likely to suffer mental illnesses.
Mr Minns has also backed the Let Them Be Kids campaign calling for a mandatory minimum age.
“What we are here to do is to make sure this technology is working for us, rather than us working for the technology,” he said.
Originally published as FOLLOW LIVE: Social avengers combat social media menace
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