Opinion: Premier Steven Miles on the battle parents face

Parenting has always been hard but when it comes to the dangers of social media, parental responsibility will only get us so far. Big tech companies need to be more responsible in how they profit from our children, writes Premier Steven Miles.

I realised Bridie was reading over my shoulder when she said, “a lot of people are mean to you on the Internet, dad”.

I should have noticed she was there. I should have been present with her not on my phone. I shouldn’t be reading the comments. I should never read the comments.

Parenting has always been hard. Managing kids and devices has added a new layer for our current generation.

We aren’t the first generation to have to manage new technology. My parents were warned of the dangers of too much television.

But never before have a small number of global giants harnessed this level of expertise in exploiting all of us, including our children, for enormous profit.

Never before has a dangerous tool been so indispensable.

Premier Steven Miles at home with his wife Kim McDowell. Picture: Tara Croser.

My kids go to schools where iPads and laptops are compulsory. We use messaging apps for family group chats. How would we know when and where to pick them up if they didn’t have a phone? Who hasn’t been left with no alternative but to drag a child to work with the promise “you can use my hotspot”? From there though drawing a line is almost impossible.

In our house we have experienced scammers making threats, parents using their kids to solicit photos and bullying in class group chats.

If I’m honest there could be all sorts of other things we will never know about.

If that's just our house it must be very common.

Parents need more support to know where boundaries should be set and how to negotiate those, but parental responsibility will only get us so far especially when the parents of children most at risk probably don’t care enough to try.

So big tech companies need to be more responsible in how they profit from our children.

When TV was the biggest danger governments acted to limit what shows could be on after school and before 7.30pm. And what ads were allowed in those timeslots.

Surely it’s time we worked out what the equivalent restrictions are in the social media era.