‘Have it right’: Piers Morgan praises Australia’s under-16 social media ban
British broadcaster Piers Morgan has thrown his support behind Australia’s world-first social media ban for under-16s, saying “young impressionable minds” need protection.
British broadcaster Piers Morgan has applauded Australia’s tough stance on banning children under 16 from using social media.
The veteran media personality said the federal government had made the right decision in helping protect children from the dangers of using online websites in their younger years.
“I think Australians have it right about this ban,” he said at Central Hall at Westminster in London on Thursday night (Friday AEDT).
“Young impressionable minds should not be exposed to this stuff”.
Australia will introduce a world-first ban for children aged under 16 from using social media in December – a move designed to help prevent them from the harmful impacts of being online.
From December 10 the changes begin and social media platforms must ensure they take “reasonable steps” to stop children from being able to create social media accounts on their sites.
The platforms must also enforce measures that ensure existing accounts belonging to children aged under 16 are deactivated.
The ban was announced after this masthead’s Let Them Be Kids campaign, which pushed for tighter reforms for younger users.
Mr Morgan, who has just released his latest book titled, “Piers Morgan: Woke is Dead”, said while now is one of the best times to be alive he stressed the dangers of social media sites harming the younger generations.
“Social media amplifies everything to a degree that it feels like it’s the world ending,” he said.
He said it was too easy now for people to record moments on their mobile phones and spread information fast – sometimes for the worse – and he used an example of a crocodile eating someone on a golf course.
“Now the chances are someone is getting on their camera phone and within an hour young kids around the world are all watching an alligator eat a human being in graphic gruesome detail,” Mr Morgan said.
He also cited the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and said information from the ongoing conflicts is “bombarding you with this stuff, unfiltered from war zones”.
He said prior to the availability of social media, when incidents occurred it was more difficult to spread the information far and wide.
“There was no mechanism for people to hear about it,” Mr Morgan said.
Many countries are watching Australia’s move to implement the social media ban closely and this week the New Zealand parliament was due to introduce a bill to restrict social media use for children under 16.
The British broadcaster also referenced American social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt’s research into the harms of social media on children which he described as the ‘anxiety generation’.
“What happened with smartphones from 2010, a lot of the phones got smart with all of the apps, kids’ rates of anxiety, depression and suicide have dramatically increased,” he said.
“It’s because of the negative dopamine rushes that are constant, all the time, and the fear of missing out stuff and there’s no escape,” Mr Morgan said.
“They can see what’s doing all the time”.
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Originally published as ‘Have it right’: Piers Morgan praises Australia’s under-16 social media ban
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