Survey reveals most parents trying to enforce social media restrictions at home to keep their kids safe

Parents groups making submissions to the parliamentary inquiry into the impact of social media have backed News Corp’s Let Them Be Kids campaign to ban kids under 16 from social media.

Parents groups making submissions to the parliamentary inquiry into the impact of social media have backed News Corp’s Let Them Be Kids campaign to ban youngsters under 16 from social media.

Submissions from parents’ groups have heavily favoured raising the minimum age at which kids can access social media to 16.

It comes as a secret survey of NSW parents has revealed almost all are desperately trying to enforce some version of social media restriction at home to keep their children safe amid rampant fears of cyber-bullying.

The Australian Parents Council said “Australia must trust its instinct on this and make urgent and substantial changes now” to save its children by limiting smart phone access to anyone under the age of 18.

Picture: Nicholas Eagar

“Let’s let kids just be kids, for their sake, their own long-term safety so we can give them a chance at growing up tech-free, to let their brains develop, to look after their mental health, to let them develop their friendships without fear of an online world lurking behind them and not knowing what lies ahead,” it wrote.

“If we can’t return back to basics for our kids to go tech-free till adulthood, then at least let’s work towards a proposed ban of under 16s to access a smartphone and social media platforms, so as to encourage healthy online behaviours,” it said.

According to the Heads Up Alliance, which describes itself as a “grassroots parent’s movement that encourages parents to delay social media,” “even if it is true that the technology to properly implement age verification is still a work in progress… there is still much to gain by doing something now, rather than nothing at all.”

This is because even if such a law was “entirely unenforceable” it would still be worthwhile as it “would send an unmistakeable signal to parents and children: social media for tweens and young teens is hazardous.”

Picture: Tim Pascoe

According to Catholic School Parents WA, raising the age at which kids can access social media “is not going to solve all the problems by any stretch it would be a step in the right direction.”

“If we wait until we have the perfect solution nothing will happen and so there is a sense that we must at least start somewhere,” it wrote.

Shadow Communications Minister David Coleman backed parents groups “for calling out social media for the dangerous environment that it is” saying they were “absolutely right, and they need support from the Government.”

“For too long, companies like Meta have gotten away with signing up young children,” he said.

“As parent groups are saying, the era where companies like Meta get to set their own rules must end.”

The NSW survey into child online safety, conducted in June, found 93 per cent of parents were either restricting either app access, internet usage or enforcing total social media bans in a bid to protect their children.

The results come ahead of a joint NSW-SA summit into the harms social media posed to children, with Premier Chris Minns warning social media companies were “on the hook”.

“For me, it’s so clear that every piece of evidence suggests that really troubling rates of health of young people, particularly mental health, have gone down since the widespread use of social media and Facebook began in 2010,” he said.

“Doing nothing is not an option. And the social media companies will be on the hook too, because parents and governments alike are at their wits’ end grappling with these harmful effects.”

News Corp’s powerful Let Them Be Kids campaign is receiving support from parents.

Welcoming the NSW, SA summit News Corp Australasia chairman Michael Miller said: “The harrowing stories parents have shared through the Let Them Be Kids campaign in our newspapers are part of a global groundswell that must lead to action. The premiers’ leadership and summit gives important momentum to the drive to tackle head on the toll social media companies are taking.”

In May parliament established a joint Senate and House of Representatives committee tasked with probing the influence and impacts of social media on Australian society.

It is due to hand down its interim report in the next two weeks, which will include recommendations about the use of age verification to protect children from social media.

Originally published as Survey reveals most parents trying to enforce social media restrictions at home to keep their kids safe