Mum goes to extreme lengths to cure son’s social media addiction

When her son’s addiction to TikTok and Snapchat meant his behaviour was out of control, Kim Black was forced to take drastic action.

When mum Kim Black became so scared of her teenage sons that she was locking her bedroom door at night she knew it was time to take action.

She had lost her partner a few years ago and was working full time to support her family.

After school her sons would spend hours on social media but, like many parents, she thought nothing of the dangers.

“I’m guilty of letting social media and gaming look after the children while I was at work in the afternoons,” she told A Current Affair.

Axel Newell and his mum Kim Black. (Nine)

“I knew where they were, I thought they were safe, a couple of hours every afternoon.”

However, she noticed a dramatic and frightening shift in her sons’ behaviour.

“Eventually it got to the point where I didn’t know my boys anymore, they were not talking to me, they were constantly in the bedrooms, all hours of the night and mornings, sleeping all day,” she said.

“When I did see them, it was very rude and arrogant conversations.

“And yeah, I lost parenting control there for a while. I think the worst of it happened when it got to a night where I actually felt I had to lock my bedroom door to be safe from my son

because of just the arrogance and attitude and the hate that was coming out from him and he just wasn’t my son.”

Kim sent Axel to a military bootcamp after his behaviour became out of control. (Nine)

Her son Axel in particular had become addicted to TikTok and Snapchat and spent “all hours of the day and night” on the apps.

“I found I was on it all hours of the night,” he said.

“I found it hard to get off my phone and when I was told to get off it I was argumentative and aggressive. I played video games all the time, I didn’t like to go to school, I waved classes, sometimes faked being sick and yeah...”

Kim knew it was time to take action and searched online for a solution.

She found a military bootcamp run by veterans where her boys would forego their phones for nine days.

Axel was without his phone for nine days at the bootcamp. (Nine)

“It was not cheap or easy to find,” Kim said.

“It was a last resort. It was absolutely terrifying back then. My teenage boys would stand over me and potentially could be able to do anything to me.”

Driving to the camp Kim says her sons were trying to find ways to escape and she had mixed feelings about leaving them.

Despite her concerns, she says that her boys were like different people when she went to pick them up nine days later.

“The day I picked them up was just amazing because they came marching out, they could actually march in uniform, they looked and stood like soldiers and they were just amazing,” she said.

“Their shoulders were back, they were young men in nine days. I got these people, (that) I was scared to live with, (turn into) two decent, loving, caring people. It was so emotional.”

Speaking about his past behaviour Axel says that remembering “hurts because I love my mum a lot.”

“I regret the way I treated her and it sucks,” he added.

Kim believes that there should be government-funded programs to help teenagers kick their social media habit and has welcomed the promised reforms by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to ban children and younger teens from using apps like Snapchat, TikTok and Facebook.

Although no age limit has been finalised, Mr Albanese has revealed that his preferred age for teens accessing social media is 16.

“So, the right age is between 14 and 16. I have a personal view. I err on the side of a higher limit,’’ Mr Albanese told NOVA FM.

“That’s where I’m at. But I want to make sure that we don’t end up with different systems in different states.”

Under the landmark new laws, that are due to come into effect before the election next year, facial recognition technology may be deployed to stop children from accessing social media and pornography.

Mr Albanese has conceded that placing age verification limits on social media websites will be a challenging task that may involve trial and error.

“We want to make sure we get it right, but we want to make sure as well that we act, which is why we have said we will introduce legislation before the end of this year,’’ he said.

Originally published as Mum goes to extreme lengths to cure son’s social media addiction