Time social media operators look at impact of platforms on children

Social media is a toy that needs an urgent recall and it falls to the tech giants to do the right thing. If they won’t act, governments must force their hand, writes Kylie Lang.

When a toy has a dangerous defect, it is recalled by the manufacturer. Consumers are given a refund and the product is scrapped or modified to make it safe. This all costs money, but it’s the right course of action from every standpoint you can think of, including ethical.

But when a toy takes the form of a social media platform, those responsible for its invention and proliferation claim it’s not their problem. And no government or regulator seems willing or capable of holding these tech giants to account.

Meanwhile, children are dying or having their lives severely diminished because of activity on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and the rest.

To be clear, the existence of social media platforms is not the issue. It is the flagrant disregard by their owners to enforce safety regulations, particularly around the age at which children sign up and the posting and sharing of damaging content including hate speech and porn.

Meta’s Antigone Davis appears before the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

This week Meta, displaying trademark arrogance, said the Australian government should put parents in charge of approving the apps kids under 16 download.

It’s like saying parents should be the ones to detect a fault in a toy before their kids are hurt. Ridiculous.

Antigone Davis, Meta’s vice-president and global head of safety, told a social media inquiry in Canberra on Wednesday if the government legally required app stores to act as age limit “gateways” then parents could “oversee and approve their teens online activity”.

If kids try to download an app, the store would notify their parents.

In other words, the buck stops with parents and Meta is absolved.

Phew! Imagine how annoying, and costly, it would be for Meta to take a deep dive into its most vulnerable audience and actually do something constructive.

Ms Davis can’t even say how many Australian kids under the current social media age limit of 13 are using Facebook or Instagram.

Care factor? Take a guess.

This is the same person who in June ludicrously claimed that social media doesn’t harm children. Tell that to parents whose children have suicided after being bullied and otherwise traumatised online.

Ask mental health professionals who are seeing a disturbing spike in kids with serious disorders. Speak to teachers who say students are sleep-deprived, distracted, aggressive and unable to learn.

Meta executives need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid and step up and into the real world.

Our kids are hurting.

Here are but two examples.

A new University of the Sunshine Coast study has found 98 per cent of girls aged 14-19 have been bullied online, with nearly two-thirds of attacks relating to appearance, leaving these poor wretches feeling ashamed of their bodies.

Most of them want to augment their looks, including through cosmetic procedures and/or extreme dieting that fuels eating disorders.

A University of Sunshine Coast study reveals 98 per cent of girls in their mid to late teens have been bullied online.

As The Courier-Mail also reported this week, nine in 10 young Queenslanders are battling mental health issues, with social media a key contributor.

Research commissioned by Health and Wellbeing Queensland reveals a disturbing downhill slide in the past year in our 14 to 25 year olds.

The prevention agency’s deputy CEO Gemma Hodgetts says almost one in two Queenslanders will experience mental ill-health in their lifetime, with three-quarters of mental disorders emerging before the age of 24.

For heaven’s sake, these are kids!

As Ms Hodgetts says: “Young Queenslanders, who should be our most vibrant, energetic and hopeful generation, are struggling.”

And let’s not forget the exorbitant cost to our struggling economy from additional health care and lost productivity.

The Courier-Mail’s Let Them Be Kids campaign has been endorsed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who in May backed our calls for the minimum age of social media users to be lifted to 16.

But four months on, the promised $6.5m age verification trial is yet to happen and the legal age of access remains 13 – even though we know kids under 10 are gaming the system and jumping online.

We need action now. Every hour of every day, our children are at risk.

Mums and dads should not be expected to become instant experts in the tech space and be on guard 24/7.

Social media is a toy that needs an urgent recall and it falls to the tech giants to do the right thing, and if not, then governments must force their hand.

Kylie Lang is Associate Editor of The Courier-Mail

[e-mail]

LOVE

The fighting spirit of Paralympic swim sensation Alex Leary, who sustained a brain injury in a cycling accident three years ago. Alex was told if she lived she’d never walk again. Her father isn’t the only one who thinks her Games performance is “truly unreal”.

LOATHE

Filthy restaurants: 56 Brisbane businesses have been fined up to $35,000 each for breaching the Food Safety Act in the past financial year. Food is expensive enough without cockroaches and rat droppings as extras we didn’t order. Clean up your act.

Originally published as Time social media operators look at impact of platforms on children