New social media ban spares millions of children from seeing Bondi shooting footage

The under-16s social media ban has prevented millions of children from witnessing horrific images that experts warn can cause lasting psychological trauma.

Exclusive: Millions of Aussie children were spared viewing ghastly footage of the Bondi massacre, as a direct result of the new under-16’s social media ban.

Within minutes of the shooting starting at Bondi Beach on Sunday night, images of bloody bodies on the ground, men firing guns, screaming people fleeing, and chaotic and desperate scenes of people performing CPR, were being shared on various platforms – but now no longer accessible to under-16s due to the Let Them Be Kids campaign.

More than two million kids were estimated to have lost access to social media last week, who would have previously been exposed to US conservative Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the Bondi Junction mass murders, and the brutal stabbing of a bishop in Sydney, as well as graphic events from around the world including beheadings.

This image of dead and injured people at Bondi was shared without blurring on social media. Picture: X

Dany Elachi, from the Heads Up Alliance, a grassroots organisation supporting parents who want to delay smartphones and social media for their children, said kids don’t need to see videos of dead bodies on the streets of Sydney.

“Unfortunately, often parents don’t get the opportunity to talk to their kids in age appropriate ways after something like this happens because by the time they actually have the conversation children have already been exposed to horrific imagery,” Mr Elachi said.

“We all know social media can be like the wild west. It’s not regulated like television, so children see things they never should see.

“It’s heartening to think some children were spared some of the horrific images that adults have been circulating over the past 12 hours.”

Child and adolescence psychologist Deirdre Bradner works with a lot of Jewish kids with trauma in Melbourne.

This 2024 incident involved a teenage attacker at the church in Wakeley, Sydney, stabbing Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel multiple times, was shared on social media and was accessible to kids on the platforms.

She said some of her young clients have needed therapy due to anxiety around rising tensions in the community and additional security at their schools.

But she said all children were at risk of suffering trauma from watching or seeing or even hearing their parents talking about events such as the Bondi shooting.

“It’s very damaging because once you’ve witnessed that image you can’t unsee it and it stays in your psyche and we’re not prepared for this,” Ms Bradner said.

Mass stabbing perpetrator 40-year-old Joel Cauchi killed six people at Bondi Junction Westfield, with videos of it flooding social media in 2024.

“We also need to be mindful of when we’re talking to our neighbours or friends about these events, that little children are often listening.”

She said it’s important for parents to address the Bondi shooting with their kids as soon as possible because they will hear about it from others.

“I can guarantee in every playground today there will be kids talking about this, so it’s really important that when your child comes home from school if you haven’t already had that conversation, that you might say you know we know that something very tragic happened in Bondi yesterday, are kids talking about this and what do you know?” Ms Bradner said.

“The message needs to be that this was a terrible thing that happened and yes there were people that were injured and people did die but this is a very rare incident.

“The reason that everyone’s talking about is because this doesn’t happen very often. We can’t hide children from the realities of life and we don’t want to do that but we need to give them perspective.”

Ms Bradner said signs your child may be experiencing trauma is if they’re more quiet than usual, withdrawn, or perhaps more irritable or picking more fights with their siblings.

Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800.

Originally published as New social media ban spares millions of children from seeing Bondi shooting footage