<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>328805</docID> <postdate>2024-09-10 11:23:22</postdate> <headline>Social media ban a ‘bandaid response’ to online harms</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-314531" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240221001905687010-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="601" /></p> <caption>Children will be banned from social media under proposed tough new rules. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By<strong> Kat Wong</strong> and <strong>Tess Ikonomou</strong> in Canberra</span></p> <p><strong>Banning children from social media overlooks the internet's fundamental problems and will not make the online space any safer, a leading psychologist says.</strong></p> <p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has revealed the federal government will introduce legislation to enforce a minimum age for social media access before the end of 2024.</p> <p>An age-verification trial will be held to examine ways this could be delivered and a potential cut-off age, with children aged 14 to 16 under consideration.</p> <p>"This is a scourge," Mr Albanese told ABC News on Tuesday.</p> <p>Young Australians often experience online bullying and have access to material which can cause social harm and give rise to mental health consequences, the prime minister said.</p> <p>But the Australian Association of Psychologists director Carly Dober says a ban distracts from the real issues at hand.</p> <p>"It's a bandaid response to a very complicated and deeply entrenched issue," she told AAP.</p> <p>"The fundamental issues around how the internet can be unsafe for people has not changed.</p> <p>"There's still hate speech and deeply misogynistic, deeply racist, deeply sexist content online ... (children will) still be targeted with very sophisticated ads designed purely to make them consume different products and services."</p> <p>It also overlooks the benefits online spaces can offer to young people, especially those from marginalised communities.</p> <p>"LGBTQI people, refugee youth, disabled youth - they find community in different spaces if their experience at school or in their communities isn't so welcoming," Ms Dober said.</p> <p>"What happens for those young people who are then locked out of their valuable online communities?"</p> <p>Mr Albanese said the government was listening to parents' and communities' concerns and noted tech giants had a social responsibility.</p> <p>"They're not above everyone else, they can't just say, 'we're a big multinational company, we can do whatever we like regardless of the harm that's being caused'," he said.</p> <p>But a decade of self-regulation by the tech sector had not amounted to much change and the Australian Association of Psychologists has urged the government to establish a fully independent regulator for the industry.</p> <p>"The misogynistic content, the racist content, the hate speech - all of this can be stamped out," Ms Dober said.</p> <p>The federal government is working with the states and territories to create a uniform framework.</p> <p>NSW Premier Chris Minns said social media had been an "unregulated" global experiment on young people and lauded the South Australian proposal, which would allow social media access for children from 14 to 16 with parental consent and bans anyone younger.</p> <p>"When a product or service hurts children, governments must act," SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said.</p> <p>Victoria is also working with the SA and federal governments to introduce social media age limits.</p> <p>Parents were highly concerned and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said she had even banned social media platforms in her own household.</p> <p>"I can see from my own kids use of technology, how it can be absolutely a good tool for education purposes," she told reporters.</p> <p>"But I've also seen how some platforms, with the click of one button, can send a tsunami of inappropriate content into my kids' feed."</p> <p>Queensland Premier Steven Miles noted social media could "leave a scar for life" and supported the Commonwealth's moves.</p> <p>Federal opposition communications spokesman David Coleman strongly supported age verification for social media but believed it should be limited to those aged 16 and above.</p> <p>"We need to give kids the opportunity to mature before they're exposed to this frankly awful environment of social media," he told reporters in Canberra.</p> <p>"The fact is that the brains of younger children and the maturity of younger children just aren't there to cope with what gets thrown at you on social media."</p> <p>https://citynews.com.au/2024/social-media-negatively-impacting-teens-life-satisfaction/</p> </body>