The Australian Government has announced plans to introduce a social media ban for under-16s with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saying he has spoken to concerned parents who say they are ‘worried sick’ by the dangers of social media.
Upon the announcement, many people online were baffled by the contradiction when it comes to determining the level of responsibility we expect from children and teenagers.
For years, there have been countless calls and campaigns from concerned parents, grandparents, advocates, organisations and even international pressure from the United Nations to increase the age of criminal responsibility in Australia which continue to be ignored.
How can a government reconcile with jailing children as young as 10, with banning them from social media under the guise of protecting them?
We are effectively telling young people, they are too young to be trusted to make the right choices, but will be punished like an adult should they put a foot wrong.
While social media can absolutely be harmful to the mental health of our children, if the government is serious about protecting them it must take a holistic approach to protecting all children.
Could a social media ban targeting under 16-year-olds even work? Experts at Monash University aren’t convinced.
In fact, some argue that access to social media can have positive impacts and it is the harmful content itself that should be addressed rather than a blanket ban.
“The research tells us age restrictions on social media don’t work in practice, with the technology also often failing,” says Dr Stephanie Wescott, a lecturer at the School of Education, Culture and Society.
“There are also important social and support benefits to social media for young people that make addressing the content more desirable than blocking young people completely from the platforms. Social media is an important space for lots of young people, especially for minority young people who benefit from social support from peers and who use social media to support their identity formation.”
Dr Wescott says more should be done to ensure young people are informed on how to consume content online with better digital and media literacy education.
“The influence of misogynist and sexist rhetoric online from commentators like Andrew Tate is a key driver behind the calls for these types of bans, and the discourse goes beyond the digital sphere, so we also need to address these concerning socio-political discourses and ensure our young people are equipped to be democratic participants and responsible consumers of media later in life. It would be far more productive to focus on critical media and digital literacies, to support young people’s skills in critically consuming information they receive online.”
It’s hard not to look at this announcement from the government and not wonder why more isn’t being said and done to influence the state/territory governments to take a bipartisan approach to protecting our children.
In 2023, the Northern Territory became the first jurisdiction to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years old, but just last month, the NT’s newly elected Country Liberal Party government reversed the change, lowering it to 10 years old.
The government argued the reversal was to reduce youth crime rates, but human rights organisations and First Nations advocates dispute that logic.
National director at Change the Record and Anaiwan man Blake Cansdale told NITV that the law traps children in the system.
“Locking up young children doesn’t make our communities safer,” he said.
“Rather, it further entrenches cycles of disadvantage and intergenerational trauma, increasing the likelihood of recidivism and setting those vulnerable children on a path to adult incarceration.”
In the same month, the NT reintroduced the use of spit hoods on children, even after the United Nations committee against torture recommended that “Australia take all necessary measures to end the use of spit hoods” in 2023.
Almost all children jailed in the NT are Aboriginal, with the territory jailing children at a rate 11 times higher than any other jurisdiction.
In Queensland, children are held in adult watch houses, because of overflowing detention centres, and denied bail. Again, Indigenous children are overrepresented.
Some will argue that the age of criminal responsibility is a matter for state governments but the call remains the same.
Keep kids out of jails and find evidence-backed solutions to protect them from harmful content online. This move by the government, rather, feels like a reach to look like it’s doing something ahead of an election year.