The Albanese government’s teen social media ban is a very popular policy.
Despite growing opposition within Parliament, support for the ban ranges from somewhere between three to four-fifths of Australians, depending on your pollster, and that number may be growing. No matter how you slice it, it’s something the majority of Australians say they want.
So, why do people overwhelmingly like the idea even in spite of the concerns? Crikey put a call out for people to explain why they support the idea.
Reducing peer pressure to be online
Eric says he supports the teen social media ban in theory because he thinks it’ll be easier to enforce his decision to keep his daughter off social media if no other teen is using it.
“I’m not a Luddite and I’m in favour of kids using the internet generally but big tech and its malign algorithms are bad for society and kids need to be protected from that.,” he told Crikey in an email. Eric hopes a ban could reduce rates of sextortion and other harms faced by kids.
He does have concerns about its implementation: “I realise Twitter and [controversial message board] 4chan probably won’t go along with it but most kids probably don’t use them anyway.”
Eric said he’s written to his MP to ask that the ban exclude the fediverse, the open source social media protocol that social media platforms like Mastodon are built on.
“It would be impossible to enforce and too much of an administrative burden for hobbyists who run servers. I think Mastodon is generally pretty innocuous anyway and most teenagers would find it boring,” he said.
Concerns about children being able to knowingly consent
Miles is a progressive voter with two young children who’s worked his entire career in tech, most recently as a data scientist.
He says that his support for the teen social media ban comes from his knowledge of the data extracted from users by social media companies.
“My main concerns are around children jumping onto the large platforms and giving up data that represents their deepest desires and weaknesses to systems that aim to exploit it to turn them into the most addicted (engaged) users they can,” he said in an email.
Miles frames it as a matter of consent: how can a child knowingly consent to being surveilled and targeted by these platforms?
He says that he agrees with arguments about the difficulties of determining every user’s age — but doesn’t think it’s a good reason not to pass a law.
“Perhaps I am naive, but I think if we can collectively agree that there is an age below which kids cannot safely use social media platforms designed for adults, then it is fine to make a law for it, and figure out the best strategies to keep kids off those platforms as we go.”
Worried about too much technology use
Dr Judith Locke is a clinical psychologist who says that she’s seen a lot of parents bring up the idea in sessions, even when it’s not the main topic of the appointment.
“Many of the questions… are about their child almost or actually being violent to them when they take their child’s screens off them,” she told Crikey on LinkedIn.
She says parents see their childrens’ use of technology as going “out of control very quickly”, which is why many support the policy.
“And simply to tell them to kind of ‘parent better’ or for these businesses to take better care of children, minimises the reality of the addictive qualities that the platforms have built in as part of their business model.”
Have something to say about this article? Write to us at letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
