Caution urged as government moves to ban children from social media

The federal government must tread carefully as it ploughs ahead with plans to ban children from social media.

By Senior Lecturer in Psychology in the Charles Sturt School of PsychologyDr Rachel Hogg (Pictured, inset).

In September 2024, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a social media ban would come into effect in the near future, impacting children roughly below the age of 14.

As state governments begin to weigh in on the proposed change and how it could be actioned effectively, it must be acknowledged that this can't be a cut and paste exercise.

The reforms have merit, however, there is no pre-ordained rule based on child development that aligns with a specific age-based cut-off for social media use.

We mustn't assume anyone under the age limit is seen as likely to be harmed by social media and anyone above the age limit is seen as capable of navigating social media without risk of harm. This simply isn't true.

Until recently, social media has been given the benefit of the doubt - we don't assume toys are safe for children to play with until tested and we don't assume medications are safe until they are TGA tested.

Yet, social media has been assumed to be okay for kids and young adults until proven otherwise - and young people are already paying the price for this assumption.

What else needs to be considered?

Age limits provide a clear cut off on paper, but other factors that might be considered by parents include impulse control, critical reasoning and decision-making skills, interpersonal skills and emotional maturity.

It is also dangerous to assume that 'children friendly' apps, such as Messenger Kids, are risk free. They are not, and social media companies are motivated to develop such software because ultimately their goal is not so much to create safety for children, but to develop a generation of life-long social media users.

We also need to extend how we teach our children about 'stranger danger' from focusing on real-world interactions to include the risk of encountering sexual and interpersonal harm on social media.

The consequences of social media

The consequences of social media split into two broad categories: what social media takes children away from (sleep, face-to-face interaction, schoolwork, etc.) and what social media exposes them to (hate speech, sexual content, etc.).

These factors impact different children in different ways, depending on age, gender and other life skills.

As children as young as four or five use devices for up to 30 per cent of their waking lives, they're missing out on opportunities, being socially deprived, sleep deprived and developing behavioural addictions.

For young girls, the psychological consequences can include visual social comparisons, perfectionism, relational aggression, sexual predation, and harassment.

For young boys, psychological consequences tend to present more as a retreat from the real world, relying on an unreal, virtual world, porn addiction and loss of social skills, addictive gaming, aggressive behaviours and irritability stemming from dopamine addictions, as well as general poor health from lack of movement.

Across the board, social media use poses serious risks of cyber bullying, exposure to harmful online content and sexual exploitation, low self-esteem and increased anxiety.

Social media and brain development

As children grow, so does their understanding of the world and how it works. Social media warps this understanding.

Children need to explore their environment using all their sensesto learn about the world, so they need to interact with three-dimensional spaces and activities. This means recognising body language, tone of voice, facial expressions and much more.

We also learn through experience. Children don't learn to stack blocks by watching them get stacked on a screen. They will learn by touching the blocks, feeling the texture and weight of different materials and using trial and error to get one to balance on another.

All these factors together, when disrupted by social media, can lead to issues with concentration, memory, sleep, social awareness and reward systems.

Managing risks and rewards

When the above points are taken into consideration, a social media ban for children younger than 16 years of age could be beneficial.

In addition to this, banning smartphones for children under 14 years of age, and in schools, could also have a positive impact.

Change can be hard though, and age of first use also has been correlated to addiction. The earlier an individual is introduced to an addictive substance or behaviour, the more likely they are to develop struggles, with greater long-term vulnerability identified for specific conditions.

Many young people are going to experience withdrawals from technology. We need to be careful not to trivialise or laugh at this but take it seriously and acknowledge the impact of these changes.

The youth mental health crisis is a key part of this issue. Many teens would not live online in the ways that they do if it was easier and more affordable to access mental health support in Australia, and if our mental health services were fit for purpose.

Charles Sturt University is helping in this space by training psychologists to help nurture young minds and guide them through mental distress.

Providing consistency, nurturance and care can have a powerful protective function that fosters self-esteem so that when young people encounter harm, in real life and online, they are less vulnerable to its impact.

Media Note:

For more information or to arrange an interview with Dr Rachel Hogg, contact Jessica McLaughlin at Charles Sturt Media on 0430 510 538 or via [email protected].

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