To ban or not to ban, that is the question!

November 2024

There has been a massive amount of debate regarding the proposed Social Media ban for children under the age of 16. The Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024, was introduced into Federal Parliament this week and will be debated over the coming months. Legislation could be introduced within the next 12 months if the Bill is passed by Parliament.

If enacted, the legislation will require an age restriction of under 16 years for the creation of a Social Media account in Australia. The legislation will not place a criminal penalty on under 16's for creating an account or a parent for allowing the same, but will instead place a civil penalty on the networks upon the detection and/or non-removal of under 16's from their environments.

Debate is important on this subject and critical when it comes to the protection of children. However, we must allow those on either side of the fence to offer their opinion without ridicule, disregard or ignorance.

Our Government must hear both positive and negative arguments regarding this proposal if we are to address the scourge of online harm being experienced by Australian children. Part of me supports the age restriction approach, but I am also very hesitant to rush into decisions which have been made without proper consideration.

As a reminder;

• I have been working at the coalface of online juvenile harm for fifteen years.
• I have been mentoring teenagers for 25 years.
• I have been working within Australian schools since 2010, and since 2014 I have spoken to well over half a million children aged 9 to 17 years.
• On a daily basis I witness the impact Social Media has on schools and the difficulties educators are having in dealing with inappropriate Social Media use by their students.
• Over my 15 years, I have worked with 11 Australian families who have lost children to suicide as a direct result of harm experienced on Social Media.
• I have been directly responsible for the introduction of legislation in Western Australia and continue to work with the Office of the Attorney General to address appropriate legislative responses to online harm.

The worry, hesitancy and concern I have regarding the introduction of poorly considered legislation does not cancel out the passion and commitment I have for protecting kids online.

If I believe this type of age ban is not the best approach, this does not mean I am content to allow children to continue to be exposed to harm on Social Media.

I have spent the past 25 years of my life passionately protecting children in the real and online worlds. I have dedicated the past 12 years of my life to challenging Social Media and Gaming networks and that fight has almost destroyed me a number of times.

My concern regarding age restriction:

Placing a legal obligation on Social Media networks to address an Australian age restriction will force them to act on the confirmation of a users age. This could happen in a number of ways;

🚩 The networks will simply lift the current age limit at account creation level from 13 years of age to 16. I am of the opinion, this will not have a significant enough impact on Australian preteen and teenage account creation.

Currently in Australia;

👉🏻 36% of children aged 9 to 11, and 68% aged 10 to 12 have an account on one or more of the Top 5 Social Media networks. This is in contravention of the current 13+ age restriction policy on the networks.

👉🏻 42% of children aged 10 to 12, admit to having created a Social Media account WITH the knowledge or consent of a parent or guardian.

👉🏻 36% of children aged 10 to 12, admit to having created a Social Media account WITHOUT the consent or knowledge of a parent or guardian.

😊 If the entry level age limit is lifted to under 16, this will have a positive effect on a good number of Australian households. Parents can say, "Sorry, it is against the law, so you will have to wait until you are 16!" This may well also have a ripple effect by encouraging many other parents to delay Social Media use by their children because of this new legislation. Awesome!

😞 However, I do not believe making a simple entry level age restriction change will have a significant impact on the number of children entering a fake date of birth during account creation. In fact, I do believe the percentage of children creating accounts without parental consent will increase significantly, especially at the ages of 14 and 15.

🚩 The networks will likely introduce Age Verification (AV) requirements for Australian Social Media users. This is a strong concern for me, given the failings of Social Media organisations in the past and how unethically and illegally they have acted in dealing with user data.

In order to confirm an Australian user is not under 16 years, a network may require that user to provide proof of age. This will have ramifications for all Australians, as any of us who are currently on Social Media will be required to provide documentation to prove age.

There is no way I would be comfortable in supplying Meta with my passport or drivers license and even less chance I would be happy with my 16 or 17 year old child doing the same. I would also strongly discourage any Australian from supplying such personal information to an organisation which derives their primary income from the collection of user data.

We have seen a good number of Australian companies subjected to data breaches over the past few years. Such breaches have resulted in a massive number of Australians having their personal data compromised, with many having their information being used fraudulently by bad actors.

Big Tech have proven time and time again they cannot be trusted. Their business models are based solely on the collection and manipulation of user data and I am very concerned the collection, retention and storage of such private user information will not be addressed ethically.

😊 A positive of such AV is also exactly what I just described! If an Australian child attempts to create an account, they will not be able to do so because they can't provide proof of age. If a child under 16 is currently on Social Media and AV comes into play, the network will eventually delete their account.

This will be great and I may finally be able to stop talking to primary and junior high school kids about the risks of Social Media, as I know there will be a massive drop nationally in the number of children on such networks. This is what I know is the primary intention of the Australian Government and why this Bill has been tabled.

😟 But we must also remember our kids are very techie and can find ways to get around age verification. Many parents will also assist their kids in circumventing such restrictions. I do not condone this at all, but I am a realist! Well over half of students I speak to at primary age level are using Social Media in contravention of age restrictions. Since the networks are not detecting and removing them, it is instead left to people like me to educate them.

I will be more than happy with AV if data is not stored by the networks or anyone, including third party organisations. This would see me tilt more strongly to a Social Media ban for under 16's. However, experience tells me to be extremely hesitant in trusting Big Tech with such private information.

The onus on the networks needs to shift:

None of us pay for the creation of a Social Media account. As such, many would argue we get the service we deserve! Part of me agrees with that! Meta do not owe us a duty of service, as they are providing their network for free.

However, I would also argue Social Media has infiltrated our world to such a degree that they have an obligation to more actively protect their users. They are specifically targeting our children and their gigantic success is primarily user driven. Users are their clientele, and regardless of whether we join for free or not, we should deserve a more responsive level of protection.

Clear and precise evidence has been provided time and time again as to the techniques Big Tech are using to attract and retain juvenile users. Yet when those users ask for help or experience harm, they are ignored.

Social Media networks are failing dismally in the active policing of their environments and we as a society are facing the damage that lack of ethical design has created.

This epidemic of harm is the reason countries like Australia need to consider such legislative responses. As undecided as I am at the moment about this latest Bill, one thing I am certain of, is Big Tech's response will be stubbornly reactive and will simply push the onus back to kids and parents.

Their response will not be to liaise with our Government for the active protection of children on their environments. Instead it will be solely aimed at negating the obligation this legislation will have on them.

Rather than introducing proactive and real time engagement for the protection of children on their networks, they will simply kick them off. This is a cowardly response and sadly this legislation promotes that ethos.

The 11 families I have worked with who have lost children to suicide as a result of harms experienced on Social Media, have all expressed the exact same heartbreak. When they or their child desperately tried to contact the network for help, they were ignored!

At the most difficult time of their lives, they were brutally disregarded by a faceless organisation which promoted themselves as caring, but reflected the exact opposite. I will add, three of these children were not even on Social Media!

These children, and tens of thousands of others world wide are dead because of the failings of Social Media. Millions of children worldwide have experienced Bullying, Sextortion, Intimate Image Abuse, Scamming and other harms because these online environments have been allowed to develop and evolve without regulations and rules.

They have been allowed to infiltrate the lives of our children without the same moral and ethical values of which our real world is bound. As a society, we must no longer tolerate this cowardly practice.

My opinion on this legislation may change back and forth over the next twelve months. As such, I will continue to work hard to ensure the differing opinions of those in my field are considered, so our Government can make the best decision for all Australians.

Regardless of my opinion, what will never change is the dedication I have for the protection of children online. It is something I have been doing for many years; it is in my DNA. I will never sit back and allow our children to continue to experience harm as a result of the neglect of others.