Social Media does not cause harm to Children.

July 2024

"I don't think Social Media has done harm to our children!" - Antigone Davis Vice President and Global Head of Safety, Meta, to the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society, June 2024.

I really don't know what to say to this claim. Other than; what an utterly abhorrent, self serving and cowardly statement to make.

Antigone Davis has content all over the internet touting how much she is doing to make kids safer on Meta. But if their network does not cause harm to children, why the need to make it safer?

Just like Zuckerberg, Davis seeks interviews with those who have been sent approved questions only, self selected audiences or those who are in bed with Meta and dare not ask the hard questions.

In January, during his opening address to the US Senate Hearing into Online Child Harm, Mark Zuckerberg made the following statement, "I do not support the conclusion that Social Media causes changes in adolescent mental health."

Mr Zuckerberg made that statement with 34 parents sitting behind him who had lost children to suicide due to content on Meta. Deaths attributed to failures in the detection of abuse, a lack of report response and the refusal to remove harmful content.

After his cowardly statement, US Senator Hawley suggested Mr Zuckerberg stand and apologise to those parents sitting behind him, for the harm Meta had caused their families. Sheepishly, Zuckerberg did just that. But why apologise for harm that according to Meta does not exist?

Antigone Davis, made her equally gutless statement moments after hearing an Australian Senator, in tears, discussing the suicide of a 13 year old Australian girl due to relentless bullying on Instagram.

Since that US Senate Hearing in January, I have asked every single one of the students I have presented to the following question; "Do you believe Social Media impacts on your mental health?" I have had EVERY single hand go up. That is 38 thousand Australian children who utterly disagree with Mr Zuckerberg and Ms Davis.

On Friday, I presented a 70 page submission to the Joint Select Committee into Social Media and Australian Society. A submission I sincerely hope is read and addressed nationally. In it, I expressed quite succinctly exactly how much harm I have seen in the 15 years I have been working in this field.

It is time we no longer listen to these cowardly executives running faceless corporations for profit. It is time we stop listening to their pathetic excuses and heartless denials and start listening to those who are at the coalface dealing with the very harm they are gutlessly denying.

I now demand those in this country who are leaders in the space of online harm be heard. It is time for a series of round table discussions to air the real truth.

I am calling for a Royal Commission into Juvenile Harm Caused by Social Media. As a nation we need to prove once and for all exactly how wrong people like Antigone Davis are and how poorly Meta (and others) are acting on the protection of juvenile users across their networks.

For 15 years I have had questions which have gone unheard and unanswered by Meta. It is time we have the opportunity to present to these cowards exactly what is happening on their networks first hand.