Kerre Woodham: Australia draws a line in the sand with social media ban

As you will have heard in the news, Australia has passed landmark rules to ban under-16s from social media. In a world first, social media firms will have to take all reasonable steps to prevent young teens from gaining access to sites like Facebook, Instagram, X - formally Twitter - and the like. The firms who own these sites will face fines of up to $50 million AUD if they fail to comply. The tech giants themselves have described the laws as vague, problematic and rushed, and that's probably quite true.

The current legislation offers almost no details on how the rules will be enforced. Seems they're leaving it up to the tech giants to ensure compliance. It will be at least 12 months before the details are worked out by regulators, and the ban comes into effect. Naysayers say it's going to be impossible to police; young people will always find a way around the rules if they want to find them.  And that is quite true. Just as I'm sure there are young New Zealanders who have managed to get around the cell phone bans in schools that the government introduced earlier this year.

But it's drawing a line in the sand. It's saying being on social media sites is harmful for young people, that the bad outweighs the good and that we as a society and a community are going to recognise that. We're not going to accept that just because everybody's on it, that it's going to be really difficult to police, that kids will always find a way around it. We're not going to accept that. We're not going to accept that the genie is out of the bottle and that there is nothing that can be done except endless hand wringing about the harm that's being caused.

People said it would be impossible to stop kids using cell phones at schools and that the children themselves, the young people, would never put up with it. Well, guess what? It's working for the vast majority of students. Even the principal’s who said look, this is just not going to work, the kids have them, they’ve had them for a while now, it's part of their lives, we're not going to be able to police it. We don't want to spend our time policing this rather than teaching - even they have been forced to admit that concentration has improved. That young people are more interactive with one another. They're not heads down on their devices, they're not using their devices to cause harm or to receive harm. Again, it's that drawing a line in the sand just as a line has been drawn in the sand over school attendance.

There are all sorts of reasons why our school attendance is so appallingly low. And it's going to be incredibly difficult to achieve this government's target of 80% of kids attending school, 90% of the time. But baby steps, baby steps. An expe

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carrywood and Mornings podcast from News
Talk SEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
As you will have heard in the news, Australia has
passed landmark rules to ban under sixteens from social media.
In a world first, social media firms will have to
take all reasonable steps to prevent young teens from gaining
access to sites like Facebook, Instagram, x formerly Twitter and

(00:32):
the like. The firms who own these sites will face
fines of up to fifty million Australian dollars if they
fail to comply. The tech giants themselves have described the
laws as vague, problematic and rushed, and that's probably quite true.
The current legislation offers almost no details on how the

(00:54):
rules will be enforced. Seems they're leaving it up to
the tech giants to ensure compliance. It will be at
least twelve months before the details are worked up by
regulators and the ban comes into effect. Naysay it's going
to be impossible to police. Young people will always find

(01:15):
a way around the rules if they want to find them,
and that is quite true, just as I'm sure there
are young New Zealanders have managed to get around the
cell phone bands in schools that the government introduced earlier
this year. But it's drawing a line in the sand.
It's saying being on social media sites is harmful for

(01:39):
young people, that the bad outweighs the good, and that
we as a society in a community, are going to
recognize that. We're not going to accept that just because
everybody's on it, that it's going to be really difficult
to police, that kids will always find a way around it.

(02:00):
We're not going to accept that. We're not going to
accept that the genie is out of the bottle and
that there is nothing that can be done except endless
handwringing about the harm that's been caused. People said it
would be impossible to stop kids using cell phones at
schools and that the children themselves, the young people would
never put up with it. Well, guess what, it's working

(02:20):
for the vast majority of students in a way, according
to the Principles, Even the Principles who said, look, this
is just not going to work. The kids have them,
they've had them for a while now, it's part of
their lives. We're not going to be able to police it.
We don't want to spend our times policing this rather

(02:40):
than teaching well, even they have been forced to admit
that concentrations improved, that young people are more interactive with
one another. They're not heads down on their devices, they're
not using their devices to cause harm or to receive harm. Again,

(03:03):
it's that drawing a line in the sand, just as
a line has been drawn in the sand over school attendance.
There are all sorts of reasons why our school attendance
is so appallingly low, and it's going to be incredibly
difficult to achieve this government's target of eighty percent of
kids attending school ninety percent of the time. But baby steps,

(03:25):
baby steps, an expectation was made that you will send
your children to school. That will become the norm. And
so in term three of this year, fifty one point
three percent of students attended school regularly, which is bloody low,
but it is still an increase of five point three

(03:48):
percentage points from term three of twenty twenty three. Baby steps,
you know, it's not easily easily Oh if I feel
like it, if the wind's blowing in the right direction,
then you know, encourage the kids to go to school.
The expectation is there that your children are children will
attend school regularly. People have responded to that expectation. They

(04:11):
rise to meet it. There is an expectation that children
will be free from cell phone distraction at school. It
wasn't there before, you know, that expectation was not there.
It was just, oh well, we kind of have to
put up with it. They're part of everyday life. This
government came in and said no, there is an expectation

(04:31):
that children will be free from the tyranny of their devices,
and schools and young people have responded to that. Even
more topically, there's an expectation that gang insignia won't be
flaunted in public. And as the Policemanister Mark Mitchell reported
this morning, even the gangs are responding to that. The

(04:53):
expectations have been made clear to them and who in
the meetings around the country and in the main they
have responded to that. So set expectations. Don't settle for
being steamrollered by the lowest common denominator, or for being
manipulated by billionaires tech companies, or for the facile argument

(05:14):
that everyone's doing it. Nothing can be done, you know,
have a go set expectations. If something is wrong, say so.
The harm that is being done to young people by
being on many of these social media sites outweighs the
good acknowledge that set expectations that they will be safe

(05:37):
from that while they are at their most vulnerable.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
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