Carl Bates: National Education and Workforce Committee Acting Chair on Australia's teen social media ban

The Government's looking to Australia as it explores ways prevent online harm to young Kiwis.

On the day an under-16 social media ban began across the Tasman, our Education and Workforce Committee's released an interim report on its inquiry regarding New Zealand youth.

It reveals issues range from sexual exploitation to self-harm. 

Acting Chair Carl Bates says social media can do real harm, but it's not just about the content available.

"It's also about contact and it's about conduct, so things like the intentional use of platforms to harm or abuse others - and also the commerce harms that not only young New Zealanders experience, but others as well." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
First, though Australia, the under sixteenth ban on social media
is in today, and just this afternoon, New Zealand's Education
and Workforce Committee released an interim report on the worrying
amount of harm that young Kiwy's experience online, and the
majority of MPs are in favor of a band like
the Aussies except the Greens and Act. Karl Bates's Nationals
Committee Acting Chair, with us, good evening.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Good evening, run well, great to be on the show
with you.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Great to have you here. So put this into context
for us. How bad you've heard, all the evidence, you've
spoken to, all the experts. How bad is this that
the harm that's been done to kids? Is it worse
if your parents? Should you be more worried about this
than you know, vaping or drinking or smoking or anything else?
Is this the big worry?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, I think all of those things you've referred to
as things that parents obviously have to be concerned about.
The harm experienced online by young New Zealanders is really
clear that it's there, and it's across a range of categories.
And that's one of the takeaways from this report. Ryan
that it's not just about content but it's also about contact.
It's about conduct, so things like the intentional use of

(01:04):
platforms to harm or abuse others and also the commerce
harms that not only young New Zealanders experienced but others
as well. So it is something those parents we need
to be concerned.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
About, okay, and how concerned do we need to be?
Like are we freaking out about this? Or you know,
is this a serious threat to young people and their development?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well instead of freaking out about it, I think this
is something that parents can be confident. Certainly the National
Party is concerned about and has put actions on the
table along with our colleagues and the Labor Party to
have broad support from Parliament to take actions that will
address these harms.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Can social media giants actually do that? Can they stop this?
Can they limit the harm? Or won't they?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
So there's two things to that. Firstly, the social media
ban which we're seeing implemented in Australia today. This Select
Committee said we're going to keep a watching brief on
that as we go into next year and deliberate on
the final report early next year. But it's also about
recognizing that that's only one part of a suite of
changes that we're proposing either for action on or for

(02:13):
further consideration that address other parts of the puzzle. And
I think often we talk about the social media ban
as the one thing, and obviously Catherine Wedd's Members Bill
started that conversation earlier in the year. Here in New
Zealand is in a really important part of it. But
there are other things we need to do here as well,
like the introduction of a national regulator for online safety,

(02:33):
like looking at legislation like the Films, Videos, Publications Classifications
Act and whether or not they are appropriate for twenty
twenty five six.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
All of this, all of this sounds great, but it
also sounds like tentering around the edges. Honestly, and if
you look at Australia already, you've got kids who are
getting around the band. So you let the horse has bolted.
You're not going to stop this, you know.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
There's no intention that a band is going to stop
every from accessing social media immediately. It's like we still
see kids go into shops and buy alcohol. We still
see kids that shouldn't be driving drive. But it's about
creating a culture shift, it's about changing the norm and
we're going to be able to be a fast follower
to Australia and follow what they've done, take their learnings

(03:19):
and apply them here to achieve that culture shift to
New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Carl, there was a server and I've looked at this
report and there's one page on parental responsibility, which you know,
ur a national empower would have thought that would have
been a little higher up the pecking order. But here
we are on page twenty six of fifty and there's
a survey of parents. Ninety three percent were totally unaware
or only slightly aware of solutions to minimize online harm

(03:46):
to young people. How about don't give them a phone.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
So there's a few things that that then comes in.
First of all, the level of responsive, purity of responsibility
that parents should have in protecting their children. That's one
of the considerations we think you doing to look at further.
There is the ongoing research we think we need in
a New Zealand context to support that and also the
role that education plays in a shout out to our
Minister of Education for the update to the New Zealand

(04:13):
curriculum that brings in this digital technology component to the
changes that are been proposed to the new Zealand curriculum.
So it's not just one part of the puzzle that's
going to solve this right, We've got to do a
number of things in order to protect our kids online
from the online harm that they are experiencing.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Cal Bates Committee cheer for more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive.
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