Holly Brooker: Make Sense co-founder on the new data revealing one in three parents have rules for their kids' social media use

New independent research conducted by Talbot Mills reveals only one in three parents have established rules around their kids' social media usage.

While the overwhelming majority of New Zealanders believe parents should decide when young people can start using social media, there is also support for intervention and increased education.

Make Sense co-founder Holly Brooker says many parents are struggling to keep up with evolving technology.

"It's hard to implement that across many different platforms and devices - and often, parents aren't actually that aware of what their kids are doing online."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bryan Bridge.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
TikTok's been at Parliament today. They obviously don't want to
be regulated no media, well no company generally wants to
be regulated, but particularly not TikTok. So what they did
is commission research from Toolbook Mills and they found that
only one in three parents have rules for their children
around social media. Which is interesting because you hear parents
say all the time, well, my kids, you know, turn

(00:23):
into a zombie because they're on their phone all the time. Well, actually,
do we have the rules in place? Makes sense as
an advocacy group for children online safety co found a
Hollybrookers with me now, Holly, good evening, good evening, Good
to have you here. Are you surprised to hear that number?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Oh yeah, yeah, I am surprised to hear that number.
It doesn't it doesn't really reflect what is happening for
our parents and for our young people.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
So you think the numbers wrong.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
So I'm really sorry, but can you repeat the sorry
you said? I actually got a bit mud of at up.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
One in three parents have rules around their children's social
media in place. This is what according to the tour
Block Mills. So so, in other words, two thirds of
parents potentially don't have rules.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Oh yeah, yeah, yes, yes, I mean I think that
this is an area that parents are really struggling with
the parents, you know, and that your education work that
I do, parents are really struggling to keep up and
to put boundaries in place because there's so many platforms
and where you know, we're really encouraged parents to use
prind or controls and put boundaries in place, but it
is hard to implement that on across many different platforms

(01:34):
and devices. And often, you know, parents actually aren't that
aware of what their kids are doing online. And you know,
I have I have many stories of pearances Principles talking
to me and saying, appearances don't actually think their kids
are on social media, and they find out that they
are when something unfolds with students at school. So you know,
it's you've got to take these these types of results

(01:56):
with the grain of salt.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
But isn't that I mean, can you as a parent
pleaded naivety? You know, isn't it your job to know
what you're especially if they're eleven, twelve, thirteen, I mean,
they're the biggest liars under the sun, you know, isn't
it your job to know.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, I think, you know, it's really important that as
parents that we step up and that we engage with
the with what's happening online, with conversations with our kids,
and we actually understand what's happening in this space. But
to date, there hasn't been a lot of conversation around
the harms that are happening online for our young people.
And it's great that we're kind of really starting to

(02:32):
have some good, robust conversations about that. But in saying that,
where many years behind the rest of the world in
terms of many countries around the world, I should say,
in terms of actually putting any kind of systemic kind
of measures in place to manage this. But you know,
it is a printal responsibility. But it's also bigger than that.
It's really difficult for parents to manage tech and it's exploded,

(02:55):
you know, with normalized giving our kids' phones very young
and giving them access to everything on the internet, and
we do need to scale that back, but I do
think that we need more support from a kind of
regulatory approach.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
But both Holly, thank you for that. Hollybrooker makes sense,
co founder on TikTok heading to Parliament today.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
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