Dave Batt - Tech Expert / PredictView Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Day Bad joined a stech expert at predict View. Australia
is going to be imposing some new age limits I
guess on social media, Dave, what are the age limits?
Do you know? And how do they intend to try
to enforce this?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Well, first of all, good luck with enforcing it. But
the age limits that are already in place here in
terms of social media is built on consent. At what
age can children get onto social media with their parents?
Consent is thirteen. The new age limits would affect that severely.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
All right, so are we talking like bumping it up
to eighteen?

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Let's start with our surgeon General, doctor Vivic merth Murthy,
the Surgeon General for the United States, and looking to
put a warning label on social media that would affect
everyone from eighteen and under.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Okay, but again, you know how of thative is something
like a warning label? There's I can tell this surge
in general wants support and put a warning label on everything,
including being a parent.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
It's not really effective and legislation is really not going
to be the right way of regulating social media or
creating what we all want, safer social media for kids.
There's a study out right now that's showing the thirty
three percent of kids between the ages of seven and
twelve years old are using their devices at night when
it's bedtime without parents even knowing it.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
All right, well, you know, I hate to throw the
book at parents here, but if parents don't know about it,
it's because they're not paying attention, wouldn't you say.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
A bit? But also, kids are smart, and it's not
so much parents saying don't use your phone at night
in bed. There's a lot of peer pressure going on. Well,
back to school. Kids are trying to keep up with
their friends, and part of the pure pressure is not
being involved in the conversation and that's what's causing kids

(02:05):
to try and find ways around parents advice or parents rules.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
It kind of feels like the genie is out of
the bottle on this one, doesn't it. You know, as
long as your child has access to social media, and
there's a variety of different ways they can get it,
not even just being having access to a cell phone.
Once they get on social media, trying to police that
for both social media and for parents is becoming more
and more difficult to do.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
It is, and then coming back to where we started,
the conversation is the legislation going to fix this probably
not well when parents are really doing their fast. Parents
didn't roll up with this kind of social media platform.
They didn't experience this for themselves, so it's hard to
put them in a position to say, figure this out,
even when they have good rules at home and a

(02:56):
good relationship with their kids. The best way to address this,
it's going to be fighting fire with fire.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
And what do you mean by fighting fire with fire?

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, the social media starts with technology, and there are
a number of technologies out there that parents can use
and children can utilize with their social media accounts that
show them or tell them or make them aware when
they're schooling, is putting them in an awkward position or

(03:28):
the content they're using is not just appropriate but causing
them distress and harm.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Well, I'd have to think too that maybe part of
the solution here is within the public schools of down
to loowing kids. Many schools have allowed kids to have
access to their cell phones during the day, and we
need to put an end to that. Dave Bet, thank
you for your time. Appreciate it. From a predict view,
that's tech Expert day Beat. It's five fifty six