What young Aussies REALLY think about a social media ban

Australian Community Media

ACM asked Australian school kids, teens and young influencers attending a Government-organised "social media summit" what they really thought of a potential ban on social media for kids. Here's what they said.

Transcript

00:00I think that it gives a voice to so many creative people, it gave a voice to me.

00:07ACM asked young Australians attending a government-organised social media summit

00:12what they really thought of a potential ban on social media for kids.

00:16I put my music up on TikTok so I basically I do kind of like piano videos with

00:20famous artists and that sort of stuff and I play a piano for them.

00:30I don't support a ban because I think that social media is it's an incredible tool.

00:42I think we need to we need to communicate how to use the tool better.

00:46Social media is like taking childhoods and it would be great to win them back for

00:53future generations. There's a lot of comparisons about how someone looks or

00:59how you act and you just get a lower self-esteem. There's been positives for sure but I think

01:06overall negative and I think I often wonder what my life would have been like if I never

01:10downloaded it and I think definitely it would have been better.

01:14I think social media is really positive. I don't know if there's a really proper way of

01:18carving it in. I think young people always find a way to get around it. I think blanket bans

01:23probably won't work especially with how much we young people rely on social media so I think

01:29we probably need to look at other kind of strategies for mitigating the harms that

01:33come with social media. I don't think it's that simple. There are already age restrictions

01:37in the apps and it's more about if you put the bans how are you going to enforce that.

01:43And I think it takes away a young person's agency in a sense. You need to put in media literacy

01:49and accountability on these big multi-billion dollar companies before you put the blame and

01:55restrict young people's freedoms. A lot of people that I've either heard of or know personally

02:00have been exposed to harmful messages that can either lead to eating disorders, negative body

02:06image. There are issues whereby a lot of young people may develop depression or anxiety because

02:11of social media. Maybe worrying about how many likes their Instagram picture has or how many

02:16friends they have on social media. I think if we can focus on those little issues

02:21and teach young people to not look at it to that extent, we can help improve their mental health.

02:27Nobody knew that I existed or that my music existed but as soon as we started using this

02:31social media platform, it then shared my music with the rest of the world and gave me a voice

02:36for that. And I follow so many people online that use this for good. So, I think we should

02:42be focusing on how to make it a positive environment rather than just banning it entirely.

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