Australia's Social Media Ban: The Simple Solution Didn't Fix the Problem
Australia's social media ban has not effectively blocked young people from the platforms. Politicians must do more than just issue a ban.
(Image: Natalia Deriabina / Shutterstock.com)
Silver bullets are considered effective ammunition against werewolves, vampires, and other supernatural beings. We know this from numerous stories. In Australia, the “social media ban” was supposed to be the effective silver bullet against the harmful social media use of young people. However, this bullet was a “fake” and did not really solve the problem. This was explained by Australian politician Sarah Hanson-Young in conversation with Konstantin Peveling from the industry association Bitkom during this year's Bitkom Education Conference.
The Australian Senator from the Green Party (Australian Greens) described that despite the social media ban, a large proportion of under-16s are still active on the major social media platforms. The ban does not affect every social media offering, but for now, it affects the largest and best-known ones like Instagram and Facebook from Meta, as well as Snapchat, TikTok, and Reddit.
Videos by heise
The existence of a social media ban in Australia is due to two factors. Both concerned parents and observations in schools prompted politicians to take action. According to Hanson-Young, however, the government opted for the simplest possible solution, which did not yield the desired results. Instead of effectively excluding young people from certain social media platforms, they found enough ways to circumvent the ban or find alternative offerings. While the major platforms face fines in the millions if they do not properly exclude minors under 16, this is not effective or deterrent enough given the billions in profits.
Making something out of Big Tech's “Big Tobacco Moment”
So, while young people are supposedly excluded from social media, they are still active there and continue to be exposed to algorithms and content to which they may not yet be properly prepared. Instead of just a ban, Hanson-Young argues, more measures need to be effective simultaneously. In her view, this includes decisive criticism of the platforms' design and political pressure to finally transform “Addiction by design” into “Safety by design.” Furthermore, young people need to receive media education in educational institutions and at home so that they become online-resilient. While Australian schools teach how to use certain tools or artificial intelligence, critical engagement – “Media Literacy” – is more often conveyed by non-governmental organizations and associations. Here, the government needs to step in again.
During the pre-recorded conversation, Hanson-Young expressed considerable dissatisfaction with the current situation. She explained that “Big Tech” should actually be having its “Big Tobacco Moment” right now. For this to happen, politicians must also demand and implement more than an easily circumvented ban without significant penalties. Relying solely on the ban also means that 16-year-olds could encounter dangerous online mechanisms and content completely unprepared. She therefore prefers a different approach to the problem and illustrated this with an example from everyday Australian life. Instead of preventing Australian children from learning to swim and swimming in the sea, they are taught how to do it and shown the safe, supervised zones between the flags on the beach. This approach to guidance and protection is also the right way to deal with social media.
(kbe)
