With the passing of the bill this week to ban young people from social media, we need to keep talking about alternatives so the Senate approaches this with a long-term view, not a quick fix. Adults created this online genie, that we now seem to want to put back in the bottle, but at what cost to young people?
Young people who are experiencing vitriolic, damaging online hate via social media or who have fallen prey to scams need to be protected from immediate harm. Removing the source of the hate or scam is important in the first instance, however, we also need to help young people develop robust self-worth through support from peers, family and professionals to navigate cyberbullying and other potentially harmful content such as sextortion scams. Long-term reputational damage to a young person's self-image via online spreading of lies can be devastating and life threatening as we have sadly seen. But as the cyber juggernaut continues to grow and morph, online bullying will likely never go away, and we cannot wrap kids in cotton wool forever.
Removing the source of potentially problematic content from within the reach of young people does nothing to help them traverse these spaces with a healthy, critical disposition. They will not miraculously wake up at 16 and be able to do this. They need to develop critical thinking and critical literacy practices to be able to distinguish mis/disinformation and opinion from truth, and to work out what they think and believe. The Australian Curriculum: English provides ample opportunity for this to be covered in school lessons with a specific mandate for teachers to help students 'learn to identify the opinions, assumptions and points of view in texts' and to 'analyse how language is used to position individuals and groups'. Social media and advertising provide ideal material to do this. My research has shown how Australian school students are able critically analyse social media out of school because they are learning how to do this in school.
Banning children from accessing social media lets the makers and peddlers of mis/disinformation and harmful opinion get away with it without taking responsibility for their part in its existence. Big tech companies making millions continue to benefit while young people are denied access to what can be innocuous, enjoyable material on social media just because some of it may be harmful.
What are some alternatives to banning social media for young people?
- Talk with young people about the time they spend on social media and what they get out of it/don't get out of it. My research with 15-year-olds shows they are more critical of it than we think. We should encourage this critical view. Work out with them how they want to balance it with other activities such as sport, music, reading books. Give them some control over how they use it. Banning and removing it will only make them angry and rebel and potentially push them to the dark web.
- Agree on designated spaces/places for being on social media – public places in the home – and others for where it is not used, for example in bed late at night.
- Encourage young people to see social media as just one of many spaces for learning from and enjoying information sharing.
- Discuss social media posts/videos openly in families as soon as kids are mature enough – bring it out in the open and defuse its power. The more we make it the bogey man, the more we will fear it.
- Discuss the ways people interact online. Often people hide behind anonymity in the online world to posit what is nothing more than emotion-fuelled (and at times alcohol and drug-fuelled) opinion. They would never say it to our face which says more about them.
- Play fact checker games – spot the false claim with Snopes.com rumour checker.
- Model responsible use of social media to your children and discuss – what are we as adults prepared to put online? Why? Why not?
Associate Professor Jennifer Alford is Deputy Head of School (Research) of the School of Education and Professional Studies, and Deputy Director of Griffith Institute of Education Research at Griffith University.
