Why is Australia trying to ban social media for children?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 18 November 2024
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Australian government is set to implement the world’s strictest ban on social media for children. The law would prohibit children under the age of 16 from accessing sites like TikTok, X, and Facebook. It will be introduced to parliament in the coming weeks, but wouldn’t be implemented until next year. What’s behind it – and how could it work?
In this episode:
- Tama Leaver, (@tamaleaver) Professor of Internet Studies, Curtin University
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Tamara Khandaker, Ashish Malhotra, and Sonia Bhagat with Duha Mosaad, Cole van Miltenburg, Chloe K. Li and our host, Natasha Del Toro, in for Malika Bilal. It was edited by Alexandra Locke.
The Take production team is Marcos Bartolomé, Sonia Bhagat, Spencer Cline, Sarí el-Khalili, Tamara Khandaker, Phillip Lanos, Chloe K. Li, Ashish Malhotra, Khaled Soltan, and Amy Walters. Our editorial interns are Duha Mosaad, Hagir Saleh, and Cole van Miltenburg. Our host is Malika Bilal. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Aya Elmileik is lead of audience engagement.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editor is Hisham Abu Salah. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, Australia steps in as the ultimate digital parent. |
| 0:16.0 | Social media is doing social harm to our young Australians, and I am calling time on it. |
| 0:24.1 | A new bill banning kids from social media is meant to help parents who are worried about their kids. |
| 0:30.3 | So why do some experts say it could do more harm than good? |
| 0:36.1 | I'm Natasha Del Toro, and this is the take. |
| 0:45.9 | The idea that somehow we're going to ask young people to come off and then maybe go back on |
| 0:50.9 | later seems a very, very difficult sell to young people. |
| 0:55.2 | When I imagine any attempt will actually be really disenfranchising for young people |
| 0:58.9 | and making them feel not protected but patronised. |
| 1:03.5 | My name's Tamaleva. |
| 1:05.1 | I'm a professor of internet studies here at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia. |
| 1:10.1 | And I'm also a chief investigator |
| 1:12.0 | in the ARC Center of Excellence for the Digital Child. Thank you so much for coming on the take. |
| 1:18.0 | I know it is very late in Australia where you are. So extra, extra thanks for staying up to talk to us. |
| 1:24.0 | It's my pleasure to be here. So, so, Tamara, I, I know that the Australian government |
| 1:29.4 | is about to introduce a law that would keep kids under 16 off social media. And this law |
| 1:36.4 | would take effect a year after its approval. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X will be |
| 1:43.3 | included possibly YouTube too. |
| 1:45.9 | There'll be no exemptions for parental consent. |
| 1:48.4 | Now, this is a pretty bold move. |
| 1:51.3 | I mean, if this were to be enacted, it would be one of the strictest measures in the world of its kind, if not the strictest. |
... |
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