Tuesday, 10 September 2024

Ministers statements: social media age limits

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:04): One of the biggest concerns Victorian parents raise with me – and they raise it with me on a regular basis – is their worry and their anxiety about kids on social media. Certainly as a parent – and I am sure many of us in the chamber would share this experience – it can feel like a never-ending war. Sometimes you feel like you are up against a social media tsunami, and busy parents have to constantly stay up to date with the latest trends, the latest dangers and the latest online black holes that your child could just so easily fall into with the accidental click of one button. I have seen that in my own home, where a simple YouTube search can turn into a rabbit hole of deeply inappropriate content, content that no child should ever have to watch. When parents push back they also become the enemy. It causes fights; it creates fractures. It is damaging families; it is damaging relationships. We know it is a full-time job for parents to keep on top of it. But it is not just parents who are concerned about this, it is kids themselves. During a recent school visit one student told me that he wished social media just did not exist.

I do not want kids and parents fighting about social media. The fight should be up against those tech giants who fail to look after our kids, and that is why our government strongly backs the proposition that was put forward by South Australia and has now been picked up as a national approach by the Prime Minister. I thank South Australia for the commonsense place to start in terms of banning it up to 14, requiring parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds and having a system that is flexible enough to respond to the needs of families. We will be running our own consultation with parents, schools and children because it is those voices that must be heard the loudest, not the tech giants. This is a reform that will help parents at home and help reduce harm to kids.