Dr. Kim Osman, an expert in child psychology, has noted that many young Australians she has consulted with wish for improvements to social media platforms. This demand for reform is being made at a time when worries about the safety of children on the internet are growing. Social media, particularly Instagram, which is owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, has come under scrutiny due to its vast popularity among teenagers.
Instagram’s minimum age is 13, which isn’t good enough. In Australia, more than one million current users are in the 13 to 17 age bracket. With close to 10 million users across the country, about 200,000 of those users are between the ages of 13 and 15. The platform recently introduced new tools to protect user safety, such as censoring sensitive content and pushing notifications to encourage teen users to log off after one hour. The long-term concerns about the overall safety of these platforms remain.
Call for Improvements
We agree with Dr. Osman that there is an urgent need to reform social media platforms. He is committed to ensuring that children and teenagers have a safer online environment. She says that the safety guidelines we have today are not enough. Young people are well aware of the dangers that accompany social media usage.
“Not having access to some of these platforms and their accounts, it’s going to be a real loss of community and connection for young people.” – Dr. Kim Osman
Her findings reflect a growing sense of alarm among youth. They do not believe that current protections go far enough to protect them from toxic content and dangerous social media interactions.
Experts, including Ella Woods-Joyce, warn that banning certain platforms may push younger users into more dangerous corners of the internet where protections are non-existent. These alerts are meant to raise awareness of the dangers resulting from curbing access when not offering safer replacements.
The Landscape of Teen Social Media Use
Snapchat, yet another popular app among teens that’s widely adopted now, created a place to send images and messages which disappear after the recipient views them. Snapchat has over a million Australian users aged 17 and under. To safeguard younger users, TikTok has used technology to prevent accounts from being created for users under the age of 16. Critics say these kinds of restrictions aren’t enough and rarely work.
“They’ll no longer have to put in safety filters for people who are under 16, and people will still get around it.” – Bernie Gloag
Bryce Good, a teenager familiar with the platform, notes that Snapchat has become an essential communication tool for his peers. He points out that asking someone for their Snapchat handle has replaced traditional forms of contact like sharing phone numbers.
Adding to this confusion is YouTube, which is one of the most attractive platforms for young Australians. The social media platform prohibits adult content on the platform for anyone who doesn’t verify they’re 18 or older. As it stands, it has no meaningful age verification in place. This hands-off approach endangers young users’ exposure to harmful and adult content, including sexual abuse and exploitation.
Legislative Changes on the Horizon
In answer to these system failures, the eSafety Commission is implementing new age limits on sites such as Reddit and Twitch in the near future. Twitch, primarily used by gamers and eSports enthusiasts, has been flagged due to its significant focus on online social interaction. The implementation and enforcement of such age restrictions seeks to protect minors from the negative effects that can come from potentially dangerous unregulated interactions online.
Senator Charlotte Walker has expressed her concerns over these platforms, most notably Snapchat. She describes alarming moments from her childhood, including all the times when older people sent her unsolicited dirty pictures.
“I’d open Snapchats from people that I didn’t know and it was nude photos from boys that were older than me.” – Senator Charlotte Walker
She emphasizes the dilemma young users experience with unwanted content. It’s a particularly dangerous problem on platforms designed to hide messages from users with no trace left behind.
“The problem with Snapchat is that the photos instantly delete so I think that discourages a lot of young people from wanting to speak up because there’s often no evidence that it’s actually happened.” – Senator Charlotte Walker
Acknowledging these trends, advocates have been leading the charge for more holistic approaches. They want to address huge growing priority infrastructure safety gaps while meeting social infrastructure demands of young Australians.
