Labor is hailing its for under 16-year-olds as the answer to a critical public health emergency — anxiety.
But experts say the ban, set to come into effect on December 10, is not that simple.
Of course the ban on the use of Meta/Facebook, X/Twitter and Tik Tok for that cohort may stop some cases of online abuse and bullying, but at what cost?
Social media can have big benefits for young people, including providing connection with friends and support through hard times.
from the Young and Resilient Research Centre and batyr, a preventive mental health charity, created and driven by young people, shows young people spend, on average, 182 hours a year helping their friends online. These activities will be severely impacted by any ban.
As the current generation has grown up with technology, to take it away from a large portion smacks of punishment when the giant tech corporations could fix most issues the government claims it is worried about.
Research shows that each generation is more anxious than the last, and it is not hard to see why. Capitalism, the system which prioritises profits above meeting human and ecological needs is lurching from one crisis to the next.
Young people's anxieties are growing, and there are real material reasons for this.
According to Commission on youth mental health, from September last year, “Mental ill health, which has been the leading health and social issue impacting the lives and futures of young people for decades, has entered a dangerous phase.” It said “major, long-lasting societal changes such as environmental, social, economic, political, or technological changes” in many societies in the past two decades have “harmed the mental health of young people”.
Neoliberal policies are biting deeper and young people feel their full force. The pro-capitalist parties have no answers as it would go against their interest in keeping the billionaires onside and them staying in power.
Rather than come up with structural changes to make their futures look more secure, Labor is pushing through with its social media ban despite minimal consultation with the affected group.
The root cause of young people’s anxiety is their awareness of the problems generated and perpetrated by a system that claims to care but doesn’t.
Rather than make housing more affordable, Labor instead announces policies, like the 5% first homeowners scheme, that will only push the price of housing higher.
Labor could introduce rent controls and rent freezes, and scrap negative gearing and other tax lurks for developers.
It could follow Germany and scrap fees for higher education thus removing another major anxiety for young people. It could take climate science seriously, as many young people do, and stop allowing more coal and gas mines. Research in The Lancet shows 76% of young people in Australia think the future is frightening. Half think humanity is doomed.
Ultimately, Labor’s social media ban is a vote-gathering exercise designed to appease worried parents who believe their offspring are too influenced by social media.
It will not reduce young people’s anxieties, nor help solve their mental health problems. Young people are tech savvy enough to bypass digital gates and over-zealous filters may just block too much, prohibiting learning, free speech and social connection.
Governments want you to think that, like other health issues, anxiety can be solved by an individual. But, as Mark Fisher argues in his 2009 book Capitalist Realism, solutions for mental health cannot be considered in isolation from a broader context.
At the very least, Australia could adopt the European Union’s approach and push tech giants to meet transparency requirements and risk assessments.
If the ban improves young people’s mental health we will only be able to measure that in several year’s time. We will know more quickly if it fails by checking the digital black market for fake IDs and monitoring how isolated vulnerable groups feel.
But, in the meantime, young people’s free speech, learning and social connections will already have been stifled.