Social media ban not an effective solution

Lisa Given, Professor of Information Sciences

“Government calls for a ban on social media for young people are premature and not supported by clear evidence.

“Children need to gain the necessary skills to navigate online worlds – including social media – and banning them from these platforms is not the solution.

“Parents and teachers play a key role in supporting children to develop technical and information literacy around these platforms. Adult support is also critical if a child is navigating harmful behaviour online, such as cyber-bullying.

“Young people may also find ways to circumvent these bans and be less likely to disclose if they have encountered harmful content.

“There are technological challenges around age verification that will make a ban very difficult to enact or enforce. For example, strategies of age assurance are easily circumvented by users, while strategies for verifying age raise data privacy concerns.”

Lisa Given is a Professor of Information Sciences at RMIT University. She is director of RMIT’s Centre for Human-AI Information Environments and the Social Change Enabling Impact Platform.

Dr Dana McKay, Associate Dean, Interaction, Technology and Information

“Social media is one of the only public spaces where children can communicate directly with their friends – often maintaining connections with distant friends and loved ones that would otherwise be impossible.

“Banning children from social media is a blunt instrument that ignores the social benefits children get from having direct communication with their friends.

“While there are risks inherent to social media, these risks could be addressed by regulating social media rather than children.

“Many of the problems can already be addressed by minimising advertising and detecting and addressing harmful interactions through behavioural analytics, for example.

“The answer to the challenge of social media and kids isn't banning kids from one of the final remaining publics available to them; it's making those publics safer.”

Dr Dana McKay is Associate Dean, Interaction, Technology and Information in the School of Computing Technologies at RMIT University. Dana's research focuses on ensuring advances in digital information technologies make the world a fairer and more equitable place.

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