Overwhelmingly fatiguing!
Hands up those parents who’ve contacted the government about restricting children’s access to social media because they are overwhelmingly fatigued?
Yesterday the government stated that parents in consultation with them have said they are overwhelmingly fatigued presumably in managing their children’s access to social media.
Has our nation become that soft that taking devices from our children is fatiguing?
Seriously how hard is it to set some rules. No devices in bedrooms and no devices on weekdays are two we use – it’s not that hard. Furthermore it’s takes probably less than a minute to see what the children are using with the right software, so I’m not sure why it’s that hard even at 11 o’clock at night.
Yeah occasionally we get pushback but there’s nothing like a good old fashioned bit of discipline to keep our children on the straight and narrow.
The idea that restricting children to devices is somehow perceived as fatiguing shows how soft we’ve become. It’s time to ditch the nanny state.
Environment and Communications Legislation Committee
25/11/2024
Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024
Senator RENNICK: Are you aware that there’s a number of apps that parents can use to restrict their children from social media, and not just restrict but also monitor their children’s behaviour on social media?
Ms Vandenbroek : Yes.
Mr Irwin : Yes. I use one myself.
Senator RENNICK: So, given that we already have apps out there that can do this, why do we need government intervention in overriding parental responsibility?
Mr Irwin : One of the key things we heard from our consultation was a sense of overwhelming fatigue for parents, and this bears out through the research. I may be aware of the apps, but I’m the assistant secretary of the online safety branch, so of course I would be aware of what protections—
Senator RENNICK: You’d get referral advice.
Mr Irwin : I would have more information and would actually look at the information in the course of my workday. I don’t have to look at it at 11 o’clock at night before bed. Parents are quite overwhelmed by what’s in front of them for this, and even for those who are aware, these are not typically centralised controls. There are particular apps; they have particular strengths and particular weaknesses working in different ways, and parents are unsure of which ones work better.
Senator RENNICK: Sure. Can’t you actually monitor? I have three young children myself, and my eldest son has a phone because he’s got to catch the bus to and from school and do extracurricular activities, and we just take the phone from our son when he gets home. They can have it for a certain time during the weekend, but no phones in bedrooms. I mean, you say parents are overwhelmingly fatigued. Constituents are overwhelmingly fatigued by government telling them what to do. So, I’m just surprised—
Mr Chisholm : This is one where parents have told us that their fatigue would be reduced by having a very clear law in place that imposes, for example, a 16-years age limit—that it would be welcomed by parents, rather than having to fiddle around with apps and then see if they work. Some apps might work for some but not others. Then there’s the debate about taking the phone from your children. There are other benefits associated with access to the internet that children have, as well as communication with their friends and family members. But the very clear view was that an age limit for social media would be much preferred by parents, with the obligation placed on platforms rather than being something they have to do.
Then they have the responsibility, as you’re pointing out, as to when their children get the phone and when they don’t. But for children particularly between the ages of 11 and 15, there is a lot of research about the harms associated with social media content and that an age limit—
Senator RENNICK: There’s no dispute from me. But I guess from my point of view and from the point of view of many parents who have contacted me, they don’t want the government monitoring their lives. They feel as though there’s enough, and government needs to get back to—
Mr Chisholm : There’s no monitoring of anyone’s lives by the government in these reforms. It’s a simple obligation placed on the platforms that they cannot allow account creation for children under the age of 16.
Senator RENNICK: The problem with that is it’s a question of trust, because our social media posts were being monitored by the government during COVID when we were told that they weren’t. So you can say that, and I’m not saying you’re lying or anything like that—I’m not saying that—but the problem is it’s a question of trust. We don’t trust the government. Many of my constituents don’t trust the government, because the government is always saying one thing and ending up doing another. Anyway, we’ll leave that as it is.
