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Summary
YACVic has made a submission to the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee’s inquiry into the provisions of the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024. This bill proposes a ‘social media ban’ for young people under 16 years old.
Due to the one-day timeframe to make a submission to this inquiry, we raised serious concerns and disappointment about the lack of genuine consultation with young people who will be impacted by the ban.
Our submission makes it clear that while YACVic supports young people’s call for digital and social media reforms to improve online safety and combat online harms and misinformation, a ‘blanket ban’ is not the solution.
We live in an increasingly digitised world, and social media is an important place where young people connect, share their experiences, learn new skills, express creativity and self-expression, form communities, and offer and seek support. And, for many young people, social media is where they access the news and current information about the world around them, and establish a collective voice for advocacy.
Our submission makes five key recommendations, such as:
- ensuring reforms are co-designed with young people with diverse lived experience,
- co-designing support and education programs for young people, parents/cares and educators,
- imposing Online Duty of Care regulations for online platforms,
- ensuring social media reforms follow the advice of privacy experts, and
- addressing the underlying and systemic causes of rising poor mental health among young people.
Young people are the experts of their own lives, but their voices have largely been missed from this vital conversation around online safety and social media reform. It’s essential the Australian Government actively engages in meaningful and evidence-based consultation with them to ensure their experiences and expertise are included in online safety reform.
Read our submission (Accessible Word Document)
Our Recommendations
Co-design reforms with young people with diverse lived experience to ensure they are effective and fit-for-purpose. Co-design support and education programs for young people, parents/carers, and educators to ensure young people are supported and confident to engage in online spaces safely. Impose Online Duty of Care regulations for online platforms, including preventative and proactive changes to systems to ensure young people’s safety online – such as preventing harmful content, misinformation and infinite scrolling. Ensure social media reforms follow the advice of privacy experts. Address the underlying and systemic causes of rising poor mental health among young people, including providing funding for place-based mental health supports.Co-design reforms with young people
Co-design support and education programs
Impose Online Duty of Care regulations
Follow the advice of privacy experts
Address underlying and systemic causes of poor mental health