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The Albanese Government has won international applause for its social media ban. For example, The New York Times’ headline on 9^th December reads:

Australian’s Social Media Ban Takes Effect

Hundreds of thousands of teenagers in Australia awoke Wednesday to find their social media accounts logged out or deactivated, under a new law that bars anyone younger than 16 from the services.

The day marked the launch of a sweeping governmental effort to putting the country at the vanguard of regulating social media services that parents and educators worry have ensnared a generation of young people.

As a retired school principal with minimal knowledge of social media, I thought I should conduct my own research into generations closer to the action.

A 17-Year-Old Boy’s Reflections

He had no phone till he was 12 years old and hasn’t used social media much, only watching YouTube and talking with a few friends on Discord. He could see the upside of the ban, that young people should just focus on being the best they can be, without being obsessed or depressed by comparison with others.

However, he also recognised the downside. In a democracy, the under 16s should have been consulted. He felt sorry that the children would now have to forfeit all the good material on social media.

He knew of another 17-year-old whose photo was assessed by AI and deemed under 16 because of his young-looking face.

He also knew of 16-year-olds who could defraud the system and claim to be 21.

We talked about the psychology of taking something away which makes people want it more. He recognised that social media platforms had already been putting up safety filters for children. They have tried, but they haven’t worked well. He felt that this government initiative will collapse within a few months as another failed strategy.

A 31-Year-Old Man’s Story

He talked about the screen addiction factor of social media and how he had banned himself in his mid-20s when he recognised the harm he was inflicting on himself. He saw how destructive the ‘me-front-and-centre trend’ was to society, including the posting of experiences and perspectives designed to attract ‘likes’ and ‘followers.’

This drove him into depression, and in the midst of the Covid lockdowns that herded people into social media as they couldn’t physically see their friends, it became far more acute.

This 31-year-old was a Christian, so he saw how the me-front-and-centre culture was opposite to the gospel of Jesus which puts others first. He also saw that he was failing to maximise his own potential in service of others as he was draining his resources of time and energy feeding his depression. It was wonderful that his eyes were opened and that he had enough willpower left to step off the downward spiral before it was too late. He was an adult taking personal responsibility, but who should take responsibility for the children?

Personal Responsibility Verses State Control

In a Christian home, parents are charged by God to raise their children in faith, as they nurture, provide, educate, and role model faith, teaching God’s Word through life, prayer, and church involvement (Ephesians 6:4). I think most Christians would agree with this view.

Social media became part of society nearly forty years ago. We celebrate the benefits while being aware of the harms, particularly impacting children. Why did we let this happen? Why has the Australian government now decided to take action?

I argue that in the 1990s, Western societies assumed that parents were taking responsibility for their young. Decades have come and gone. We have stripped Christian values and principles from our society as they were deemed divisive and discriminatory. While we have championed multiculturalism, bringing in a smorgasbord of cultures with different values and we have been so concerned to celebrate diversity that we have lost our cultural norms.

And now it’s the government to the rescue! Their responsibility has always been to keep their people safe. It’s only natural that they should believe that bolting the door, forty years late, was the right thing to do to cover their own guilt at stripping away our personal responsibility. As parents, we are now told that we must not attempt to control our children, we can only make suggestions and offer encouragement. Cutting off the perception of harm at the border, with a one-size-fits-all mandate, keeps everyone happy, right? All that parents have to do now is applaud the government for their courageous stand in support of their children, as our leaders have done what they as parents were too scared to do for themselves.

What If It’s All about Digital ID?

The story doesn’t sound too good, does it? Standing by for forty years doing next to nothing, then developing a hastily crafted a mandate that grabs global attention that has so many loopholes in it that it will leaded fail within a few months.

Maria Zee, an Australian independent journalist had this to say in her conversation with Claton Morris of Redacted:

The Australian Social Media Ban for under 16s has nothing to do with protecting children, especially from a government that thinks it’s just fine for them to mutilate their genitals while they are under 18 years. They are not interested in protecting children. What this is really about is Digital ID… This is leading to a Social Credit System I can promise you.

What is Digital ID and should we be concerned? Maria went on to say:

Your activities are linked with your identity forming a digital profile of you, including your interaction with social platforms, including your speech with these platforms, what you look at, what you click on. This all develops a digital twin of you. 

Maria commented on the impact of this mandate on the children:

The children are feeling lost. A lot of their support networks are online… There is a High Court challenge underway with two children involved, that is set to go ahead next year.

Safe Schools Coalition Australia

In my book, While We Were Sleeping: A Wake-up Call For all Christians, Chapter 3 on Education includes the story of the government’s Safe Schools Coalition Australia, that was applauded for its stand against bulling in schools. Who would not want to get behind such an initiative?

However, speaking on the goals of Safe Schools at the Safe Schools Coalition National Symposium in Melbourne, 2014; co-founder if the initiative Roz Ward, a self-identifying Marxist and member of the LGBTIQA+ community, and a prominent campaigner on gay, lesbian, transgender, and ‘marriage equality’, had this to say:

… Safe Schools Coalition is about supporting gender and sexual diversity. Not about celebrating diversity. Not about stopping bullying. About gender and sexual diversity. About same‐sex attraction. About being transgender. About being lesbian, gay, bisexual – say the words – transgender, intersex. Not just ‘Be nice to everyone. Everyone’s great.’

The next year, the rhetoric was even more strident:

LGBTI oppression and heteronormativity are woven into the fabric of capitalism… programs like Safe Schools Coalition are making some difference, but we are still an extremely long way from liberation… only Marxism provides both the theory and the practice of genuine human liberation.

 So perhaps you can excuse my cynicism about the social media ban for under 16s. If the government hoodwinked us for a decade with their antibullying initiative, why should we trust them with this mandate designed to shelter children from the potential harms of social media?  If I were the government and I had to recognise the negative impacts of Screen Addiction (Chapter 4 of my book), I would instigate these two strategies.

Firstly, I would engage with the global media monopolies to create a transparent debate about their operations, their marketing techniques, their behaviour psychology departments and their ethics on wealth creation. To my knowledge, no government has gone there, other than the bluster of threats of litigation that these gigantic monoliths can sweep away like pesky flies on a summer’s day.

Secondly, I would build up policies and resources to support the institution of the family and the responsibility of parents towards their children. I would establish policies that put power back to the people, the direct opposite of the Marxist’s agenda. As an educator and a parent, a one-size-fits-all approach never works. It is the lazy way that simply destroys relationships and trust.

Where to From Here?

Mainstream media have been the loudspeaker for the government in this mandate. Their rhetoric, and one sided ‘reporting’ bore all the hallmarks of Orwell’s 1984. Orwell’s descriptions of the massive TV screens in every room, blaring the government’s messaging to subliminally control the people’s minds, were a prophecy fulfilled today.

Sadly, we have to be sceptical about everything we see and hear. Trust, honesty and respect for others are bygone principles we can no longer live by. Has Maria Zee hit the nail on the head with this one? Time will tell.

Meanwhile let’s reach out to the children and support them the best we can, while guarding ourselves against the threat of Digital ID.

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