Hansard debates

Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:22): (1135) My adjournment matter is to the Premier, and the action that I seek is for the Labor government to stop pursuing social media age bans and instead focus on evidence-based and effective measures such as social media education for kids and for parents. I think it is quite odd that a room of people who have to hire people, often young people, to send their emails, to manage their websites and to make their social media posts think that they can out-tech a teenager. I am the youngest member of this Parliament. I have lived experience of being in school as social media began taking over our lives, and I can tell you –

Nick McGowan: And which school was that?

Aiv PUGLIELLI: Go, Eltham High! I can tell you that the experts also will tell you that banning kids from social media will not be effective at keeping them off social media and will also not improve social media literacy or safety, but it is instead just going to push the problem out of sight to grow in the shadows. What we actually need is to get our fingers out of our ears and accept that we are living in a new era and do the work to roll out social media education for young people and for parents and crack down on hate speech and bullying by making social media platforms responsible for keeping their platforms safe.

Schools have been trying for years to ban social media sites with no success. Kids have new ways to bypass bans within hours of any new restrictions, so I am quite concerned about how the Labor government would even implement and enforce this. Social media is a tool. It is something that almost every person will use in their lifetime. A ban is frankly just a smokescreen and will not actually do anything to improve online safety. In fact for many marginalised people it is the removal of safety. Many queer kids who are ostracised or who may not have accepting parents and peers use social media to find fellow young people in their communities, which can end up being an essential lifeline for them. I want young people to be as safe as possible online, and that means we need policy for the modern era. It means understanding how social media works and the role that it plays in society and then acting accordingly to equip people with the education and tools to navigate it. I cannot help but note that this Labor government is currently telling kids that they are old enough to go to prison but not old enough to send their nan a Facebook message – quite bizarre.