Chris Selley: Sorry, parents, government won’t save your kids from social media

Australia’s ban on social media for teens has reportedly been “a flop.” Photo by BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/File

Article content

Article content

Article content

“They’re doing these very awful things to kids all in the name of a few likes, all in the name of more engagement, and all in the name of money,” Kinew complained at an NDP fundraiser — “more money for a group of rich tech bros who already have a ton.”

Article content

Article content

Article content

I suppose that’s the sort of thing you would expect to hear at an NDP fundraiser. “Wealth is grotesque. Can we please have some of yours?” But it’s a telling remark, because if the “tech bros” were getting rich providing a valuable service — which billions of human beings, including children, clearly think they are — then presumably it wouldn’t be a huge issue.

Article content

As ever in Canada, the question is are we actually trying to solve problems, or are we just posturing? And if we’re actually trying to solve this problem — the potentially poisonous effect of social media on children — is an outright ban on children communicating online, perhaps with competent parental oversight, really the best way to go?

Article content

Australia has been at the forefront of this movement, having supposedly kicked the joeys off social media late last year. Reading about it in Canadian media, at least until recently, you might conclude things were going reasonably well down under. A worthwhile Australian initiative, if you will.

Article content

Article content

In January, just weeks after the ban came into effect, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner announced social-media companies had deactivated nearly five million accounts owned by children.

Article content

Article content

“Today, we can announce that this is working,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese crowed. “This is a source of Australian pride. This was world-leading legislation, but ⁠it is now being followed up around the world.”

Article content

(There’s something very Australian about heralding limitations on freedom as a beacon unto other nations.)

Article content

Article content

“Australia’s teen social media ban is a flop,” a recent Guardian headline declared. Turns out Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube aren’t deleting under-16s’ accounts to the commissioner’s satisfaction. Turns out — shocker! — that many kids are finding a way around the restrictions. A student at a secondary school in Sydney told BBC News that “of 180 girls in her year group, she was aware of only three who had been booted off platforms.”