New research from Ipsos and Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has found that two-thirds of parents believe that they should decide if social media is right for their kids, rather than a government ban.
Just yesterday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese proposed legislation to ban the use of social media for children under 16.
At a press conference, Albanese said that the government will not penalise children and their parents if the ban is not enforced but instead expects social media companies to “demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access”.
“Social media is doing harm to our kids, and I’m calling time on it,” Albanese said.
“I’ve spoken to thousands of parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles. They, like me, are worried sick about the safety of our kids online, and I want Australian parents and families to know that the government has your back”.
“I want parents to be able to say: ‘Sorry, mate, it’s against the law’.”
Meta’s research surveyed just over a thousand parents. It said in a blog post that the results were “striking”.
It found that the “vast majority” of Australian parents surveyed support a law requiring parental approval for app downloads by children under age 16.
Four in five Australian parents surveyed (82 per cent) support a law requiring parental approval for children under 16 to download apps. The parents surveyed believe app stores are easier and more secure places than apps for giving parental approval.
Parents surveyed overwhelmingly say providing approval in one place such as an app store (70 per cent) would be easier than providing approvals in each application individually (30 per cent). Three quarters (75 per cent) of parents surveyed trust app stores over apps to securely handle the personal data needed to verify parental approval.
Two-thirds (67 per cent) of parents surveyed believe they should decide if social media is right for their kids, rather than a government ban. By a two to one margin (67 per cent), Australian parents surveyed say that “parents should be able to choose if their teen under the age of 16 is able to use social media apps” over outright bans of social media for minors under 16 (33 per cent).
In a blog post, Meta said:
“When setting up their teen’s phone, parents can already share their teen’s age and set up approval for app store purchases — let’s just use those existing systems, not complicated, time-intensive new ones. Think about it. Movie theatres verify your age before you watch a movie, not the movie producers. Theme parks check IDs before you enter, they don’t check every time you want to get on a ride. Similarly, app stores should be the ones verifying age, not the apps they sell.
“With this solution, parents can verify their teen’s age when setting up their phone and app stores can then apply that age to any apps young people want to download or request parental consent to download. This would eliminate the need for parents to verify age multiple times across multiple apps and for apps to collect potentially sensitive identifying information. And with a clear age signal from the app store, the apps themselves can ensure teens are placed in age-appropriate, supervised experiences,” it added.
Antigone Davis, global vice president of safety at Meta added, “We respect any age limitations the government wants to introduce for social media use. However, what’s missing is a deeper discussion on how we implement protections, otherwise we risk making ourselves feel better, like we have taken action, but teens and parents will not find themselves in a better place.
“The research shows parents want to be involved in their teens’ online lives and want to have a say in determining what’s appropriate for their individual teens.
“We strongly believe parental approval and age verification at the operating system and app store level will provide a simple and effective solution, while also reducing the burden and privacy risk for parents and teens.”
