News Australia has won several prestigious awards at the International News Media Association (INMA) Global Media Awards, including taking home two first-place awards for its Let Them Be Kids social media safety campaign.
The awards, which took place in Berlin, attracted 960 entries from 274 news media brands from across 46 countries.
The powerful campaign contributed to Australia passing world-leading laws banning children under 16 from social media platforms won Best Public Relations or Community Service Campaign (National) and Best Use of Print (National).
The campaign exposed the physical, psychological, social and emotional harm social media was inflicting on Australia’s children and called on the Federal Government to raise the age of access to social media to 16. After 18 months of relentless reporting, Australia became the first country in the world to pass such legislation.
The Saturday Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail editor, Melanie Pilling, who led the campaign and accepted the awards in Berlin, said: “Let Them Be Kids had one objective – to help make Australia’s kids safer online.”
“Critical to the success of this campaign was the parents who trusted us to tell their stories,” she said.
“These parents had suffered unimaginable loss and our campaign gave them a voice. We achieved what we set out to do but, significantly, also started a global movement around online safety with dozens of countries looking to introduce similar laws.”
News Australia also won Second Place for Best Use of Audio (National) – Dear Rachelle, Third Place for Best Idea to Grow Advertising Sales or Revenue (National) – Back Australia and Third Place for Best Revenue Diversification Strategy (Regional) – News Price Harmonisation Program.
