I make no apologies for standing squarely behind the social media age delay that Australia is implementing from tomorrow. None. As they say in The Land of Oz, I’m not here to f&ck spiders.
We could spend the next 500 words sharing the statistics, and the evidence is overwhelming. Bit of a waste of your time; rather Google it, ask your friendly neighbourhood GPT, or better still, ask yourself: what if we age delay here too? What if our kids spend more time with their friends? What if they read more, play more, talk more? What if they don’t get caught in a dopamine, cortisol, adrenaline loop of scrolling monotony for three hours each day?
And what if they have a richer childhood as a result? Actually, what if they have a childhood?
What if those whose profession it is to look after our kids - educators, advocates, healthcare professionals - know what they’re talking about? Heaven forbid, what if the evidence we see from those children who have done a digital detox is true? What if there is a chance to reset this anxious generation and with it the path our species is taking?
A lot has been said about the impending implosion of the Aussie young as our prescient cousins take the right steps to safeguard our shared future. The “Safeguarding Washers”, many of whom will take their overlords’ shilling in return for patronage, should be ashamed.
I’ve done the reading, so you don’t have to…here’s what happens when children withdraw from their socials.
Week 1 - 2: fidgety and anxious. Lower mood and irritable.
Weeks 2-3 onwards: anxiety lowers, mood improves, and irritability decreases. Body image and physical activity up, interests in other things rise, FOMO decreases. The end.
But make no bones about it: it’ll be tough, and parents will need to step up and support their children. And there’s the rub. The fact that we have to manage our children’s withdrawal is enough to know that this thing needs to stop. No one wants an even more enraged and ratty teenager skulking around the house searching for identity through the blue light in the palm of their hand, but I promise you this: a few hard weeks and the change will set them free.
The platforms will continue to obfuscate. They know the revenue hit will be tiny in the immediate term and will get back to where their monetary masters say it should be quickly enough, but they determine it better to keep kids there to hit the quarterly numbers and keep their bonuses safe.
FFS, the rules are 13plus anyway. Not exactly a high price for anyone to pay for the salvation of childhood, is it? The firms won’t self-regulate, so someone has to. It’s that simple.
Yes, there are exceptions. Yes, this is a blunt instrument. And yes, some children will be more negatively affected than others. But the genie is out of the bottle, and it is running amok. Here’s the chance to put it back in before it grants the techbros their three wishes - ubiquity, profit and power.
It’s up to us, parents, carers, professionals, a proper coalition of the willing, to make the change that common sense says we need to make. Digital literacy is not instantaneous. It is a distinct developmental dimension that Mother Nature didn’t predict. And now we need to help. And I’d rather put my lot in with her than submit my kids to a bloated American corporation with scant regard for the most important people on the planet.
Australia is the first nation to do this. There will be others. The entire world is watching.
Good luck tomorrow, Oz.
