“Banning social media is not the answer,” Australian Catholic University (ACU) Associate Professor Laura Scholes, of the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education told EducationDaily.
Her comment comes in the wake of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s plan to introduce legislation to enforce a minimum age for children to access social media.
Albanese says his government will begin an age verification trial over the next few months, and that he wants ” to see kids off their devices and onto the footy fields and the swimming pools and the tennis courts”.
But Scholes believes governance around bans on social media for young people is “not practical”.
“Setting an age limit just makes invisible the critical need to equip young people with the skills they need now and into the future,” she says.
“Once young people reach the mandated age limit, what then?”
“The ability to critically read and evaluate social media is increasingly vital. There is escalating alarm in the community however as young people do not have literacies essential for healthy consumption.”
Optimising benefits and mitigating risks
Scholes says young people “urgently need advanced literacies to optimise the benefits of online social engagement, while mitigating the negative consequences of social media use”.
“Unlike, traditional media, social media demands critical literacy competencies to navigate generative AI tools,” she says.
“Traditional media literacy taught in schools is based on mass media produced independent of the individual consumer. It does not account for individual beliefs and values, the porous boundaries between media production and choices of the user. It also does not account for the insidious impact of algorithms with an urgent need for new media principles to inform teaching in schools.
“We need to equip young people to navigate online spaces such as social media. This approach needs to be shared with effect from parents, teachers, schools, and the broader community. We also need to advocate and push for social media companies to provide safer platforms for young people.”
Navigating the digital world
ACU media literacy expert Dr Chloe Gordon agrees and says that “regardless of the new age limit that is imposed, we need to continue equipping young people with skills to effectively navigate the digital world that they’re living in.”
“Supporting and protecting young people online requires a multi-faceted and balanced approach,” Gordon told EducationDaily.
“A key consideration is equipping young people with skills to critically analyse the media they encounter in their everyday digital lives.
“Media literacy is about creating an environment where young people are encouraged to ask questions, like, ‘Who created this message and for what purpose? What information might be missing, and what hidden messages might be here? How do they collect information, and what might they be doing with my data?’.”
Gordon is currently working with the Alannah & Madeline Foundation to develop media literacy lessons as part of its eSmart Program. This program empowers young people to navigate the online world safely and responsibly by offering curriculum-aligned tools and resources to help students build the critical digital skills needed to thrive online.
“Developing media literacy skills early on ensures that when young people do eventually and inevitably engage with social media, they can make the most of its benefits, like connecting with peers and supporting causes, while mitigating its risks.”.
