Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden has said she won’t introduce age limits for social media like the world-first laws passed in Australia.
She believes the responsibility lies with parents.
“I am not considering a law change to ban social media for those under 16 or require certain internet filters in New Zealanders’ private homes. I believe decisions about internet use are best made by parents, as each family is different,” she told the Herald.
The minister is correct that it is the primary duty of parents and not the state to set boundaries and raise their children.
However, as Adolescence powerfully depicts, many parents remain naive about online behaviour and culture.
Baby boomers, Gen X and even millennials still believe their children are safest in their bedroom. Because, for most of us when we were young, that was true.
It isn’t anymore. The pervasive nature of the internet has changed that reality.
What hope does a mum or dad have against the powerful global tech platforms and their algorithms designed to engage and enrage?
What few protections are in place simply haven’t kept pace with the rapid advances in internet and device availability.
We need a community approach to tackle this problem. And we are starting to see it.
Online safety educator and documentary maker Rob Cope argues social media is polluting the minds of our children.
Last month, 250 parents from around Waikato came to hear Cope’s message during a presentation in Cambridge.
Among those was Cambridge Middle School principal Daryl Gibbs, who is also the president of the New Zealand Association of Intermediate Middle Schooling.
As was reported on the front page of yesterday’s Weekend Herald, Gibbs bravely spoke of his mistakes as a parent.
He allowed his daughter to download Snapchat as a 13-year-old.
“We naively said, ‘Here’s your phone. Go for it’,” he said.
The content his daughter was seeing quickly became toxic. Schoolyard bullying is no longer confined to the schoolyard, it’s now a brutal, 24/7 online experience.
There is evidence to suggest children are increasingly becoming desensitised because of the graphic material they view online.
The Herald revealed last week that extremist cult groups with neo-Nazi links had emerged here and targeted New Zealand children.
Official information has also revealed referrals to police from social media companies about child sex abuse material or grooming were rising, as was reported in last week’s Herald on Sunday.
Parents must be more vigilant than ever about what is on their child’s screen but it is not foreign to us to collectively agree on age limits for things we believe are harmful to our children.
It is time we took a greater community approach to the issue and this includes contributions from retailers, internet services providers and the Government.
The call for greater protections will only grow louder.
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