Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #1142 - Getting It Royally Wrong on Social Media
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast.
- 0:07Speaker 2: It's the podcast for the time poor parent who just
- 0:10Speaker 2: once answers.
- 0:11Speaker 3: Now, the Australian Government, in concert with the Opposition, have
- 0:16Speaker 3: given Australian families a Christmas present. Won't really come in
- 0:20Speaker 3: until next Christmas, but we'll take what we can get.
- 0:23Speaker 1: The government has legislated that kids.
- 0:25Speaker 3: Under the age of sixteen are not going to be
- 0:26Speaker 3: allowed to use social media well until they turn sixteen.
- 0:30Speaker 3: There's going to be all sorts of age verification bits
- 0:32Speaker 3: and pieces that are required so kids can prove it
- 0:34Speaker 3: they're over sixteen. Hallelujah, it's great news, Kylie. Funniest thing
- 0:38Speaker 3: happened just late last week. Prince Harry, father of two,
- 0:42Speaker 3: a five year old Archie and a two year old Lily.
- 0:45Speaker 3: Bet We don't talk about the Royals much on The
- 0:47Speaker 3: Happy Family's podcast, but he's had a word to say
- 0:48Speaker 3: about the Astraian government's decision to ban social media if
- 0:51Speaker 3: kids under sixteen.
- 0:52Speaker 1: Would you like to know what he said?
- 0:54Speaker 3: I'm very interested because this guy is in touch with
- 0:57Speaker 3: the common man.
- 0:59Speaker 1: He knows what the average parents dealing with.
- 1:01Speaker 3: He was speaking in a New York conference of political and
- 1:03Speaker 3: business Big Weeks and he had this to say.
- 1:05Speaker 4: By banning it and removing it creates all sorts of problems,
- 1:09Speaker 4: just as much as any advice to parents to say, well,
- 1:12Speaker 4: just don't let them on social media. Do you know
- 1:14Speaker 4: what happens when that happens. There's a massive falling out
- 1:17Speaker 4: between the parents and the child. Or then the child
- 1:20Speaker 4: goes to school and guess what happens. They're probably the
- 1:23Speaker 4: only person or maybe one of five percent in the
- 1:25Speaker 4: class that isn't on social media and they get bullied.
- 1:28Speaker 2: I'd be really interested to know if there was any
- 1:31Speaker 2: data or on the number of children being bullied because
- 1:37Speaker 2: they don't have social media compare who are being bullied
- 1:43Speaker 2: on social media.
- 1:44Speaker 3: And that's the degree to which the bullying is occurring,
- 1:47Speaker 3: as well the excessiveness of it, the fact that they
- 1:50Speaker 3: can't get away from it. There are two things that
- 1:51Speaker 3: stood out to me. Obviously, the bullying, as you've just
- 1:53Speaker 3: highlighted by the way, research does show that children are
- 1:57Speaker 3: more likely to be bullied because they have that on
- 2:00Speaker 3: one platform with them than not. Like, if you've got
- 2:03Speaker 3: a platform where people are being bullied and you take
- 2:05Speaker 3: it away, it doesn't lead to more bullying. Very very infrequently,
- 2:09Speaker 3: especially once it's a blanket ban. It's going to be
- 2:12Speaker 3: pretty rare for kids to be teasing other kids in
- 2:14Speaker 3: the playground and saying I've got social media and you don't,
- 2:16Speaker 3: You're a loser.
- 2:17Speaker 1: Not going to happen.
- 2:18Speaker 3: But I thought the first part was the most interesting.
- 2:20Speaker 3: When parents ban children from social media, it causes a
- 2:22Speaker 3: massive falling out. Is there anyone on the planet that
- 2:25Speaker 3: knows more about massive falling outs, falling's out, having a
- 2:28Speaker 3: massive falling out with your family than Prince Harry just
- 2:32Speaker 3: asking asking for a friend.
- 2:33Speaker 1: Somebody brought it up.
- 2:35Speaker 3: I just think this is such ill considered advice from
- 2:37Speaker 3: a guy who's raising a five year old and a
- 2:38Speaker 3: three year old and he's clearly.
- 2:40Speaker 1: Not in touch.
- 2:41Speaker 3: In the same conversation, he also confirmed that he doesn't
- 2:44Speaker 3: have any social media accounts. Interesting, very interesting, And I
- 2:49Speaker 3: guess the last point that I wanted to make when
- 2:51Speaker 3: I was thinking about it and talking to parents who
- 2:54Speaker 3: are do you know what, Overwhelmingly every parent that I've
- 2:56Speaker 3: spoken to about this has said, oh, hallelujah, bring it on,
- 2:59Speaker 3: and thank goodness. But I was thinking this idea that
- 3:03Speaker 3: it's going to cause a falling out, parenting causes a
- 3:05Speaker 3: falling out?
- 3:07Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean?
- 3:09Speaker 2: If it doesn't, I think we're actually doing it wrong.
- 3:11Speaker 3: Yeah, make your bed, tidy up your room, eat your vegetables,
- 3:15Speaker 3: go to sleep on time. No, you can't have multiple
- 3:18Speaker 3: piercings because you're seven. No tatoos until you're thirty. No drinking,
- 3:22Speaker 3: no vaping, no smoking, bed time. For goodness, like, kids
- 3:26Speaker 3: need limits, and every time there's going to be a
- 3:28Speaker 3: parent imposing a limit, it has the potential that it
- 3:32Speaker 3: could create a falling out. I don't get where Prince
- 3:34Speaker 3: Harry gets off thinking that he's got something to contribute
- 3:37Speaker 3: to the conversation in Australia when he's raising a five
- 3:39Speaker 3: year old in a three year old, and he's so
- 3:41Speaker 3: clearly he didn't have.
- 3:43Speaker 2: Anything to say in Australia. It was in New York.
- 3:44Speaker 3: Well, he was in New York, but he was talking
- 3:46Speaker 3: about the social media band because Australia has done it.
- 3:48Speaker 3: He also said this, This is a direct quote. So
- 3:50Speaker 3: I don't want to harp on this because today's podcast
- 3:52Speaker 3: is not about Prince Harry, but my goodness, I just
- 3:56Speaker 3: struggle with these guys.
- 3:57Speaker 4: He said, it's already been into created to be addictive,
- 4:02Speaker 4: So by banning it and removing it creates all sorts
- 4:05Speaker 4: of problems.
- 4:06Speaker 3: So banning it or removing it quote creates all sorts
- 4:09Speaker 3: of problems.
- 4:11Speaker 2: That's intriguing. Did we just let the kids have alcohol
- 4:16Speaker 2: drugs because it's going to cause a big problem.
- 4:19Speaker 3: Yeah, Removing something that's addictive is usually a positive step,
- 4:21Speaker 3: is how I would respond to that.
- 4:24Speaker 1: And that's the nature, that's the issue of addictive stuff.
- 4:28Speaker 3: So the man with those social media accounts and a
- 4:30Speaker 3: five year old, a three year old who has lived
- 4:32Speaker 3: a life of but jillion dollars of privilege from day
- 4:35Speaker 3: dot is telling us that our government's wrong. I just
- 4:38Speaker 3: find that absolutely fascinating, compelling, and I wanted to bring
- 4:41Speaker 3: it up because as we move into twelve months to
- 4:44Speaker 3: go until this ban takes place, there's plenty of people
- 4:47Speaker 3: who've got a whole.
- 4:48Speaker 1: Lot of questions.
- 4:48Speaker 2: So I did have three questions for you, but you
- 4:50Speaker 2: actually kind of answered my first question, which was how
- 4:53Speaker 2: quickly will the legislation roll out? You suggest we're going
- 4:56Speaker 2: to be waiting for about twelve months.
- 4:58Speaker 1: Correct, that's over the next twelve months.
- 5:01Speaker 3: The government needs to work out how the age verification
- 5:05Speaker 3: is going to work because people are providing sensitive information.
- 5:08Speaker 3: I don't actually know why this is such a big deal.
- 5:10Speaker 3: Like we provide sensitive information to banks, We provide so
- 5:13Speaker 3: much information to social media companies. But there's a lot
- 5:15Speaker 3: of people worried about privacy.
- 5:17Speaker 2: I think there's good cause for that, though in what way.
- 5:21Speaker 2: I just think that we have to hand out so
- 5:24Speaker 2: much of our private information in so many different directions.
- 5:28Speaker 2: And it's not us as adults who are doing it,
- 5:30Speaker 2: it's our kids who are having to do it.
- 5:32Speaker 3: So the Coalition got amendments through the into this bill,
- 5:36Speaker 3: and they essentially said that platforms can't compel users to
- 5:39Speaker 3: provide official identity documents like a driver's license or a passport,
- 5:43Speaker 3: and any data that's collected has to be deleted once
- 5:45Speaker 3: the age verification is completed, unless the user says no, no, no,
- 5:49Speaker 3: it's okay, you can hold on to it.
- 5:51Speaker 1: Again.
- 5:52Speaker 3: Everyone freaks out, we're giving everyone so much information. Hello,
- 5:55Speaker 3: Like you walk around with that phone in your pocket,
- 5:56Speaker 3: it's tracking everything you do. It knows where you've been,
- 5:59Speaker 3: it knows what convers you're having. It knows how you
- 6:01Speaker 3: face looks at different times when you're watching different reels.
- 6:04Speaker 3: Like we give them so much information. I don't get
- 6:07Speaker 3: why people are freaking out about it. We use the
- 6:09Speaker 3: service every single day, and if the tech giants wanted
- 6:15Speaker 3: to misuse our private information, they're not going to need
- 6:18Speaker 3: access to our identity documents anyway. They've got so much
- 6:21Speaker 3: databare anyway, back to your question. Over the next twelve months,
- 6:24Speaker 3: they're going to be working out how this will happen.
- 6:27Speaker 3: So there's I identification via documents, but you can also
- 6:31Speaker 3: do face ID and that sort of thing. They reckon
- 6:32Speaker 3: that there's some technology there that's going to help and
- 6:36Speaker 3: the good news. The good news is that in twelve
- 6:38Speaker 3: months time, if you're under sixteen.
- 6:40Speaker 1: You're off the platform. But we've got to wait utiln
- 6:42Speaker 1: next Christmas for that to happen.
- 6:44Speaker 2: Well, I'm guessing for kids who are not already on socials,
- 6:46Speaker 2: this could actually be. This could go two ways. As
- 6:51Speaker 2: a parent, I'm jumping for joy. Yeah, but I'm sure
- 6:54Speaker 2: there are plenty of kids who thought that next birthday
- 6:57Speaker 2: they were going to be able to, you know, get
- 7:00Speaker 2: on socials, and now they're finding out that they've got
- 7:02Speaker 2: to wait another two three years before that's going to
- 7:04Speaker 2: be a possibility.
- 7:05Speaker 1: So our ten year old.
- 7:07Speaker 3: She's disappointed because she knows she has to wait till
- 7:10Speaker 3: she's sixteen now, but she also knows she has to
- 7:12Speaker 3: wagh like there's no way around it.
- 7:14Speaker 2: Six years. I would love to think that we're in
- 7:16Speaker 2: a totally different place with this whole social media thing
- 7:20Speaker 2: in six years time.
- 7:21Speaker 1: So many parents got to be so happy about this, but.
- 7:23Speaker 2: I'm thinking that parents of fourteen and fifteen year olds
- 7:27Speaker 2: are pulling their hair out at the moment, wondering how
- 7:30Speaker 2: they're going to rescind this social media privilege from their
- 7:34Speaker 2: children until they're they're sixteen.
- 7:37Speaker 1: So easy. Two things.
- 7:38Speaker 3: Number one, they're not going to have a choice whether
- 7:40Speaker 3: they do or not, because the ID requirements will ensure
- 7:44Speaker 3: that your child cannot have that platform. Even if they
- 7:47Speaker 3: have had it, they'll get kicked off. You know, TikTok
- 7:49Speaker 3: deleted over a million Australian accounts last month because there
- 7:54Speaker 3: was they were all kids that are underage. Like, these
- 7:57Speaker 3: social media companies are absolutely mendation. I have no time
- 8:01Speaker 3: for them whatsoever, But you got to give credit where
- 8:04Speaker 3: credits due. They kicked a million accounts off with underage Australians.
- 8:08Speaker 3: I think that's brilliant. We're talking about under the age
- 8:10Speaker 3: of thirteen here. Wow, So that's great, But parents don't
- 8:13Speaker 3: need to worry about it because the technology will take
- 8:16Speaker 3: care of it for them. The kids will try to
- 8:17Speaker 3: log in, they'll be prompted to provide ID. If they
- 8:19Speaker 3: can't provide ID, they'll be given the opportunity to provide
- 8:22Speaker 3: facial recognition. If neither of those are provided, then they're
- 8:24Speaker 3: off the platform. If they try to provide them and
- 8:27Speaker 3: they don't have accurate data to get in, then again
- 8:30Speaker 3: the platforms just won't let them in. So finally, what
- 8:34Speaker 3: I've been advocating for for several years now, the technology
- 8:37Speaker 3: companies are going to be the ones that are responsible
- 8:39Speaker 3: for determining whether or not the kid can or cannot
- 8:42Speaker 3: use it based on whether they're sixteen or older. It's
- 8:45Speaker 3: the perfect solution because parents don't have to be the
- 8:48Speaker 3: bad guy here. Parents just have to say, oh, well,
- 8:50Speaker 3: I guess you have to wait till you're sixteen, So.
- 8:58Speaker 2: I guess My next question there is what does a
- 9:01Speaker 2: conversation with your child look like. There's actually probably two
- 9:05Speaker 2: conversations we could explore here. We've got a thirteen year
- 9:09Speaker 2: old who's just found out she's got a wait another
- 9:12Speaker 2: three years. But you've also got a fourteen or fifteen
- 9:16Speaker 2: year old who's already on there, and they're about to
- 9:18Speaker 2: lose that privilege. So what did those two conversations look
- 9:22Speaker 2: like in our home?
- 9:23Speaker 3: There are two ways to answer this question. The first
- 9:26Speaker 3: one is just the shrug of the shoulder and say, hey,
- 9:28Speaker 3: there's nothing we can do about it, like you're going
- 9:30Speaker 3: to lose your social media privileges. And I've been talking
- 9:33Speaker 3: with our daughter, our fourteen year old, about the reality
- 9:37Speaker 3: that this is coming, and asking her if she wouldn't
- 9:39Speaker 3: mind getting off earlier. So far, no success, but the
- 9:41Speaker 3: conversation is happening.
- 9:43Speaker 2: I may have been proving to a conversation that has
- 9:47Speaker 2: highlighted that she is definitely listening. She had a friend
- 9:50Speaker 2: over the other day and she asked this frame.
- 9:55Speaker 1: See, this is the thing, even before you're telling me
- 9:57Speaker 1: what she's asked. This is the thing.
- 9:58Speaker 3: As parents, we feel like we are bashing our head
- 10:01Speaker 3: gainst the wall and the kids are not listening. And
- 10:03Speaker 3: you're just telling me that you've heard this. I've got
- 10:05Speaker 3: a feeling that it's going to be good.
- 10:07Speaker 2: So she had a friend over the other day and
- 10:08Speaker 2: they were in the kitchen, and she asked her friend
- 10:11Speaker 2: if she'd heard about the social media band that was
- 10:13Speaker 2: coming in. Her friend's a year older than her, so
- 10:15Speaker 2: it's not really going to impact her at all by
- 10:18Speaker 2: the time it is enforced. But she said, my mom
- 10:23Speaker 2: is jumping up and down for joy, like she is
- 10:25Speaker 2: over the moon about this because she has younger sisters
- 10:28Speaker 2: coming through. And she said, yeah, my dad has asked
- 10:32Speaker 2: me to get off socials before the band comes in.
- 10:35Speaker 2: And she said, I don't really want to, but I
- 10:38Speaker 2: think I'm going to.
- 10:39Speaker 1: Oh really, Oh my goodness.
- 10:41Speaker 2: And that was the conversation that they had, and both
- 10:43Speaker 2: girls acknowledged that they actually thought that it was a
- 10:46Speaker 2: good idea and that they would do something about it sooner.
- 10:51Speaker 2: As yet, there hasn't been any regal room. But the
- 10:55Speaker 2: reality it is our kids are having conversations.
- 10:58Speaker 1: I'm fascinating to do that.
- 11:00Speaker 2: I think what's really important in this conversation is just
- 11:06Speaker 2: the reminder that our village matters, and the types of
- 11:09Speaker 2: friendships that we have make a difference to the conversations
- 11:15Speaker 2: that take place.
- 11:16Speaker 3: I want to go back to the question you asked,
- 11:17Speaker 3: and that at a second element, because I said, there's
- 11:19Speaker 3: two different ways that you can respond when you've got
- 11:21Speaker 3: a child who's upset because they don't want to lose
- 11:23Speaker 3: their social media And this is something that you have
- 11:26Speaker 3: illustrated and emphasized for me so many times, because I
- 11:29Speaker 3: do get a little bit carried away.
- 11:30Speaker 1: I do sort of just get to the point.
- 11:34Speaker 3: But there's going to be some sadness, and I think
- 11:37Speaker 3: it's perfectly In fact, I think it's useful for us
- 11:39Speaker 3: as parents to look at our child and say, this
- 11:41Speaker 3: is really disappointing for you.
- 11:42Speaker 1: Like we're jumping for joy as parents, but.
- 11:45Speaker 3: We get that this is something that's meaningful for you,
- 11:47Speaker 3: and it is going to cause an imposition. It's going
- 11:51Speaker 3: to change the way you relate to your friends and
- 11:54Speaker 3: the way you engage with your friends.
- 11:55Speaker 2: It's going to change the way they communicate with their friends.
- 11:57Speaker 2: Like this is huge for a teenager who has used
- 12:01Speaker 2: social media as their communication platform, all of a sudden
- 12:07Speaker 2: that has been taken away from them, and it feels like,
- 12:10Speaker 2: literally overnight, we've gone from having complete access to everyone
- 12:14Speaker 2: and everything and now we've got nothing.
- 12:17Speaker 1: I love it. I just love it. Twelve months That's
- 12:19Speaker 1: not how they see it, no, of course not.
- 12:21Speaker 2: And so how do we deal with that, because there
- 12:23Speaker 2: are going to be some kids who are really going
- 12:25Speaker 2: to struggle. You know, that whole idea of like fomo,
- 12:29Speaker 2: this is going to be a whole new level of it.
- 12:32Speaker 3: Go back to what you said, the whole village thing,
- 12:33Speaker 3: create community, but also go back to what I said,
- 12:36Speaker 3: you don't have to solve this now, it is what
- 12:38Speaker 3: it is. And instead you put your arm around and say,
- 12:40Speaker 3: I know, I know, I get it, I get how
- 12:43Speaker 3: frustrating it is. As much as this is a good thing,
- 12:46Speaker 3: it doesn't stop it hurting. It's kind of like going
- 12:48Speaker 3: to the dentist, right, going to the dentist is a
- 12:50Speaker 3: good thing, but we still don't look forward to it,
- 12:53Speaker 3: sorry to every dentist who's listening. Ultimately, rule of law,
- 12:57Speaker 3: it is the backbone of what it is to in
- 13:00Speaker 3: a civilized society. And there is nothing at all, nothing
- 13:03Speaker 3: at all that is inappropriate or unfair or draconian about
- 13:07Speaker 3: young children not being allowed to buy alcohol, cigarettes, or
- 13:12Speaker 3: get on their apps and gamble, or have tats all
- 13:15Speaker 3: over their bodies, or going to nightclubs or driver card.
- 13:18Speaker 3: That's not draconian, that's sensible. It's keeping them safe and
- 13:23Speaker 3: recognizing that they're not yet ready to make responsible choices
- 13:27Speaker 3: in environments that have impact.
- 13:29Speaker 1: In their lives.
- 13:30Speaker 3: Social media has impact, big impact. High impact comes with risks,
- 13:37Speaker 3: and I think the government's got this right in making
- 13:40Speaker 3: sure that there are appropriate safeguards to keep them safe.
- 13:43Speaker 3: I just can't wait to find out every platform that's band.
- 13:46Speaker 3: Also worth mentioning Kylie unfortunate insight that I had the
- 13:50Speaker 3: other day. Just because they're not going to be on
- 13:52Speaker 3: social media doesn't mean that they're not going to have
- 13:54Speaker 3: access to screens. They'll still be able to play games,
- 13:56Speaker 3: They'll still be able to use the Internet as much
- 13:59Speaker 3: as we all.
- 13:59Speaker 1: Out them to.
- 14:00Speaker 3: It's just the social media band that's come in.
- 14:03Speaker 2: What do you think will be the flow and effect
- 14:04Speaker 2: from this decision.
- 14:07Speaker 3: I'm going to be really interested to see we're the
- 14:09Speaker 3: first nation in the world to do it. I'm hoping
- 14:11Speaker 3: that there are some people in universities that are collecting
- 14:14Speaker 3: some before and after data. I'm hoping that they've got
- 14:16Speaker 3: the foresight to have a look at what happens in trends,
- 14:19Speaker 3: what happens longeritudinly. What I think is going to happen
- 14:23Speaker 3: is that we are going to be protecting children's brains
- 14:25Speaker 3: at one of the most sensitive times in brain development,
- 14:28Speaker 3: during those tween and early teen years.
- 14:30Speaker 1: And I think that it's going to be good for
- 14:32Speaker 1: our kids. Hopefully as well.
- 14:34Speaker 3: They'll start spending less time on screens and more time
- 14:36Speaker 3: face to face with one another.
- 14:37Speaker 1: To me, that's the ideal.
- 14:38Speaker 3: So to take our messages this, if the kids are
- 14:40Speaker 3: sad about it, give them some empathy and some love
- 14:43Speaker 3: and so yeah, no, I get it, you were really
- 14:44Speaker 3: looking forward to it. And then talk about the advantages
- 14:47Speaker 3: and disadvantages with them. Just say what do you think
- 14:49Speaker 3: is going to be good about this? What do you
- 14:50Speaker 3: think is going to be bad about it? And work
- 14:52Speaker 3: out how you can support them.
- 14:53Speaker 2: So you would suggest using the three ease O.
- 14:56Speaker 1: The three is an effective discipline.
- 14:57Speaker 2: Explore, explain and empowered feeling.
- 15:00Speaker 3: Explain why it's good, and then empower them to make
- 15:03Speaker 3: decisions over the next twelve months that will be in
- 15:04Speaker 3: their best interests.
- 15:06Speaker 1: How good are you?
- 15:08Speaker 2: I think if I could just add one little thing,
- 15:11Speaker 2: When you think about something that you're addicted to, it's
- 15:13Speaker 2: not cold. Turkey doesn't usually ever work right, So as
- 15:17Speaker 2: a family, you've got twelve months to kind of help
- 15:20Speaker 2: your child work through this process. If this is going
- 15:23Speaker 2: to be a really big deal for them, and slow
- 15:26Speaker 2: and steady.
- 15:27Speaker 3: Yeah, those conversations are going to make a big difference.
- 15:29Speaker 3: If you like more information about having these conversations with
- 15:31Speaker 3: your kids, check out our webinar Super Solutions for Technology Troubles.
- 15:35Speaker 3: It's online at happyfamilies dot com dot IU. The Happy
- 15:38Speaker 3: Families podcast is produced by Justin Ruland from Bridge Media.
- 15:41Speaker 3: Back tomorrow with more to make your family happier.