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Australia Social Media Is Delicious · The Delicious Culture with Jon Francois

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  you Delishies. Kids under 16 in Australia should
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  have access to social media. You probably heard
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  about the Australian government's plan to ban
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  children from social media platforms, including
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  X, TikTok, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, until
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  their 16th birthday. I was reading some opposing
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  views from the Associated Press. For example,
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  this 17 -year -old Leo Puglisi, I think I'm pronouncing
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  his name right, quite an accomplished kid. I
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  mean, he's 17 years old and founded the online
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  streaming service. News Australia, he says, quote,
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  and this is a kid that has founded social media
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  from the age of 11, with respect to the government
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  and prime minister, they didn't grow up in the
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  social media age. They're not growing up in the
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  social media age. What a lot of people are failing
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  to understand here is that like it or not, social
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  media is part of people's daily lives. End quote,
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  Leo continues. End quote. I totally agree with
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  Leo and bouncing off of that, uh, there was a
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  15 year old named Riley. This guy, he lives in
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  Australia and he lives 43 miles away from his
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  closest friends and social media is really the
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  primal way in which they keep in touch with each
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  other. You have Riley's mother, who is a school
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  teacher, Sonia Allen, who said she would not
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  help her son get around the ban. She in fact
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  banned him from social media for several weeks
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  because there was an instance where, or actually
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  several instances where Riley was using social
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  media at midnight. He wasn't getting his homework
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  done. mother's solution was that she would take
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  him off of it for several months. And she claims
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  that he's used it a lot more responsibly since
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  then. I have questions about this. So one, a
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  school teacher I would understand arguably has
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  more of an understanding of the way children's
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  brains work and their feasts, their thirst for
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  curiosity and how we should welcome that more
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  than anything. So I am kind of surprised that
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  this school teacher would think that just a complete
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  ban is going to do the job. And she claims that
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  Riley has been more responsible since then, but
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  she doesn't know that because kids can find a
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  more private way to get around the banning or
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  the grounding of it all. Would that work for
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  other children the way it has claimed to work
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  for Riley? According to Sonia, who the hell knows
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  Riley himself. He suggested a 10 PM enforced
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  social media curfew for young children to prevent
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  them from losing sleep. He doesn't agree with.
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  this Australian social media ban. I think it's
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  a possibility. It's an idea that could work.
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  And it kind of reminds me that you should listen
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  to children. They can have really good ideas.
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  Children obviously need a lot more sleep than
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  adults, probably eight, nine, 10, 12 hours worth.
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  Maybe if you have social media accessible to
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  children under 16 during the day, and then there
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  is a hard line on technology that blocks them
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  off at 10 PM so that they can go to sleep. get
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  the healthy beauty sleep that they need. It could
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  possibly work. No guarantees. It could possibly
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  work. Now on the other side of it, you have a
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  cyber safety campaign or Sonia Ryan, who had
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  the terrible tragedy happened back in 2007 where
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  her daughter was murdered. by a 50 year old pedophile
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  who was posing as a teenager on social media.
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  Sonia says, quote, kids are being exposed to
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  harmful pornography. They're being fed misinformation.
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  There are body image issues. There's sextortion,
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  online predators, bullying. There are so many
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  different harms for them to try and manage and
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  kids just don't have the skills or the life experience
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  to be able to manage those well, end quote. So
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  I totally understand Sonia where she's coming
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  from. that has got to be a terribly traumatic
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  situation. I can't imagine, I don't have a daughter.
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  At the same time, I wonder instead of saying
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  kids just don't have the skills to figure out
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  social media, the harmful effects of it, if we
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  can have more faith. in their intelligence, in
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  what they can know, especially kids growing up
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  in this social media era. Can parents, can other
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  role model adult figures find a way to provide
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  active quality time with the kids to figure out
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  social media? This is how it works. You're going
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  to be using it. It's inevitable. Here's a way
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  to use it responsibly. I think it all comes down
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  to parents providing that patience, that active
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  role in their children's lives. Now, look, I'm
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  not a parent. I do not want to tell people how
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  to raise their kids. That's all on you. What
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  I will say is that as a 34 year old who was once
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  a kid, I was curious and I wanted to feel included.
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  I wanted to have a community to belong to and
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  that curiosity, that hunger to feel included,
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  to feel a part of a community. going to be greater
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  than any parent telling me, no, you can't do
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  this. No, it's wrong. Cause guess what? You tell
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  me it's wrong. And that only increases my curiosity
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  more and more to see, oh, why is it wrong? Oh,
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  and of course your kids have that rebellious
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  thing like, oh yeah, I want to do the thing that
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  my parents tell me not to do because I'm cool.
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  And that's what my friends in class kind of give
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  me the example of being cool. So really it just
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  comes down to. uh, parents, active role model
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  adult figures. Yes, you're taking from your experience
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  as a child and how you were devilish and rebellious
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  and going against your parents rules and yada
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  yada yada. So you're kind of worried of like,
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  Oh my God, what if my kid or what if this kid
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  in my life turns out to be the kid that I was?
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  I get that. Um, but also remember what it was
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  like when you were told not to do something and
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  then you did it anyway and you failed. Maybe
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  you had some missteps along the way, but here
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  you are today. You'll learn from that experience.
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  And I think that we just have to allow that grace
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  to kids that yes, social media can be dangerous.
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  It can be harmful at a young age. However, it's
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  a part of our daily lives to reference what Leo
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  said. It's just how we communicate. It's how
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  we find it. out information, it's how we get
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  in touch with friends, figure out a way to meet
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  up and such. So how can we acknowledge that this
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  is a part of our life and also make sure that
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  we're using it to a degree where we're not hurting
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  ourselves and we're not hurting others? I think
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  that's something that's worthy of thought. Feel
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  free to reach out if you have any questions,
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  concerns, comments. Feedback, whatever. TheDeliciousCulture
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  at gmail .com. TheDeliciousCulture at gmail .com.
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  You can find The Delicious Culture wherever you
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• 7:13
  can find me on TikTok at John François Presents.
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  Let deliciousness ring.