Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Nathan Wallis: Parenting expert on the damage caused by social media, ban for under 16s

Transcript

Nathan Wallis: Parenting expert on the damage caused by social media, ban for under 16s · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And that's a putting forward a member's bill that bans
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: social media for under sixteen year olds. The TOOKI tookimp
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Catherine Web's bill would put responsibility of age verification on
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the social media companies, so that's their job. The idea
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: is supported by the Prime Minister, but ACT doesn't like it.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Nathan Wallace's parenting expert with us this morning. Nathan, good morning,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Ryan.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: How are you mate?
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Very good? Thank you great to have you on the show.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Now to phones, have we established that phones make kids
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: depressed and messed with their heads and turns them into
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  Speaker 1: you nutbars?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, The short answer is yere, we have that.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: In the last like three years, the research has really
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: moved from being coronith where where those we know that
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: they started to get anxiety and depression rates started to
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: go up at the same time as kids got cell phones.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: But that's not the same as causative research that actually
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: shows us causing it, Whereas now there's clear evidence that
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: shows that social media is actually causing the depression and anxiety.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Okay, so Tick, we do know that we can say
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: that definitively alcohol does bad things to them, Drugs does that,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: cigarettes is bad for your health. We don't let them
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: do that, so should really? Yeah, so what are we doing?
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's my way of thinking too. I think it's
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: been a social experiment because we didn't know it was bad.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: It's going back to those old days when they didn't
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: know cigarette smoking was bad, so you know, doctors recommend
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: it and stuff. But then that changed, and I think
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: it's a similar situation. We now know, oh, whoops, that's
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: way worse than we thought, way worse and were comprehended,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: and now we need to, you know, be the responsible
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: parents and take the steps to protect our kids from it.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: How do you do that? Though? If a kid gets drunk,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: you can tell because they're stumbling around the house, they
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: smell like cigarettes. How do you tell what they've been
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: using a phone?
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I think there is no hard, fast way that you
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: can always tell. I mean, there's all the obvious parenting
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: things of restricting it. But I think just by making
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: it that they're not supposed to have one for the
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: age of sixteen, it's just going to take it out
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  Speaker 2: of being the norm and instead of every other kid
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  Speaker 2: at school having one, And it just sends the message
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  Speaker 2: that it is like cigarettes and alcohol is something we
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: need to monitor because it's not just teenagers, it's you know,
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: there's an issue with them on screens right from the
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: time you're a child. You know, the World Health Organization
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: says children under two shouldn't look at screens at all,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: you know, the appropriate number of minutes per day they
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: can look at a screen without doing damage a zero.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: And then we know it has big impacts on you know,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: if you give your four year old the cell phone
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: or the iPad is a reward, they never want any
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: other award after that. It's all the creativity that you know,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: sand castle building, the tree huts they're making and stuff.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: That stuff doesn't tend to happen because all they want
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: to do is go online and you know, go and
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: have the screen from of them. It's because it gives
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: so much dopamine to the brain, just like alcohol does.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: You know, alcohol gives you a great big breast of
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  Speaker 2: dopamine and to feel good stuff.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: But at least at least you have some fun though, yeah, yeah,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: and at least it's social. At least it's actually social,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: whereas this is not the it's the antithesis of it.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Nathan really appreciate you coming on the show. If I
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: let you talk any longer, I'm going to get more depressed. God,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: isn't that frightening. Nathan Wallace's parenting expert, with us this morning.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: For more Familily edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: news talks. It'd be from five am weekdays, or follow
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio.