This article is featured in The Daily Telegraph and is republished with permission.
Children as young as 11 are scrambling to sign up for social media in a last-minute effort to beat the bans coming into effect at the end of the year.
And experts have warned there are parents who will ignore the ban and children who believe they can circumvent the new laws by signing up now.
The bans were put into place after Newscorp’s Let Them Be Kids campaign calling for children under 16 to be restricted from having social media accounts.
Flocking to Facebook, hundreds of parents reported their kids downloading and asking to sign up ahead of the bans.
One mum said her 11 year old “randomly asked” if she could download Snapchat “because all my friends have it”.
“She was told no by us, but I think the topic only would have come up if her mates had recently started talking about it,” she said.
Another parent said her 13 year old daughter kept asking to be signed up before the ban.
Former chair of the state government’s cyber-bullying taskforce and author Madonna King said many parents were “breathing a sigh of relief because the government’s ban had given them permission to say no to social media.
But other parents were taking a different stance.
“They’ve told me they will not be removing their 12 year old or 15 year old from social media, once the ban is active. Indeed, in some cases parents are allowing their children to set up an account now, ahead of the ban,” Ms King said.
“In one case, parents got together and all decided that because this law is coming in. But I also know of cases where parents are very clear that this is their decision, not the governments.”
Griffith University Lecturer in Communication Dr Susan Grantham said she was unsurprised kids and teenagers were rushing to sign up for social media and her biggest concern was young people who would go to deep dark places where age verifications aren’t required.
She also said there was always the risk of young people putting in fake birthdays or even changing their VPN to show their location outside of Australia where the ban was not in place.
For parents wanting to keep their kids off social media, Dr Grantham suggested they educate their children about how to use it before giving them full access at 16.
Australian Psychological Society chief executive Zena Burgess said she had also been in discussion with people about children rushing to sign up for social media.
“We’ve certainly heard about that, the idea that if they sign on now that somehow they will avoid the ban or somehow outsmart it,” she said.
Brisbane mother Melody Lawler said she supported the social media ban, calling it the “first step in the right direction” for protecting children online.
The family has decided to limit screentime and device usage and has not allowed their two daughters, aged 11 and 10, to have social media accounts.
“Things like bullying at school, 100 per cent that has been happening forever, but all of a sudden now bullying doesn’t stop when you get home, it is in your lounge room, in your bedroom” she said.
Her husband Michael said he was not surprised children were rushing to sign up to social media before the ban was implemented.
“There is very much a strong pull for that being cool, or that being the expected norm to be on social media,” he said.
“I totally disagree with the notion of social media use, in terms of safety for children and their capacity to make choices that are appropriate at that age. There is so much opportunity for danger for them.
“They could get themselves into trouble, get themselves into a position they are very uncomfortable with and don’t know how to get out.”