The mother in me jumps with joy that the Australian Government has recognised that, for children to stay children, certain restrictions need to apply. It’s the same logic that says children can’t drive cars, drink alcohol, or enter nightclubs until they’re 18. Growing up, a child can feel capable of handling whatever the big, wide world has ahead of them.
As an adult, I can say now that even I wasn’t prepared for what the world had in store for me – and certainly not for how social media would come wrapped in incredible highs and opportunities, but also extreme lows and real mental health battles.
I joined my first social media site around the age of 16, and I’m honestly thankful every day that phones and platforms weren’t around any earlier. At that point in my life, my daily consumption would have barely hit an hour.
Nowadays, we have children on social media with algorithms feeding them whatever they please, daily screen time pushing 6–8+ hours, kids starting businesses before they’ve even graduated from school, and many deciding to skip further study altogether because someone online took the road less travelled and “made it” by creating content from day one.
Let me get this straight: I run Huume Management, a talent agency that manages influencers and is one of the many creator-first companies expanding under the Launch’d Group.
So, by all means, I love that social media has allowed mothers to build stay-at-home careers with incredible incomes; creatives to monetise their passions; and storytellers to educate not only themselves but to create communities invested in bettering their future decisions, all through the simple scroll of a platform.
However, even before the under-16s ban was announced, my husband and I had already decided that our children wouldn’t have social media. They’re six and eight, and even at their ages, particularly my eldest, many of their friends already have phones.
As parents who relied on a cheeky bit of YouTube Kids in the toddler years, we learned very quickly the negative effects it can have on a little person’s behaviour, sleep, and real-life creativity.
Mikhailla and her team.
The pros?
We’re giving children permission to be children (don’t grow up too fast!).
They get a chance to figure out who they are and what they like without all the outside noise crowding their own thoughts.
And finally, the bullying that happens on the playground can’t continue at home. We’ve already seen how damaging this can be, and relying on children to be mature enough to understand the impact of their words in digital spaces, we can’t police 24/7, is, frankly, almost irresponsible.
The cons?
If I imagine myself as a 16-year-old today, with the hype of social media and the rise
of young influencers, are we suppressing creative career paths? Are we cutting off access to online communities where they might feel far more connected than they do with their local peers? Probably.
I started my first business at 19, and it relied on one thing for its success – can you guess?
Yes, social media.
If I hadn’t had those few years beforehand to learn and experiment, maybe I wouldn’t have done so well. And now, at 31, running my second successful business that also relies on social media, it does feel strange to enforce a restriction on an age group that’s trying to work out who they are – possibly delaying them on a path that leads to their destiny.
But having an official, legal restriction also makes it easier for parents to take back control, to have deeper conversations about social media, best practices, and to make decisions together about when it really is the right time for their children to engage with it.