AUSTRALIA’S government was the first to introduce a ban on under-age use of social media platforms. Though the ban, introduced in December for under-16s, likely had some positive effects, many teenagers had little difficulty outwitting the systems designed to lock them out.
The whole saga should serve as a warning to other governments of the folly of attempting to micro-manage children’s access to a widely accessible communications technology. Governments need to take a step back and ask themselves how they can support, rather than supplant, the supervisory role of parents.
