Restricting children from social media won’t achieve the aim of keeping young people safe, an expert has told Government News.

“I don’t think it will achieve the aim of keeping children safer,” said Tama Leaver – professor of internet studies at Curtin University in WA. “If we ban children from specific platforms then it will probably drive them to other places that are less well-regulated than the things we can at least see in front of us.”

Ultimately, blanket bans are ineffectual, he said. “They just kick the can and the problem becomes something you pick up later.”

Leaver’s comments follow last week’s announcement by the federal government of its plans to legislate age limits for social media.

The Bill – due to be introduced to parliament before the next election – will be informed by a framework developed by the South Australian government that will see global platforms face substantial fines if they fail to curb access to under-14s. The Victorian government has said it will also support the policy.

There are “a raft of reasons” why social media bans won’t work, Leaver said. “It’s technically very, very difficult to do and it’s hard to see how implementing an age ban wouldn’t sacrifice young people’s privacy in order to enable that.”

Leaver points to a statement released by a coalition of leading mental health groups that backs up his thinking. The organisations – which include the Black Dog Institute, Reach Out and Beyond Blue – believe a social media ban would risk cutting young people off from mental health support, exposing them to new harms.

“The evidence says this isn’t a particularly helpful way of addressing the challenges that young people face online – and there are real challenges,” Leaver told GN.

The “single most effective thing” governments can do to protect children online is to invest in digital literacy, said Leaver. “A lot of the challenges young people face online is because we are not spending enough time helping them to think about navigating those challenges.”

Citing cyber bullying as an example, Leaver told GN regulation on its own will not solve the problem. “Yes, the platforms enable children and young people to interact with each other in spaces that aren’t as visible but ultimately it’s bullying, which means that two people are interacting at least to enable that process. If we want to get to the root cause of that it’s not just a technology question, it’s a people question. We need to help people understand the consequences of bullying and help them make better choices.”

Leaver told GN that if governments were to introduce age restrictions, social media companies will need to get serious about policing their platforms. They will, he said, have to enforce the rules “rather than letting anyone enter any birth date at any time – the big platforms need to do better to ensure that their platforms really are as age appropriate as they claim.”