Ani O'Brien: Hear me out - Ban the hardware not the software

We need to save childhood without destroying adult freedom

Across the developed world, governments have concluded they can no longer ignore the mounting evidence that social media is harming children. Australia has legislated an under 16 social media ban that is proving to be pretty flawed to say the least. Britain has announced one and is now floating the idea of a VPN ban. The European Union is actively considering continent-wide restrictions on children's access to social media, while member states including France, Greece and Spain are pushing for stronger action. In the United States, lawmakers continue searching for ways to limit children’s access while holding technology companies to account.

David Farrar: A VPN ban would be terrible

The Post reports:

Education Minister Erica Stanford says she is not pursuing restrictions on Virtual Private Networks as part of her under-16 social media ban, soon after ACT said this would be a red line for it.

The Post reported on Tuesday morning that the Government was pursuing some kind of restriction on VPNs as part of its work on an under-16 social media ban, after being told by multiple sources with knowledge of the work that this was the case.

Mike's Minute: The social media ban will not happen

The social media ban is like the pay equity debate.

It's not hard to drum up a lot of emotion and it's not hard to find people who would argue passionately for it.

So in this sense, perhaps unlike the pay equity debate, the Government is on the right side of this.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Here's a solution to handling kids and social media

About this debate in Australia on banning social media for kids - I have just come across an article that makes the best comparison yet for how we should deal with this issue.

Treat it like sex.

This article is by an academic in Australia and she argues that the best way to protect kids from social media is by teaching them its dangers, like we do with sex.

Joanne Orlando: Young people need education, not unrealistic bans

The federal government has committed to a national plan to ban children from social media.

Details are still scarce. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has acknowledged that “no government is going to be able to protect every child from every threat, but we have to do all we can”.