How the ban impacts teachers and support staff
The IEU calls on employers to provide guidance, resources and support to teachers and professional and support staff who are dealing with Australia’s social media ban for under 16s, which came into force from 10 December.
Platforms included in the ban
Ten platforms are included in the ban: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit and streaming platforms Kick and Twitch.
Lemon8 and Yope have been issued “please explain” notices, indicating they will also be captured by the ban. There have also been calls to expand the ban to online gaming.
YouTube Kids, Google Classroom and WhatsApp are not included in the ban, and children will be able to view most content on YouTube, which does not require an account.
The eSafety Commissioner in November advised teachers to continue to use YouTube videos as part of their teaching materials.
“Some of these services allow teachers to embed public video content from other platforms onto the learning management system, such as YouTube videos”, its website said. “If the content is publicly available, and does not require the student to log into another platform, students will still be able to watch this content.”
It is important to recognise that the enforcement of the social media ban is the responsibility of tech companies – not children or their parents.
Impact on staff and students
The social media ban will have a profound impact on how children under 16 interact and communicate online. The ban is likely to affect teachers and school support staff in the following ways:
- Students’ mental health and well-being may be impacted by changes in access to social media platforms. They may require assistance in adjusting to new ways of communicating and engaging with their peers.
- Schools may need to review and reconsider communication methods with students, including halting the use of restricted social media platforms.
- Schools may need to consider how to explain the ban to students and their families – and include these discussions as part of teaching digital literacy and responsible online behaviour.
Will the ban work?
The federal government claims the new social media age restrictions will help keep children under 16 safer. Surveys have found seven in 10 children have been exposed to harmful content and behaviour on social media, such as misogynistic material, fight videos, content promoting eating disorders and suicide, as well as cyberbullying and grooming behaviour.
Polling indicates strong public support for the ban, driven by frustration at the failure of digital platforms to self-regulate, and parents concerned about cyberbullying.
However, uncertainty remains over whether age-verification technologies will be effective in preventing children under 16 from using social media.
Queensland University of Technology professor Axel Bruns said part of the social media ban will be “unworkable”.
“Age verification technology doesn’t exist in the way the government wants it to exist,” he told the Guardian.
A trial of age-checking technology at a Canberra school earlier this year found it wrongly guessed some teenage students as 37-year-olds. Face-scanning technology could only guess ages within an 18-month range in 85 per cent of cases.
The trail also found “concerning evidence” that some technology providers were seeking to gather too much personal information, reported the Guardian.
More information
The eSafety Commission has prepared information and resources for teachers to support them through the ban – click here for more info.