Why I’m celebrating the social media minimum age win: One mum’s reflection
By Tahlia Perry
Can we please take a minute to pause, quieten the white noise and celebrate an amazing win for Australian parents, children and young people?
Last night, the Federal Parliament passed the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024. This means that in 12 months’ time my child and young people across Australia will have one barrier in place to keep them safer online.
Is this Bill a silver bullet? No, but it never claimed to be.
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Collett Smart is both a registered psychologist and a qualified teacher, as well a PhD candidate at Macquarie University. She regularly provides comment on national television and radio, regarding issues on mental health and child advocacy. Collett has worked with families in various countries around the world, for almost 20 years.
As published on Online Opinion
Has Laissez-faire parenting become ‘the new black’? With the help of home grown pot, parent-supervised binge-drinking parties and new self-destructing ‘sexting’ apps, teens can get safely inebriated, safely high, or safely sexually harassed, all in the comfort of the parental nest. The rationale being that teens will do such-and-such anyway, so why say ‘no’ to anything they want to do.
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