Australia's social media ban for kids gains support from Indian parents and influencers for awareness-raising

NEW DELHI: Sapna Trivedi, a student of Class 12, spends at least three hours a day on Instagram despite knowing about its many pitfalls. "I waste my time using it," she says, underlining the addictive nature of the photo and short video-sharing platform. The boon and bane of social media have long been a matter of heated discussion. But the Australian government's move to ban social media for children under the age of 16 through a "world-leading legislation" has renewed the debate.

While parents favour imposing such a ban in India, content creators say sensitisation and counselling are better approaches.

"Once teenagers get addicted, it creates distractions and they waste most of their time on social media which also affects their mental health," Trivedi, 17, told.

Parents argue that social media platforms, including Instagram, YouTube and X, are addictive in nature and impact children's decision-making, self-perception and time management and also expose them to the risk of cyberbullying.

Hema Natarajan, a teacher and mother of two 16-year-old girls, says children have "stopped thinking or making decisions on their own".

"It's always another person's opinion that is followed. Their language has become atrocious and communication with people around has reduced drastically," she argues.

Lakshmi Satish, a teacher and mother of two teenage girls, argues that even if children were emotionally evolved, "social media would make them feel inadequate".

"Their identity is all about who liked my story, who commented, who forwarded, how many likes, should I send a follow request, should I accept a follow request, private account, public account, when and why to unfollow," she says.

The Bengaluru-based teacher rues that social media has "disintegrated the growing mind's self-identity and self-worth". She also flagged the effects of cyberbullying.

"Children are bullied, leading to low self-esteem... It is absolutely distractive and often destructive. Worst, if a child does not have a social media account by Class 6, he or she is not cool as per the media's perception," she says.

Australia-based dentist Abhinav Sharma, the father of an 11-year-old girl, says social media has encouraged unhealthy competition among children.

"Social media is very addictive and can have a serious impact on a child's social and mental development. Instead of positive competition in sports and educational activities, there is serious competition among kids for the number of likes and views on their social media posts," he says.

He adds that since viewers are influenced by their favourite content creators, who glorify objects and products, it becomes hard for them to ignore the urge to buy the same things.

"This is a new and easy way of marketing adopted by companies pay the content creators and create content about the product. As a parent, I feel the disadvantages of social media outweigh its benefits," the 43-year-old dentist argues.

There are some like Ghaziabad-based teacher Pooja Verma, a mother of two, who believe that a relaxed and innovative approach to children's social media usage can do good for their growth.

Even though she is not in favour of Instagram and YouTube for their short video content, Verma said science and maths tutorials on YouTube have helped her daughter more than private tuition could.

"They use their father's tablet to watch educational videos on YouTube and also Google the meaning of words and other study-related stuff. We are generally close by when they use the tablet and we encourage them to watch educational videos," Verma told.

The primary school teacher said she has kept her children away from Instagram because "it is a waste of time and has a strong negative impact on teenagers".

YouTube has also helped her 13-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son to continue listening to stories while travelling.

On the other side of the screen are the content creators influencers as they have come to be known who make short vertical videos on popular themes, music and film dialogues, largely to increase followers on their channels and make money through sponsored content and monetisation by social media platforms.

Currently, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and X offer monetisation to eligible content creators.

Arun Singh, a journalist and social media content creator popularly known as "Jhumroo", argues that a complete ban on anything only leads to an increase in its negative effects.

"I don't think banning anything ever helps. And we are talking about the young generation. They have the acumen to battle these bans and challenges. It's going to invoke a feeling where they will revolt against it," Singh says.

He argues that the internet has more advantages than disadvantages and a balanced approach through sensitisation and counselling should be taken.

"It's like sex education. Teenagers go through puberty and you are not going to stop them from being attracted to the opposite gender or whichever gender they are attracted to. You cannot stop that. You cannot regulate that but all you can do is counsel them well. I think counselling and sensitisation is required here," Singh said.