By Marty McGauran
As a cyber safety educator I’ve spent years working with parents, teachers, and young people to help them navigate the increasingly complex digital world. When news broke recently of a potential social media ban for children and younger teens, my initial reaction was mixed. On one hand, it’s heartening to see that lawmakers are finally taking this issue seriously. On the other hand, I can’t help but wonder if we’re focusing on the wrong part of the problem.
Let me be clear: I believe it’s crucial that we protect young people online, and any move to address this issue is a step in the right direction. Simply setting an age limit or banning social media for younger users won’t fix everything. It’s a good start, but it’s just that, a start. Real, lasting change will come from education and preparation, not just prohibition.
Platforms like Instagram and TikTok currently set a minimum age of 13, but we all know how poorly this rule is enforced. Kids as young as seven or eight access these platforms with ease, often with little to no supervision. Why? Because the technology to verify age doesn’t exist at the level it should, and because the enforcement of these rules is murky at best.
The government is now trialling age-verification technology, and while that might help, it still misses the broader point: young people are growing up in a digital world, and they need the skills to navigate it safely. Whether we ban social media until they’re 13, 16, or even 18, we have to ask ourselves if we’re preparing them for what happens when they do get on these platforms? The answer, right now, is no.
In my work with thousands of parents, I’ve seen the confusion and frustration that comes with parenting in the digital age. Most of us didn’t grow up with these technologies so it’s no wonder parents feel out of their depth, unsure how to talk to their children about these platforms or the risks they pose.
This isn’t just a parental responsibility. Parents, schools, governments, and tech companies must all work together. Part of that involves regulations like the one being discussed now, but more importantly, focus needs to be on education. We can’t simply ban social media. We need to teach our kids how to use these platforms responsibly, and we need to start those lessons early.
In my view, the most important thing we can do for our children is to build their readiness to be online, making sure they have the critical thinking skills and emotional resilience to navigate these spaces safely. And that responsibility falls on us, the adults, to provide the right guidance.
We need to have open, curious conversations with our children about why they enjoy certain platforms or apps, what they’re seeing online, and how it makes them feel. By doing this, we demystify their digital world and create a safe space for them to explore it with our support.
Moreover, we can’t ignore the generational gap here. Too many parents feel disconnected from the digital lives of their children, often unsure how these platforms even work. I urge parents to lean in, to ask questions, and to be curious. Why does your child enjoy a particular app? What do they find engaging or exciting about it? These conversations are more powerful than we realise and can go a long way in helping kids develop healthier relationships with their devices.
So while I applaud the government for bringing this issue to the forefront, I urge everyone to see this as just one part of a much larger solution. Social media isn’t going away. The question isn’t how long we can keep children off these platforms, it’s how prepared they’ll be when they inevitably get there.
Yes, enforce age limits. Yes, implement age verification technology. But don’t forget, the most powerful tool we have is education. Our kids need us to help them navigate this world, not just block it out.
Marty McGauran is the founder of Inform & Empower, a Footscray based organisation that partners with primary schools around Australia to deliver innovative cyber safety and digital wellbeing education.
