Deep Dive Podcast: If banning social media for teens under 16 won't work, what else will?
Setting a minimum age for social media use may not prepare our children for the digital "world of overstimulation" when they come of age. Teach them instead to be aware of the dangers, say our guests.
CNA's weekly news podcast takes a deep dive into issues that people talk about at dining tables and along the office corridors. Hosted by Steven Chia and Crispina Robert.
Australia passed a law last year banning children under 16 from accessing social media, a move seen as challenging to implement. Singapore is also considering ways to protect children from the harms of excessive use of social media apps But how realistic is this?
Steven Chia and Crispina Robert speak to Nikki Yeo, a Gen Z and CNA TODAY journalist, and Alvin Seng, an addictions counsellor at WE CARE Community Services.
Here is an excerpt of the conversation:
Alvin Seng, WE CARE counsellor:
When you're on social media, this is actually very random, right? You're not quite sure what you're exposed to.
If no one is curating it for you, then the system curates it for you. And then the question is, do I have the motivation or the intrinsic desire to manage or disconnect from it?Â
Crispina:
But a young kid is not expected to self-regulate. Even adults can't self-regulate.Â
Alvin:
Exactly.Â
In the past, it was an expectation that when playtime is over, you get away from the playground and head back. Now, you don't really have that.
So there are times when I go out and eat and I notice, the whole family, everyone is online. Observe a little bit longer and you realise, oh, they are talking to each other but online.
Steven Chia, host:
I would say at least they're talking to each other! That's not so bad.
Nikki Yeo, CNA TODAY journalist:
I am a bit too old to have been raised as an iPad kid, so I wasn't the two-year-old watching Cocomelon when I was growing up. So it is still bizarre to me to see kids interact in that way.
I do think that if I was exposed to social media or phone much younger, that I would have probably not picked up reading and other hobbies as much.
But I also can't really imagine living without that community when I was 14, 15 (years old). For me, at that time, it was Tumblr, and I think it was a very creative space.
(Being on) social media is just the reality that we live in now. It's very hard to kind of put the genie back in the bottle. So I feel like we also have to work on raising a more media literate population.
