Fears for vulnerable children as social media ban grows
The federal government's decision to include the video-sharing platform in its social media ban for under-16s has renewed focus on the measure.
While it has been broadly celebrated by the coalition and Labor, who say it will protect children from the harms of social media, youth mental health foundation Headspace disagrees.
"This is seen as a solution and it may be helpful, we don't know. But it may cause harm as well," national clinical advisor Simon Dodd told AAP.
"We've talked to young people and they value social media. They value the connections it gives them."
This was particularly true for those who struggled to find physical community in parts of regional or rural Australia, and for LGBTQI youth, who use social media platforms to find support and stay safe, Mr Dodd said.
Mental health is complicated as there are many factors that can impact it, including a person's social environment, and focusing on one measure as a solution risks missing opportunities to address young people's challenges .
From December, people under 16 will no longer be able to create accounts on social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook ,TikTok and now YouTube.
Platforms that fail to conform with these rules face fines of up to $49.5 million.
Eating disorder not-for-profit Hide N Seek warned YouTube could be home to harmful content such as extreme videos about body transformations or "what I eat in a day" media.
"It can be extremely damaging, extremely damaging for children who are still developing their sense of self," founder Jaimee Krawitz told AAP.
"But YouTube also hosts supportive, recovery-focused communities and educational content that can be part of a young person's healing journey."
The changes will still allow children to access YouTube Kids or view videos accessible without an account.
Though he recognised regulation was part of the answer to making online spaces safer, Mr Dodd has also urged the government to centre on young people's voices.
"They have consistently told us they get the complexities of the social media environment and understand it better than many of the adults who are trying to legislate something that is difficult to manage," he said.
"Without genuine consultation, this will result in young people feeling less trust in government and that is a real worry."
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It was a tactical play, aimed at dialling up the pressure on Ms Ley as she grapples with the longstanding conflict among her MPs over climate. The motion was opposed by all Coalition members except for Mr Joyce. His bill seeks to dismantle the 2050 net zero target - which the Coalition supported before the election but is now reviewing - by overturning or amending climate legislation. Ms Ley sought to downplay the divisions this week while vowing to allow all views to be considered as the Coalition reviews net zero through a working group led by energy and emissions spokesperson Dan Tehan. "It's going to flesh out the different perspectives," she said. "Everything is on the table." While conservatives want to ditch the target, some moderate Liberals say that without it, the Coalition, which has been reduced to just 43 lower house seats and 27 in the Senate, cannot form a credible alternative government or win back inner-city seats lost to teal independents. Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie says the "centre of gravity in Australia now is for strong targets", with the majority of civil society and business groups supporting the clean energy transition, describing Mr Joyce as a "lone voice in the community". "[His] policy position is let it rip, like let the climate crisis get as bad as it can, because we're not going to do anything about it," Ms McKenzie told this masthead. "The science shows that we can if we let climate change go unchecked, that's a $4 trillion hit to the economy. That's the death of the Great Barrier Reef and the Queensland tourism industry ... Nearly 10 per cent of properties ... would be uninsurable." On Monday, One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson took up Mr Joyce's cause with an urgency motion in the Senate calling for Australia to abandon its net zero target. 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As the Coalition pursued Labor in parliamentary question time over power bill costs on Thursday, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen hit back with: "They are triggered every time we mention renewable energy." While Ms Ley seeks to mend the Coalition's climate rift, the government is pushing ahead with efforts to reduce Australia's carbon emissions through a transition to renewable energy. UN climate chief Simon Steele - who met with Mr Bowen in Canberra this week - has urged the government to "go big", saying the new target will be a "defining moment" for Australia, while Independent ACT senator David Pocock called it "the biggest test of the moral courage of the Albanese government". The Climate Council wants a commitment to slash emissions by 75 per cent by 2030 and reach net zero by 2035, saying this is the level required to "do our fair share to hold global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius" - the level scientists warn will tip global warming into catastrophic and irreversible territory - while the Greens say anything less would breach the Paris Agreement. Ms McKenzie said Australia had for years been a pariah on the international stage when it came to climate, but that things were turning around. "It was embarrassing to go to these international negotiations and say you're Australian ... But that has changed substantially," she said. READ MORE: "If there's a trade negotiation, we should be in the room. And the only way to get in the room is to have skin in the game ... You only have skin in the game in climate if you are acting, then you have credibility." Mr Bowen told the ABC: "We'll be setting our target in terms of our national interest, what's good for Australia, what comes out of the modelling as the right balance [and] as the Climate Change Act demands, [with] consideration of the science and all the evidence before us." The CSIRO, which this week released its annual GenCost report for 2024-25, says firm renewables backed by transmission are the lowest-cost new form of electricity generation technology, while small modular nuclear reactors are the most expensive. The Coalition is yet to decide if it wants to retain the policy Mr Dutton took to the election to build nuclear power plants to meet Australia's energy needs, but wants to lift the moratorium on nuclear as a starting point. When asked by Mr Tehan if the government would meet its target of achieving 82 per cent renewables by 2030 target, Mr Bowen said it took "some temerity from those opposite to ask this side of the house about meeting our targets, when they can't agree on whether they have a target".
