UCC academic says Australian setback proves difficulty of social media bans

With growing evidence showing that the Australian social media ban for under 16s has had little impact since being introduced last December, a Cork academic has warned it shows the complexities for countries like Ireland introducing similar measures.

A study published by the British Medical Journal has found that the Australian ban has had little impact on the online behaviour of the country’s teenagers.

The paper, from the University of Newcastle in Australia, found that more than 85% of children aged under 16 years still reported using social media platforms after the ban came into effect.

The researchers found that underage users were dodging the restrictions through using accounts registered to older people, setting up fake accounts or by logging into private browsers.

Stephen McCarthy, senior lecturer in information systems at University College Cork (UCC), told The Echo for any such restrictions to work here, the onus would have to be on the platforms themselves.

“It is a step in the right direction, but the wrong focus. That is because you are still making the users responsible. Whereas, we need better regulation from the platforms.

“We need to turn attention to how they are designing these platforms, in terms of what they are showing users, and how they are keeping users engaged.

“It is about regulating the platforms as opposed to regulating the user.”

He added that younger people are so tech savvy now, that with the workarounds, they would almost be better able than some parents to get around them.

He feels that for any government legislation to work, collaboration with social media companies is key.

“I think the core problem really is that their business model relies on maximising attention, keeping users on as long as possible, and exposing them to as much content as possible.

“The more controversial it is, the better, because it gets even more engagement. So that is the problem.

“If the Government could work with these platforms a bit more deeply and understand that there are alternatives to this current model, then things might change.”

Cork Labour Party senator Laura Harmon told The Echo that she is not convinced that an all-out ban for under 16s on social media will work in Ireland and that the initial data from Australia shows that young people will find other ways online.