Social media ‘damaging’

The summit comes amid mounting concern among experts and the community more broadly about the adverse impact of social media on children, including exposure to inappropriate, illegal and restricted content, cyber bullying and negative impacts on children’s mental health and development.
The NSW Government and the South Australian Government are partnering to deliver the summit at the ICC Sydney on Thursday, October 10, with the South Australian Government hosting the summit in Adelaide on the following day.
The two-day summit will bring together a diverse group of experts, policymakers, academics, young people, and the wider community to explore key areas including the impacts of social media on children and young people, online safety, social media’s role in disinformation and misinformation, addressing online hate and extremism, and how social media is changing the way government delivers services.
It will help inform the design and delivery of a range of policies, programs and resources to address the challenges posed by social media.
Premier Minns said the parents he had spoken to and increasingly the evidence internationally, was that “we’re doing an enormous amount of damage to young people as a result of them being on social media”.
“It seems to be this giant global unregulated experiment on children and we have to change that,” he said.
“This really is an opportunity for the NSW and SA Governments to lead the country on this and hear from experts including internationally, as well as young people and the community to look at the impact of social media on our young kids.”
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said the summit would be a significant opportunity for parents to understand the scientific evidence and “hear ideas on how to improve the well-being of our most important resource – our children”.