To raise or not to raise: the social media question dividing children and adults

Living in Burrumbuttock, more than 30 kilometres northwest of Albury, the 14-year-old believes it would be "pretty stupid" if the government decided to raise the minimum social media age from 13 to 16.

With Instagram and Snapchat downloaded to his phone, his use of the apps is simple.

"Just to see what everyone is up to and what is going on in the world," he says.

With more than 115,000 signatures, the 36-month raising the age for social media citizenship change.org petition calls for government action to get children off social media as they continue to develop and grow as adolescents.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also promised to legislate a raised minimum social media age by the end of his term in May.

Social networks that encourage interaction through addictive elements, including, but not limited to, infinite scrolling, streaks, likes, comments, and shares, could be banned.

But Wil isn't too worried if the minimum age is raised, as he believes he will still be able to circumvent it.

The teenager has been using social media even before the legal requirement, with his Snapchat age showing he was born in 1987.

Wil isn't alone in not wanting the minimum age to change; his brother, James Lindner, also uses social media daily.

Although now 16, James says if he were in Wil's shoes, he would feel annoyed if his right to social media was taken away.

"[I'd be feeling] pretty isolated, you'd only see everyone at school, you wouldn't have any other contact, not even in the holidays or anything," James says.

Wil and James have conversations about keeping safe online at school and with their parents and hand their phones in at 9pm each night.

Their friend Noah Misic, 15, says he would be okay with the minimum social media age being changed as he will be turning 16 soon, but if it had been introduced a year earlier, he would have felt frustrated.

He uses social media to consume content, communicate with friends and sometimes post, but he isn't worried about the dangers that may be out there as he doesn't talk to strangers online.

They all find social media to be addictive.

36 months petition co-founder and breakfast radio personality Michael "Wippa" Wipfli, however, isn't worried that regional children like Wil, James and Noah will become isolated if the age change becomes legislated.

He says platforms like WhatsApp can still be used for closed group chats and don't allow for anonymous comments or geo-tracking.

"When I think about kids in rural areas, I'm celebrating the way you communicate but I'm trying to protect you at the same time from some of the nasties, there's still ways to do it," he says.

Alongside co-founder Rob Galluzzo, Wipfli says the pair understand children may feel their freedom is being taken away and are not attacking social media and its benefits, but they are instead protecting young minds from the "minefield of social media".

"For some reason we are bowing down to an app, we can control that," he says.

The petition has reached Parliament and is being supported by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

Wipfli says the possible introduction of two-factor authentication and more sophisticated age verification methods could also see teenagers like Wil outsmarted.

The global Age Verification Providers Association, was part of the 211 submissions for the 2024 inquiry into social media and Australian society, a committee established to report on the influence and impacts of social media, and it listed alternative ways to control the age of social media citizenship.

Wipfli has had parents' query as to why he didn't make the suggested age 18, like Arkansas in the United States.

"We need to draw a line somewhere and hope there's a level of maturity and the right teachings that can go on before the age of 16 if someone does choose to join social media," he says.

Wodonga's Nurtured Insight child psychologist Cassie Neville is a mother of a 13- and 11-year-old and is aware of the challenges involved in parenting in a digital era and practices constant communication with her family about the use of social media platforms, online gaming and online safety.

She says the most significant growth and brain changes since the zero to three age bracket occur during adolescence, as the prefrontal cortex is one of the last parts to fully mature in humans.

This part of the brain is responsible for skills like planning, organising, and decision-making and when interrupted by excessive social media consumption, it can lead to language development difficulties and interrupted dopamine pathways.

"By allowing the teenage brain to develop without the impacts of social media, greatly increases the chances for our children to develop appropriate language skills, good social emotional awareness and better opportunity to assess risk and understand their independent decision making," she says.

Minimum ages for teenagers differ for activities as in Australia, a person can fly an aircraft solo at the age of 15, and there is no minimum age to begin working at a local cafe.

The psychologist says age milestones have variance and are used as a guide to identify possible "abnormalities or incongruousness" during development but do not account for individual temperament and differences that naturally exist.

"My 13-year-old son may be able to navigate the use of Snapchat, due to our parenting boundaries and constant communication," she says.

"Another 13-year-old, with a different biological makeup, different family environment, may show a profound difference in how they navigate the use of Snapchat."

Ms Neville believes raising the age is a much-needed response, but banning phones in all schools, increasing free play, and building communities that genuinely care about children are other initiatives that need to be implemented, as well as parents' boundary-setting.

Wangaratta's Gateway Health Provisional Psychologist and PhD student Deon Tullett-Prado also says that social media is a "facsimile of real social connection" and encourages parents to be proactive.

"Use parental controls, limit screen time and the places to use them and don't give them a smart phone," he says.

"But also promote real replacements like playing games as a family, cooking together, engaging in sport."

He says the older you are when exposed to an addictive substance, the less likely you are to get addicted.

According to the 2021 eSafety Commissioner's Digital Lives of Aussie Kids report, 14 to 17-year-olds use an average of 4.5 social media services.

La Trobe University lecturer in digital technology and pedagogy Dr Clare Southerton does not think raising the age is a realistic or enforceable idea, even if it's well-intentioned.

"It's more appropriate to think about how can we build relationships of trust with our kids so that they feel safe coming to us rather than actually a lot of these bans will create the conditions where kids are doing things secretly," she says.

The researcher says time also needs to be spent creating regulatory change to protect children's data, updating educational resources about misinformation on social media and understanding the transition from a decline in online text-based consumption to an increase in video consumption.

In her studies, she has spoken to 13 to 16-year-olds about their time on TikTok and found it allows them to connect with friends, learn and be creative, but still believes data-harvesting and privacy are large concerns in the online space.

Ms Southerton says children in regional areas will be disproportionately affected by the change as they cannot see their friends as easily as children who live in the city.

She says the positive benefits of social media are not discussed enough and restricting teenagers from an important tool is "infantalizing".

"Yes, they're not yet adults, but they are entitled to a say about how they live in the world," she says

"It's the decisions we make about their lives that take away a lot of their agency."

I first downloaded Instagram almost 10 years ago when I was 14 years old. Apps like Vine and Dubsmash still existed and it felt like a place of photos with overexposed photo filters, harmless memes and a whole lot of selfies with peace signs.

In no time, I developed FOMO. I didn't have Facebook, and before I knew it, my 'friends' forgot to invite me to events. Suddenly, people were rating each other out of 10 and sending anonymous messages about what they really thought about you.

It wasn't until I spoke to some young teens about how they use social media that it brought me back to when I first signed up. Coming from a regional area, I used social media to stay in touch with my friends so I understood the importance of keeping in touch, but I couldn't help but think about the sinking feeling in my stomach about how the apps truly made me feel.