I remember when some American friends first asked if I was ‘on Facebook’, supposedly some sort of digital yearbook for college students that was pegged to become the next Myspace. Apparently you needed to prove your enrolment in a US-based university to gain entry, but that was easy to fake, they said. While curious, I wasn’t especially taken with the idea.
Then in September 2006, Facebook stopped being an education-based network and opened up to anyone over the age of 13. Facebook gained the fastest-growing user base of any product in history racing from 12 million users in December 2006 to 100 million in less than two years. Twitter and Instagram followed and it was all a lot of fun, especially for those of us who didn’t have to grow up with it.
When social media made the switch from being a whimsical diversion for US college-enrolled elites, it quickly became a mainstream obsession, despite no one being 100 per cent sure what it was (back in 2006, Facebook’s welcome page explained itself as ‘a social utility that connects you with the people around you’). And you still hear echoes of that uncertainty in current conversations around regulation.
And regulation has been a long time coming. For the last eighteen years we’ve been running a social experiment where we watch what happens when we allow children to grow up with unfettered access to this technology.
While social media has been a source of connection and support for millions, we’ve seen the rash of consequences it has unleashed, including a flood of disinformation and hateful content driving polarisation. And perhaps most importantly, we’re becoming wise to its impact on young and vulnerable people. Heavy social media use is linked to depression, anxiety, sleep deprivation, body image issues, cyberbullying, exposure to harmful content, and sexual predation. Eureka Street ran a piece a couple of weeks ago on the mushrooming problem of online child exploitation with one in seven minors asked for nude images by strangers on a weekly basis.
Recognising the risks, Prime Minister Albanese promised to impose age limits on social media use, with legislation expected by year's end. And this regulatory push isn’t unique to Australia; similar measures are being considered globally. In the US, the surgeon general has highlighted social media's effects on teen mental health, while school districts are banning smartphones and some are even suing social media companies. The UK is contemplating banning smartphone sales to