Mental health advocate concerned social media ban for children under 16 will limit access to important services

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The government wants to set the minimum age for children accessing social media to 16. Youth mental health advocate Jackie Hallan says she's concerned the ban will stop young people from accessing important services.

Transcript

00:00Reach Out is really concerned that a ban alone on social media won't make the platform safer,

00:08so we're calling for the government to support this policy measure with a range of supports

00:13for young people's mental health and wellbeing and that needs to be, it's absolutely critical

00:18for the implementation of this policy.

00:20We know for Reach Out, 49% of young people are accessing our service through social media

00:26channels, so that's significant.

00:28So I think as part of the implementation, we need to consider what alternatives we'll

00:33put in place for young people to still be able to access that support.

00:37Things like schools could play an increased role, but we already know that schools are

00:42kind of stretched in terms of their capacity and what they're focusing on, but we're going

00:47to need to look at alternative pathways.

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