It’s time for a healthy reset with social media. There are incoming laws that will ban social media platforms for children under 16 years of age to access.
We all make mistakes growing up, it’s part of becoming an adult, learning from our errors. The difficulty now, is the mistakes made in youth can be recorded, distributed, and kept forever. It becomes difficult to let childhood mistakes be forgotten.
There’s also the issue of having harmful content coming at us all unfiltered. Harmful messages, images, and videos impacting our health and wellbeing.
Social media platforms are expertly designed to keep us all glued to their feeds, impacting sleep, socialising and relationships.
I understand there are benefits to a connected world. If a parent is working away from home – you can stay connected. My daughter’s aunty helps them with their homework from London via FaceTime. Someone they met as a baby, and haven’t seen in person since, is a part of their lives in a meaningful way. Truly we’re in the age of technological wonders.
Messaging apps appear to not be included in the ban, to enable families and friends to stay connected without some of the more insidious features of social media.
Let’s not be naïve. It will be an imperfect transition to the brave new world. We don’t yet have all the details, and it starts soon, on 10 December 2025. We know the laws require social media companies to take reasonable steps to prevent children from accessing their platforms. The laws carry penalties for the platforms if they fail to meet the standard, no penalties for children or parents.
Kolbe will work with Years 7-10 students about having a healthy reset. We will talk about the intention behind the laws, the reason for delaying the use of social media, and practical steps to take before December.
We need to work with parents and guardians about practical ways of managing the transition into 2026 and different compassionate conversations that can be had at home. Next term Kolbe will be running some parent workshops, where we can come together and solve some the challenges we collectively face. By working as a united community, we can support each other and help our kids recapture some of the innocence lost from childhood.
I encourage parents and guardians to attend the workshops running next term. We will send dates out before the end of September. In Term 4, when we have lessons about social media with students at school, we’ll let families know so the conversation can continue at home.
Although there is some uncertainty ahead, I’m confident that together we can calmly collaborate and use the new legislation to have a healthy reset with social media.
If you would like to read about some of the changes, please see the links from eSafety and Headspace.