Disturbing online content
Report reveals teens exposed to ‘shocking’ material on social media
Australian teenagers are being exposed to disturbing selfharm content on social media showing them ways to physically hurt themselves, as well as other violent and gory material.
An alarming insight into what Aussie teens are being exposed to online on platforms including Meta’s Facebook and Instagram also reveals 70 per cent of teens aged between 15 and 17 had viewed content involving hate speech attacks on other groups.
John Livingstone from UNICEF Australia, which commissioned the Teens Online Behaviour survey, said the results were concerning, especially around self-harm.
“It’s shocking,” Mr Livingstone said. “For young, impressionable teenagers, especially those with mental health issues, it is very serious.”
He said a lack of protection on platforms such as Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, and the prevalence of young people using them, meant almost every single child in Australia was at risk.
It comes as Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen said Australian kids shouldn’t have smartphones before they are 14 years old, due to the algorithms on social media that have the potential to push harmful content.
Mr Livingstone said UNICEF was hoping to bring representatives from all sides together in Canberra on Thursday, to discuss how to make “Australia the safest place for kids to be online”.
He said the Online Safety Act, which is due to undergo a review this year, was an opportunity to put in place proper protections for the next generation of kids.
Mr Livingstone said ultimately there needed “to be big systemic changes to the designs of these platforms”.
“We need to build robust laws and regulations to provide higher levels of protections,” Mr Livingstone said.
Meta – which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – has been criticised, along with other tech companies, for putting profit before safety and exploiting children.
Digital wellbeing expert Dr Kristy Goodwin warned that while the survey related to children aged 15 to 17, those much younger were also coming across inappropriate content online.
“It doesn’t matter how many parental internet filters you have at home, or how many protections you have put in place, because many other parents are abdicating their responsibilities,” Dr Goodwin said.
She said kids were being shown awful content – a lot of it video – in the playground, or they were describing what they had seen to their friends.
Dr Goodwin, a Sydney mum of three children, 13, 10 and five, had first-hand experience of this at her son’s Catholic primary school last week.
“Our middle son is in year 5 and a group of year 6 kids were showing porn to the young ones on the school bus on the way to sports training,” Dr Goodwin said.
“My son didn’t see it, but we had to have a conversation about it.”
On another occasion, her two boys were told by an older kid to go home and watch PornHub.
Meta refused to comment directly when asked about how it plans to combat the issue, but sent background information, including how Instagram and Facebook have begun to hide more inappropriate content from teens by applying the “most restrictive content control settings” to their accounts.