Social media ban: UQ experts

Questions have been raised regarding how this ban will be enforced, how parents and educators can be prepared, and what it means for the future of social media use as we know it.

UQ has a range of experts who can comment on this topic across varying research areas, including digital cultures, health and wellbeing, and education.

Professor Nicholas Carah, Centre for Digital Cultures and Societies

Professor Carah is Director of the Centre for Digital Cultures and Societies. His research examines the algorithmic and participatory advertising model of digital media platforms, with a sustained focus on digital alcohol marketing. 

"These platforms play such an important role establishing community for young people and helping them understand the world around them. Many young people will experience a major disruption to their social lives and identities, we'll need to acknowledge that and do the work of making sure social media exercise a duty of care to young people."

Email: n.carah@uq.edu.au

Associate Professor Garth Stahl, School of Education

Associate Professor Stahl’s research focusses on the relationship between education and society. He can speak to how young people engage with activism on social media, and the role educators can play in preparing their students for the ban.

“What I would really like to see is education focused on the emotional impact these platforms can have on children, and to have a consideration of emotion and digital spaces become an integral part of E-safety education in schools.”

Email: g.stahl@uq.edu.au

Professor Alina Morawska, UQ Parenting and Family Support Centre

Professor Alina Morawska is Director of the UQ Parenting and Family Support Centre. Her research focuses on the central role of parents in influencing all aspects of children’s development, and parenting interventions as a way of understanding healthy development, a means for promoting positive family relationships, and a tool for the prevention and early intervention in lifelong health and wellbeing.

“It’s important there’s an ongoing conversation between parents and their children about the technology and providing them with the skills to manage it early. If we use driving as an analogy, kids don’t turn 16 and suddenly know how to drive. We take them through a whole process of skill building before we give them the car keys, and I think we should view social media use in a similar way. The impending ban has opened a really important conversation about upskilling – children and parents both need to have the tools early on to handle these platforms.”

Email: alina@psy.uq.edu.au

Associate Professor Michael Noetel, School of Psychology

Associate Professor Noetel is driven by the goal of safeguarding humanity’s future through effective AI governance. He can speak on decision making, impulsive behaviour, prosocial behaviour, psychological impact of extensive screen usage on children.

"This social media ban won’t be a silver bullet, but it is a step in the right direction. The weight of evidence suggests that social media is bad for young people’s mental health. It’s not all bad for all teens; sometimes digital spaces are one of the few places we can feel seen and heard. Still overall, social media preys on our tendency to compare ourselves to others, leverages outrage top optimise engagement, and takes away from better ways young people could use their time. Some young people will find their ways around the ban, but a ban changes the expectation that ‘everyone is on social media, so you have to be too.’ It helps re-set the norms toward a healthier place, where digital is not the default."

"Young people might need a nudge to replace the ‘hole’ left by the ban with something more nourishing. Some studies have found 1 in 4 Aussie kids spend more than 4 hours a day on social media. What will happen to those 4 hours for those people? There won’t be much benefit if social media replaced with banal or vain alternatives, like online shopping, video games, or streaming video. Young people could get a big benefit if even some of their old social media time is instead spent on more nourishing things, like face-to-face connection, learning, exercise, work, or making the world better. As parents, what we do models what our kids should value too. If they’ll let us, we should all take this opportunity to check in with our young people and ask what they’d like more of in their lives, and do what we can to make that happen."

Email: m.noetel@uq.edu.au

Associate Professor Asaduzzaman Khan, School of Health and Behavioural Sciences

Associate Professor Khan can speak on physical activity, screen time, social media, sleep, mental health and wellbeing especially in children & adolescents, as well as equitable healthcare access for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds including immigrants.

“A ban on social media use for children under 16 can substantially reduce recreational screen time, helping to lower the risk of poor sleep and support a return to more regular, restorative rest. This is critical as consistent and uninterrupted sleep plays a crucial role in regulating mood, reducing stress and anxiety, and maintaining healthy emotional functioning. As such, banning social media offers a unique opportunity for children to improve their sleep hygiene and overall wellbeing.”

Email: a.khan2@uq.edu.au 
 

Associate Professor Susannah Tye, Queensland Brain Institute

Associate Professor Tye's research expertise is in utilising voltammetric (electrochemical) recording techniques to monitor rapid, synaptic neurotransmission in the living brain. She can speak on the impacts social media can have on child brain development.

"The bright visuals, rapid-fire content and emotionally charged posts on social media are designed to grab our attention. This makes the user feel compelled to keep scrolling. Banning under-16s from social media could protect their still-developing brains from being “rewired” for novelty-seeking and emotional reactivity, helping preserve their ability to focus, think clearly and build resilience."

Email: s.tye@uq.edu.au