Duncan Garner: Leaving social media open to our young people is tantamount to aiding and abetting child abuse

Would you let your kids wander through a library full of books that encouraged bullying, violence, eating disorders, suicide, nudity, rape, sexual assault and all manner of other evils in the world?

Would you let them spend 2.5 hours a day there every day? Would you be concerned if they were spending far longer there? Of course you wouldn’t let them visit that library and of course you’d be concerned if they were spending any time there. Yet, that’s what we risk every single time our kids hop on to social media.

Recently a one-day exhibition at Auckland Normal Intermediate School saw all the books in the library removed and 1000 “worst books”, featuring all the above topics, were displayed to hammer home to parents just what their kids might be seeing on social media because stuff like this is easy to find.

I look around me and see more and more people addicted to their phones. I mean, why can’t people work out in the gym without clutching their phone and checking it between sets? It drives me mad. What’s so damn important? What do they think they are missing out on?

Given this, it will come as no surprise that I favour copying Australia’s social media ban for those 16 and under. The Aussies know social media is ruining young lives, rewiring brains so youngsters see society differently, so at least they are trying something. What are we waiting for? Pass the same law and see what happens. At least we’d be putting a line in the sand.

I’m not alone in wanting this ban. The last poll on this saw 74% of New Zealand parents say “yes, let’s restrict social media for teenagers”. The Horizon Research survey, in association with Auckland University’s School of Population Health, found just 16% didn’t support the ban and 10% didn’t know.

Despite this, we once again have regulators who have blinked and politicians who aren’t brave enough. Yet they introduced a ban on cell phones in schools, and that, they say, is working well. Surely, banning under-16s from social media would be a natural extension?

It’s doing nothing for our kids’ communication skills. Obesity is rife, lethargy and laziness result, and even team sports suffer as individuals care less about the result and more about posting their own highlights reel.

Bullying online remains high. Too many school pupils share photos of their private parts, which are then quickly sent on – much to their horror, but they really should know better – and perhaps used as a form of blackmail against them. The consequences have been far-reaching, even resulting in suicides.