By: Surinder Jain.
Faith communities have held a meeting with David Coleman, federal shadow minister for communications to discuss a proposed law to ban social media for under 16 years old. The meeting was attended by various faiths and Hindu Council was represented by Surinder Jain.
David informed us that the research shows a very high rate of self harm by children on social media. If elected, coalition will ban under 16 from accessing social media and will bring a law in first 100 days of its government.
Hindu council stand was conveyed to MP Coleman and is given below.
“Before we decide to ban under 16 from Social media, we must conduct research on the negative impacts of social media. Is it causing increased suicides, crimes, depressions, unlawful behaviour, excessive financial strife, low school grades, loneliness etc. And what is it in the social media that is causing these negative effects. This research should also identify if there are any positive effect of social media on children.
We must protect our children from ill effects of social media but rather that using a sledge hammer, we should use a surgeon’s scalp. Let’s not throw baby out with the bath water. “
We also asked that age assurance technology to be used should not tie a person’s driving license or passport to their account. A separate age verification authority will be setup and no identification information will be captured or stored by the social media companies.
