That may be so, but a teen may also fear punishment from their parents (where they might have spoken up before) or may not be convinced they won’t get in some form of trouble (especially with the amount of misinformation around) and try and hide the situation as a consequence.
But they are already doing that when faced with a predator online majority of people won’t come forward when they are a victim out of shame and fear. You as an educator would be well aware of those stats. The stats speak for themselves. As I said this isn’t going to just completely stop online grooming. It’s not perfect. It keeps platforms accountable, it helps a lot of parents to monitor what their children are doing online and is a big step to keeping children safe online. It is by far nowhere near perfect. But it is something.
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That is sadly true- my fear though is that even fewer teens will be willing to come forward now once this legislation is in effect.
I suspect you might have me mixed up with someone else, I’m not in the education sector. However the sector I work in though deals with vulnerable people of all age groups (including children and teens) so I know the hardest thing is getting engagement in the first place (and this legislation is not going to help with that).
I do agree that the legislation has been made with the best of intentions and the government is to be commended on that.
Unfortunately in it’s current form my biggest fear that the unintended consequences will do more harm than good and we may actually end up in a worse position to the status quo (which is not good as it is).
The only good part out of this is that social media platforms are now on notice (I fully agree with you on that)- I just think this approach risks sending the message to teens that they can’t reach out for help when using social media because they shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
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I don’t believe so, but I’d be more than happy for you to be right and me to be wrong on that one.
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It doesn’t help that rather than taking practical measures, we’ve chosen the nuclear option because it’s easier.
We’ve got to find a middle ground between doing nothing and going full on nanny-state with stupidly high guardrails.
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I agree. There could be a few other options. Legislation is a lot harder to ignore though. I do get you probably have a bit of an issue being a forum and it could have implications on you.
I honestly don’t think governments are that organised to be able to carry out a conspiracy lol
We seem to be happy to have skipped over several steps - like investing in educating parents, law enforcement, and educators about social media, we keep hearing that social media is a big issue but what often gets downplayed is that schools in particular don’t want to do anything about cases of bullying that get reported.
Case in point, the son of a work colleague this week has been told that he’s facing expulsion after being suspended the day he returned from school from suspension - why? He got sick of the bullying he was being subjected to and tried to do something about it. The school has clear evidence of the bullying but has decided “it’s too difficult” to do anything about it.
Guess what - none of it happened over social media, or even the internet - it all happened in the school yard, in person. If this law stands up, bullying will still exist, it will still be poorly managed and kids will still come to great harm.
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Having worked in the education sector social media was a huge issue for educators. I wouldn’t say they didn’t do anything about bullying but their powers are limited when it’s happened out of school hours. It’s also a case the educators already have a mountain of jobs they need to complete asking them to do anything more is just unrealistic for the pay they are getting and expectations they already have.
Look I do also understand the benefits of social media too. Being gay online was the place I was allowed to come to work out my identity and I that I wasn’t alone in the world. Living in a conservative and remote area I felt very alone and didn’t want to live. But online helped me realise I was accepted.
But I also was exposed to a lot of creeps. I was convinced to send nudes at 15. Men asked to meet me when I came down to Adelaide. I also had a sister that met a 40 year old man who was pretending to be 17 and she was 14. So I alternatively know the dangers.
There is no perfect solution. But I do think this legislation is putting the onus back on the platforms. The platforms that dodge investment in this country, pay little to no taxes, and they can finally start to help look out for the community.
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It was once a conspiracy theory that cops would knock on your door over a Facebook post.