00:00:00
Speaker 1: Now on another subject altogether, the National Party has revealed that it wants to ban social media for under sixteen year olds. One of the MP's took he took emp Katherine wood Weed is submitting submitting rather a member's bill that would put the responsibility of age verification on the social media companies and this is supported by the Prime Minister. Stephen Sheeler is the former CEO of Facebook for Australia and New Zealand. Has Stephen hither good idea to ban the under sixteens.
00:00:28
Speaker 2: I think it's a good idea in principle. I think the challenge is going to be doing it in practice. But I do think that evidence shows that younger people there's harm to them. I think that they need to be protected from and as we know, we kids kids younger than thirteen are not allowed on social media. I know if money find it away around that, but I think there's a good, strong evidence to show that sixteen is a good age for that sort of level.
00:00:54
Speaker 1: What's the practical problem? Is it difficult for the social media guys to actually confirm the kid's age.
00:01:01
Speaker 2: Well, there's there's a lot that these platforms can do in terms of using a I other verification methods to try to discern what your real age is. However, I think when you come to these levels where there's sort of penalties that apply and there's going to be a bigger regime, you then then set to ask question, well, okay, well how is this going to be verified? Most kids don't have Many kids don't have ID that you know, that's that's that has their not like adults to a driver's license and passports and things, So how they can confirm their age or not confirm their age? What happens when that there's a deception? What do the platforms do? What do the platforms do in terms of storing this data? Do we really want them to have this data? There's a there is complexity in making it work. And look, we've all been teenagers before. You know, you're not supposed to buy alcohol or buy tobacco, and many kids get around this, maybe some of us have on the who we're listening today, But with social media it's the same and that there's there's lots of ways trying to get around these these prohibitions. So I think it's it's good in theory, but it's always the devil's off in the detail of how the government proposes to enforce this and what penalties are proposing to put on the platforms if it's not enforced.
00:02:12
Speaker 1: Steve, and you have Kidzi, I do, yeah, and so what are your rules around social media use.
00:02:20
Speaker 2: For good or for bad? My kids are are probably too young to even quite know what social media is. I want, but we've and this has come into a lot of folks who've worked at the big social media platforms. I think I'm not unusual in this that there is a there's a realization that for all the good that the internet and for social media and that AI have done for the economy, the society, for you know, for all kinds of good benefits that come from these platforms, the challenges are for certain people, particularly vulnerable folks in our society, such as kids or young social media may be simply an overwhelming technology that their brains simply and involved enough to be able to deal with. And we've done this with tobacco and with alcohol and other things, to try to even driving a car, right, you restrict it to a certain age and then we ease people into it, and I think the time has come with social media. So I'm a big believer that the thirteen is too young. I think the limits should be higher. I've seen evidence of success. Sixteen is about is a good number. Some have advocated even higher, sort of eighteen twenty. I think there you get into practical challenges that we treat people as adults when they turn eighteen. For most of us society, it's probably gonna be hard to restrict social media past a certain age. But I think sixteen sounds like a reasonable number. With my kids, you know, we do in a way. They're more aware about social media's challenges than I am, because they come home and tell me, you know, you know, these are the reasons why we need to control our social media usage. And I think that's some of the things that are being taught in scorch I think is good. There's a lot more awareness at their age now about the challenges of some of these platforms, the good things and the bad things.
00:04:07
Speaker 1: Steven, it's really good to talk to you. I really appreciate your time. Thanks so much, as Steven Sheila, former Facebook Australia New Zealand CEO.
00:04:13
Speaker 2: For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, Or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: Now on another subject altogether, the National Party has revealed that it wants to ban social media for under sixteen year olds. One of the MP's took he took emp Katherine wood Weed is submitting submitting rather a member's bill that would put the responsibility of age verification on the social media companies and this is supported by the Prime Minister. Stephen Sheeler is the former CEO of Facebook for Australia and New Zealand. Has Stephen hither good idea to ban the under sixteens.
00:00:28
Speaker 2: I think it's a good idea in principle. I think the challenge is going to be doing it in practice. But I do think that evidence shows that younger people there's harm to them. I think that they need to be protected from and as we know, we kids kids younger than thirteen are not allowed on social media. I know if money find it away around that, but I think there's a good, strong evidence to show that sixteen is a good age for that sort of level.
00:00:54
Speaker 1: What's the practical problem? Is it difficult for the social media guys to actually confirm the kid's age.
00:01:01
Speaker 2: Well, there's there's a lot that these platforms can do in terms of using a I other verification methods to try to discern what your real age is. However, I think when you come to these levels where there's sort of penalties that apply and there's going to be a bigger regime, you then then set to ask question, well, okay, well how is this going to be verified? Most kids don't have Many kids don't have ID that you know, that's that's that has their not like adults to a driver's license and passports and things, So how they can confirm their age or not confirm their age? What happens when that there's a deception? What do the platforms do? What do the platforms do in terms of storing this data? Do we really want them to have this data? There's a there is complexity in making it work. And look, we've all been teenagers before. You know, you're not supposed to buy alcohol or buy tobacco, and many kids get around this, maybe some of us have on the who we're listening today, But with social media it's the same and that there's there's lots of ways trying to get around these these prohibitions. So I think it's it's good in theory, but it's always the devil's off in the detail of how the government proposes to enforce this and what penalties are proposing to put on the platforms if it's not enforced.
00:02:12
Speaker 1: Steve, and you have Kidzi, I do, yeah, and so what are your rules around social media use.
00:02:20
Speaker 2: For good or for bad? My kids are are probably too young to even quite know what social media is. I want, but we've and this has come into a lot of folks who've worked at the big social media platforms. I think I'm not unusual in this that there is a there's a realization that for all the good that the internet and for social media and that AI have done for the economy, the society, for you know, for all kinds of good benefits that come from these platforms, the challenges are for certain people, particularly vulnerable folks in our society, such as kids or young social media may be simply an overwhelming technology that their brains simply and involved enough to be able to deal with. And we've done this with tobacco and with alcohol and other things, to try to even driving a car, right, you restrict it to a certain age and then we ease people into it, and I think the time has come with social media. So I'm a big believer that the thirteen is too young. I think the limits should be higher. I've seen evidence of success. Sixteen is about is a good number. Some have advocated even higher, sort of eighteen twenty. I think there you get into practical challenges that we treat people as adults when they turn eighteen. For most of us society, it's probably gonna be hard to restrict social media past a certain age. But I think sixteen sounds like a reasonable number. With my kids, you know, we do in a way. They're more aware about social media's challenges than I am, because they come home and tell me, you know, you know, these are the reasons why we need to control our social media usage. And I think that's some of the things that are being taught in scorch I think is good. There's a lot more awareness at their age now about the challenges of some of these platforms, the good things and the bad things.
00:04:07
Speaker 1: Steven, it's really good to talk to you. I really appreciate your time. Thanks so much, as Steven Sheila, former Facebook Australia New Zealand CEO.
00:04:13
Speaker 2: For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, Or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
