‘Making mental health crisis worse’: Young Nationals warn regional children will be cut off from family by social media ban | Social media ban

The federal National Youth Branch has called for the under-16 social media ban to be lifted, amid growing pressure from the Coalition against worldwide legislation that will come into force from next week.

Coalition members, including leader Sussan Ley, Andrew Bragg and Matt Canavan, have expressed alarm over the impending December 10 opening, despite the opposition passing parliamentary legislation specifying the date and the party’s former leader Peter Dutton defending the ban.

Young Nationals have called on the government to repeal the law altogether, saying it would harm Australians in the region.

“Many young Australians in regional and remote areas rely on social media to stay connected with their families, communities and friends, this ban risks cutting these children off from touch and inadvertently worsening the youth mental health crisis, especially in our regions,” Young Nationals president Charlie Plant said.

“The ban will push children to seek riskier, unregulated methods of accessing these online spaces. The ban will fail to prevent young Australians from accessing these platforms; it will only succeed in preventing them from doing so in a safe, legal and regulated environment.”

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Plant claimed cyberbullying and mental health issues would still exist, “just beyond the reach of parents and regulators.” Instead, the Young Nationals want a classification system for social media similar to film and TV; so parents can set rules for their own children and require electronic devices to integrate parental controls.

National Team leader David Littleproud has been contacted for comment. Canavan, who strongly opposed YouTube’s inclusion in the ban, called the law “draconian” on Thursday.

“This is a sledgehammer to crack the nut. It won’t reduce the harm of social media by much, but it will cause a lot of other problems,” he told Guardian Australia.

“Well done to the National Junior Team for standing up for young people in Australia. The social media ban will make things much worse.”

Communications minister Anika Wells defended the legislation in a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday, saying it was strongly supported by parents for tackling mental health, bullying and online addiction among children.

“I’ve seen countless Australian parents come up to me and say thank you. What we’re doing with this is giving these parents another weapon in our arsenal in this fight. As I said, this is not a cure. This is a treatment plan. And obviously, not everyone is going to accept these laws,” he said.

“We now have so much data and evidence about what our children are experiencing online that we feel we need to take action.”

The ban was passed by parliament with the support of the Coalition last November. But there has been growing concern among the Liberals and Nationals in recent days about the ban, the success of age verification technology and the response from leading social media companies, some of which have yet to tell users what to expect or how to comply with the ban.

“I don’t trust this study,” Ley said Wednesday, calling the under-16 ban a “clumsy failure.”

Ley doubled down on Thursday.

“We want to see parents, children and the community reassured that this will be done properly and it will be done well. Under this minister [Wells]”We do not have this assurance,” he said.

Shadow communications minister Melissa McIntosh has expressed reservations about the policy for some time, including over flawed age verification technology as evidenced in the government case.

“My concern is that it is not intended to protect Australian children. It was Coalition policy and I support the intention, but it is turning into something else,” he claimed.

“You need to use technology correctly. The government has determined this” [10 December] There were mistakes in the hearing, but they continued until the deadline. The Minister is now softening the language, saying they need time and it won’t be perfect. This is not good enough.”

Wells said on Wednesday that social media users would not be forced to show government ID, criticizing the “dog whistle campaign promoted by my colleague in the Coalition.”

Liberal shadow minister Andrew Bragg posted on X last week: “Why is YouTube being banned? Is this still Australia?”

He told Guardian Australia he was concerned that designated social media companies were being governed by regulations rather than legislation in parliament.

“We were told YouTube was out of action. I don’t see why it should be involved. We can’t have a bureaucratic structure running the country like this,” he said.