Impact of Under-16 Social Media Ban Explored with Southport Screenager Survey

With the Australian ban on social media accounts  for the under-16s coming into force, Southport families must be wondering what would be the impact of a similar ban on the youth of Southport.

It’s a brave step by Australian lawmakers and worldwide the results would be studied but do we locally think there's a problem  ?

 Local Lib Dem councillor, John Pugh, is trying to find out and has set up the Southport Screenager Survey to find out.  It can be found here.  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSezWnHLYSnUIJePqc_2LXq9gm0uS2FYqtCw9Gm2Xhp74PWcMw/viewform?usp=publish-editor 

 No personal data will be kept.

“ The impact of technology on human behaviour is a huge social issue every society faces and we need to monitor it for better or worse”,  says John Pugh," Most of us know children or grandchildren who seem surgically attached to their phone. 

Impacts can be positive or negative but cannot be ignored. Some claim our brains are being re-wired and over-stimulated and effects are self-evidently not limited to children. It’s important therefore we have a serious conversation about it, though arguably conversation is the really big loser with mobile phones. 

With Christmas coming many kids will be looking forward to receiving their first phone or upgrade to their last one, but one thing is certain- digital addiction is growing and the addicts are getting younger all the time.

Having had a young man drive his bicycle straight into the back of my car recently while checking his social media account, I can see clearly dangers, but nostalgia of oldies for the days of ‘playing out ‘ is not going to cut it.

Our communities need to have the right set of modern rules and protocols in place. That’s why we need to talk about the Aussie experiment and not just on social media, and why a local survey should be interesting.