Speaker 1: Anthony Alberinezi. Welcome to six News.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me on your wonderful program.
Speaker 1: Well, good to have you here.
Speaker 3: During the last election campaign, Anthony Albernizi sat down to
Speaker 3: do an interview with six News.
Speaker 1: What will your party do differently this year compared to
Speaker 1: the last three elections that will see you form government. Well,
Speaker 1: what we've done is focus on much more of a narrative.
Speaker 3: He praised the online news network run by then fourteen
Speaker 3: year old Leonardo PUGALIZI.
Speaker 2: I commit to coming back on at semi regular intervals.
Speaker 2: It's I think is a fantastic initiative.
Speaker 3: But now under the Alberzi government's own legislation, every child
Speaker 3: under sixteen, like Leo was then, will be blocked from
Speaker 3: using almost every social media platform, which the government says
Speaker 3: is for their own good. From Schwartz Media. I'm Daniel James.
Speaker 3: This is seven AM. The government's social media ban has
Speaker 3: been called inconsistent and ineffective. It doesn't name which platforms
Speaker 3: will be restricted, living it up to the Minister of
Speaker 3: the Day to decide what is and isn't a social
Speaker 3: media platform. It also doesn't explain how tech companies will
Speaker 3: enforce the ban, just that they will face millions of
Speaker 3: dollars in penalties if they don't. Today an election reporter
Speaker 3: for six News, Maggie Perry, and what the band means
Speaker 3: for her and other young people across Australia. It's Friday,
Speaker 3: November twenty nine. Could you introduce yourself for us please?
Speaker 1: Hi. I'm Maggie Perry.
Speaker 4: I'm a trans election reporter for six News, or news
Speaker 4: organization mainally run by teenagers. I currently live in central
Speaker 4: Queensland and I'm just here to talk about the social
Speaker 4: media ban and how it would affect me and my colleagues.
Speaker 1: We've got more results continuing to come in.
Speaker 4: We'll go straight to our election reporter, Maye Perry, maybe
Speaker 4: talk us through what you've got. Let's go to a
Speaker 4: seed of mild Grave where our election graphics are prosing
Speaker 4: amazing election graphics. I am fifteen years old and I've
Speaker 4: been doing six News for about two years now. We're
Speaker 4: seeing a very interesting scenario where I'm going to say
Speaker 4: that legalized cannabis could even win best.
Speaker 1: See it's so slish.
Speaker 4: Legalized cannabis pat is Australian lump and labor all have
Speaker 4: a good shot.
Speaker 3: And do you love it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do. I do love it.
Speaker 3: I haven't chegralized social media for your work and what
Speaker 3: you do at six News.
Speaker 4: Well, it's incredibly integral. Our entire company, six News is
Speaker 4: run entirely on social media. We've been able to use
Speaker 4: it to interview Albert Easy and Scott Morrison and you
Speaker 4: know a lot of other notable politicians. And without social media,
Speaker 4: six news would just be completely the grounds fair would
Speaker 4: It would have never been able to form, and it
Speaker 4: would have never been able to prosper.
Speaker 3: So given that, how will the band impact your work?
Speaker 1: Well, for me, I would just be able to scrape in.
Speaker 4: But you know, if this bill were are being implemented
Speaker 4: a year earlier, I would have been affected. I would
Speaker 4: have been forced off all of social media but I
Speaker 4: use except YouTube, which is exempt from a bell. All
Speaker 4: my Twitter accounts, my Discord accounts, Snapchat, Instagram, all of
Speaker 4: us would be deleted and I would lose contact to
Speaker 4: almost all my friends who I like to contact through
Speaker 4: social media. And I would lose contact to all my
Speaker 4: followers and you know political friends and journalistic friends who
Speaker 4: are contact by Twitter, and you know, it would be
Speaker 4: incredibly harmful to me.
Speaker 3: Most teenagers of course, aren't election journalists lock yourself, Maggie,
Speaker 3: And I'm followed by politicians on Twitter, so you've touched
Speaker 3: upon it there. But can you talk to me about
Speaker 3: what social media means for you personally, not the journalist,
Speaker 3: but you as a person.
Speaker 4: You know, my social life in Central Queensland, I have
Speaker 4: a lot of friends, but you know, a lot of
Speaker 4: them aren't really in Central Queensland where in Sydney where
Speaker 4: I used to live, and so I've been able to
Speaker 4: keep in touch with them with social media and I've
Speaker 4: gained so many new friends through social media. It really
Speaker 4: is the only way I contact them. It's not like
Speaker 4: I have their phone number or any other way I
Speaker 4: could contact them, but through social media. And I'm sure
Speaker 4: many kids around Australia also contacted a lot of their
Speaker 4: friends through social media. And I'm fine in my household
Speaker 4: were being trans but a lot of other kids aren't.
Speaker 4: Some of my friends in Sydney just can't be outed
Speaker 4: to their parents because if that were to happen, honestly,
Speaker 4: who knows, maybe you know, they'd be shunned by their
Speaker 4: parents or worse. So they've only really had social media
Speaker 4: to be themselves and it has become a lifeline for
Speaker 4: clear kids who might not really have a home anywhere
Speaker 4: but the social media.
Speaker 3: Let's get back to the band itself. Can you remember
Speaker 3: where you first heard about the idea of being floated?
Speaker 4: I think it was Alberti's signing a non exactly well
Speaker 4: fought out petition to ban social media for under sixteen
Speaker 4: year olds.
Speaker 3: This is terrific news.
Speaker 2: You were one of the first people to encourage everybody
Speaker 2: to go to the petition and sign at thirty six
Speaker 2: months dot com dot au.
Speaker 1: We thank you for your support, and.
Speaker 4: It included a lot of social media like YouTube and
Speaker 4: a lot of educational things, so it clearly wasn't entirely
Speaker 4: fought out.
Speaker 2: But this is about letting children have a childhood. There's
Speaker 2: nothing social about some social media taking our young Australians
Speaker 2: away from real friends and real experiences.
Speaker 4: Some of my friends were thinking that a lot of
Speaker 4: people have body image issues because of the social media,
Speaker 4: and some people get harassed and it's not great for
Speaker 4: this whole confidence. I understand those viewpoints, but we can't
Speaker 4: exactly do something like a blanket band, which not only
Speaker 4: eliminates some of the negatives, but also eliminates all of
Speaker 4: the positives of social media for under sixteen year olds, and.
Speaker 3: You've learned a number of employment skills from being on
Speaker 3: social media? Would that be a fair thing to say?
Speaker 1: Definitely?
Speaker 3: What is it torture? What are some of the skills
Speaker 3: you've picked up through it?
Speaker 4: It's brought me a lot of things, just generally being
Speaker 4: able to navigate the Internet and knowing all the ins
Speaker 4: and outs of it, especially even social media culture. I mean,
Speaker 4: I'm sure a lot of parties and companies are very
Speaker 4: familiar with the idea of hiring interns to run by
Speaker 4: social media accounts, and even that is quite a skill
Speaker 4: for young people who do have an advantage on that,
Speaker 4: and older generations will have been advantage of having grown
Speaker 4: up on social media all their lives and having these
Speaker 4: skills equipped ready at their hand, while younger people will
Speaker 4: suddenly be thrown into a world of social media and
Speaker 4: they won't have the skills that people have been able
Speaker 4: to accumulate for more than a decade, and suddenly there'll
Speaker 4: be a gap between the older, more employable, technologically literate
Speaker 4: generations of you know, Millennials and some Gen Z and
Speaker 4: then a generation of younger people who are not as
Speaker 4: employable as for all the counterparts and people who have
Speaker 4: been equipped and weren't affected by this band.
Speaker 3: So you're worried that this band is going to harm people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it can harm a lot of people.
Speaker 4: Like thousands of kids would be left alone and disadvantaged
Speaker 4: and kind of stranded because a lot of them already
Speaker 4: use social media as their home, you know, somewhere they
Speaker 4: could connect with people. So when you cut that off
Speaker 4: from a lot of these kids, it'll be very shocking
Speaker 4: and very disruptive to their lives, especially if they don't
Speaker 4: have many friends in person, or are a better an
Speaker 4: outsider in back community or something.
Speaker 1: Social media is just so vital.
Speaker 3: Coming up after the break, How effective will the ban
Speaker 3: actually be?
Speaker 5: For too many young astrains, social media can be harmful.
Speaker 5: Almost two thirds of fourteen to seventeen year old astrains
Speaker 5: have viewed extremely harmful content online, including drug abuse, suicide
Speaker 5: or self harm, as well as violent material.
Speaker 3: Megan, let's talk about the government's rationale for their social
Speaker 3: media ban. Michelle Roland, the Communications Minister, said it will
Speaker 3: protect children from dangerous content and that the industry uses
Speaker 3: psychological manipulation. Do you agree that social media can push
Speaker 3: young people towards harmful content.
Speaker 1: I think it can.
Speaker 4: I think it's not exactly like a social media band
Speaker 4: would suddenly stop this, and I don't think it would
Speaker 4: incentivize companies to focus on harmbat algorithms are doing promoting
Speaker 4: that sort of content, even if it's a very real issue.
Speaker 4: Once again, a blanket band isn't exactly the best way
Speaker 4: to combat it. It's more maybe legislation on the idea
Speaker 4: of you know, the algorithms and what they're doing, you know,
Speaker 4: these dangerous algorithms about the government used as for some
Speaker 4: of their main reasons for this band. I know, sometimes
Speaker 4: we'll get seminars about the dangers of the digital world,
Speaker 4: you know, maybe once every one or two years in
Speaker 4: primary school, but no one really pays attention to them.
Speaker 4: So I think the government needs to do something a
Speaker 4: bit more informative, a bit more engaging for a lot
Speaker 4: of these kids, so that they actually understand for process
Speaker 4: of social media and how to navigate it, you know,
Speaker 4: without just being thrown into it, which is what is
Speaker 4: already happening. It's not exactly a bad thing, but education
Speaker 4: can't hurt Now.
Speaker 3: It does seem to be a lot of support for
Speaker 3: this band, though there was a new South Wales government
Speaker 3: survey that showed eighty seven percent of respondents showed an
Speaker 3: interest in having an age requirement on social media of
Speaker 3: around sixteen years, So it's popular. What do you say
Speaker 3: to those sort of surveys and that amount of support.
Speaker 4: Well, I think it's a popular idea, and I understand why.
Speaker 4: It's very easy to see the positives of such a ban.
Speaker 4: Its just not as easy to see the negatives, which
Speaker 4: I think there are some very very big, crucial negatives,
Speaker 4: and it kind of relies on people being informed about
Speaker 4: this bill and understanding some of the negatives about it.
Speaker 4: And I think a lot of people were to post
Speaker 4: a band if they had just learned about it a
Speaker 4: bit more so.
Speaker 3: The social media platforms now have a year to comply
Speaker 3: with the legislation, But when it comes to enforcing the band,
Speaker 3: what's your understanding of how it's actually going to work.
Speaker 4: Really it's still a bit up And yeah, it's really
Speaker 4: hard to understand because there's been a few conflicting messages
Speaker 4: about it. I know Anthony Chislm was saying something along
Speaker 4: the lines of people being required to show ida and
Speaker 4: then now Michelle Rowland is saying that people won't have
Speaker 4: to show IDA to companies, but there's been a lot
Speaker 4: of genuine privacy concerns. It also causes issues with, you know,
Speaker 4: discouraging older people who might not be so technology literate
Speaker 4: from being able to access social media to connect with
Speaker 4: their loved ones or to read venues which social media
Speaker 4: has become a huge part of. Also a lot of
Speaker 4: things like requiring companies to verify that users are in
Speaker 4: the country that their VPN says we are, which is
Speaker 4: very irrational and I don't think any corporation has the
Speaker 4: ability to monitor hundreds of millions or even billions of
Speaker 4: people's posts every second, evernment every day.
Speaker 1: It's just not a very feasible thing to do.
Speaker 3: So having said that, Maggie, how effective do you think
Speaker 3: the band will be?
Speaker 4: It just really depends on how it will be enforced.
Speaker 4: People will always try to get into things, especially young people,
Speaker 4: to do things that they're not supposed to do. If
Speaker 4: it was requiring people to provide identification, I know robots
Speaker 4: has that for certain things, and there's still a lot
Speaker 4: of young people who get through these barriers by just
Speaker 4: seeing their parents' identification. I guess copycat or rival social
Speaker 4: media apps could be formed that function very similarly, and
Speaker 4: I think that would happen under this scenario. Since you
Speaker 4: can't exactly keep track of every app that's uploaded to
Speaker 4: the plastor or the app store or Steam. A social
Speaker 4: media band might be effective in blocking young people from
Speaker 4: using Twitter or Instagram, But some things like YouTube and
Speaker 4: TikTok you can just access even without an account, and
Speaker 4: it really doesn't change much of your experience, and you'll
Speaker 4: still be victim to these manipulative algorithms about Roland mentions. Ultimately,
Speaker 4: a band won't make much of a difference for some
Speaker 4: of these apps, no matter how much way you talk
Speaker 4: about it.
Speaker 3: Maggie, thank you so much for your time and for
Speaker 3: your insights.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3: You can read Maggie Perry's full piece and tomorrow's edition
Speaker 3: of the Saturday Paper. Also in the news today, Liberal
Speaker 3: Senator Simon Birmingham has announced he will retire from federal
Speaker 3: politics at the next election. Considered the key member of
Speaker 3: the opposition's front bench team, Senator Birmingham serves as the
Speaker 3: opposition's Foreign affairs spokesperson and the coalition's leader in the
Speaker 3: Senate and the Commonwealth government has apologized to Aboriginal people
Speaker 3: in the Northern Territory for stolen wages. In September, the
Speaker 3: government reached a settlement for up to one hundred and
Speaker 3: eighty million dollars for up to ten thousand First Nations
Speaker 3: people who worked in the Northern Territory between nineteen thirty
Speaker 3: three and nineteen seventy two for little or no wages.
Speaker 3: The apology was delivered by Minister for an Indigenous Australian's
Speaker 3: Melanderry McCarthy in the Senate. Seven Am is a daily
Speaker 3: show from Schwartz Media and The Saturday Paper. It's made
Speaker 3: by Atticus Bastow, Shane Anderson, Chris Dangate, Zoltenfetchow, Travis Evans,
Speaker 3: Sarah mcveee, Ruby Jones and myself Daniel James. We'll be
Speaker 3: back on Monday. Low on Money