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Speaker 1: This is the Fits In with Kate Richie podcast.

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Speaker 2: Just reading page five of the Daily Telegraph.

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Speaker 3: You're in here today mate, and the headline is battle

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Speaker 3: to save our kids from social Media.

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Speaker 2: You went to parliament this I.

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Speaker 3: Had to put on a big boy pants, I put

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Speaker 3: on a suit jacket and we rolled through the door.

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Speaker 3: This was all in aid of trying to change the

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Speaker 3: age kids can join social media from thirteen to sixteen,

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Speaker 3: which is the right thing to do. Kelly Sloan, she

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Speaker 3: is the member for our Clothes. She put her hand

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Speaker 3: up fits and said, I would like to take this

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Speaker 3: to a public interest debate which was debated last night

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Speaker 3: in State Parliament, which was fantastic to continue the conversation

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Speaker 3: and to explain a bit further in support of thirty

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Speaker 3: six months. I spoke to Kelly just before the show.

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Speaker 1: Look, it's so good to be able to help give

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Speaker 1: your campaign a voice. As a mama three teenagers, as

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Speaker 1: someone who used.

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Speaker 4: To work before politics with Healthy Harold. People won't remember

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Speaker 4: Healthy Harald delivering programs around online content. And you know,

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Speaker 4: as a member of Parliament who's hearing from parents everywhere

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Speaker 4: like you guys are that they just need help.

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Speaker 1: They need a circuit breaker. We need to do something

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Speaker 1: about this massive problem that we're all witnessing.

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Speaker 3: What is the next step? How do we take the

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Speaker 3: next step? Is this something you know you can continue

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Speaker 3: to push on behalf of thirty six months.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely. I mean you've got me on board until we

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Speaker 1: get some action and we need to do it. We

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Speaker 1: need to do it, and we can't say it's too

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Speaker 1: hard anymore.

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Speaker 4: You know, in South Australia.

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Speaker 1: They're getting legal advice on what they can do to

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Speaker 1: ban under fourteen year olds. We're seeing action in other

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Speaker 1: jurisdictions overseas. I know that Peter Dozon's committed that in

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Speaker 1: the first one hundred days of coming to government if

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Speaker 1: he's elected, he would take action. But I don't want

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Speaker 1: us to wait that long. I'll be putting pressure on

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Speaker 1: my Canberra colleagues and on our labor opponents in New

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Speaker 1: South Wales and saying, guys, get this done because we

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Speaker 1: can't wait for the perfect solution. We can't wait for

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Speaker 1: the silver bullet, because we're not going to get one.

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Speaker 4: We just have to start.

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Speaker 3: Kelly on behalf of thirty six months. I can't thank

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Speaker 3: you enough for yesterday's representing us in New South Wales Parliament.

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Speaker 1: No, well done guys, and.

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Speaker 3: Also just as important, fits was a conversation I had yesterday.

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Speaker 3: This was a tough chat to have. This was the

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Speaker 3: reason why we need to change the age from thirteen

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Speaker 3: to sixteen. And I sat down with a guy by

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Speaker 3: the name of Rob Evans who had a very tough

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Speaker 3: story to share. Robbie joining us here today through desperation.

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Speaker 3: You've got the hardest of stories to share, mate. Could

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Speaker 3: you please tell us about your beautiful daughter live.

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Speaker 5: Yes, my daughter Olivia as she passed away at age

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Speaker 5: fifteen in April twenty twenty three. She had a two

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Speaker 5: year struggle with anorexia and what started out as just

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Speaker 5: a child being what we saw as being fussy with

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Speaker 5: food to then turning into something much much deeper.

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Speaker 2: And it's really tough.

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Speaker 5: When I go back and like, we live in a

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Speaker 5: digital age and I like to capture things on my phone,

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Speaker 5: video and so forth, and you go back to when

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Speaker 5: she was first in hospital, Like I have a video

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Speaker 5: of when that very first visit and she's happy and

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Speaker 5: we're just trying to get to understand what's going on

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Speaker 5: for her and get her better, and she wasn't really

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Speaker 5: able to talk about what had caused her to have

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Speaker 5: the eating disorder. I did ask her early on. I said,

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Speaker 5: what do you know what has caused this for you?

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Speaker 5: And she said yes, she said, but I'm not telling you.

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Speaker 5: I said, okay, Well, I said, at least if you know,

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Speaker 5: that's something you can work with that fast forwarding eighteen months,

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Speaker 5: that's what it took her before. Just one day I

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Speaker 5: was in hospital with her and she started to open up,

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Speaker 5: and it was through some schoolyard bullying, like from.

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Speaker 3: Girl comments regarding her body image.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, and she's only tiny, like she's only tiny, like

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Speaker 5: when she passed away, she's about thirty two killers. So

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Speaker 5: that gives you an idea of how tiny she was.

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Speaker 5: And so I think in the darkness of all of that,

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Speaker 5: she would then jump on social media and mainly insta,

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Speaker 5: and she would just find all these different things of

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Speaker 5: people that have eating disorders, right, or people that are

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Speaker 5: effectively promoting it and saying like they're eating two hundred

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Speaker 5: calories a day and doing silly things like this, and

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Speaker 5: every now and then she would come to me and say, Dad,

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Speaker 5: this person says they're eating two hundred calories a day.

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Speaker 5: I think I can do that, and I would have

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Speaker 5: a So I work in the health and fitness industry,

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Speaker 5: and I would explain it to her why that is

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Speaker 5: not it can't be true, and it's not sustainable and

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Speaker 5: it's also not healthy.

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Speaker 2: So to not, you know, support that person or do anything.

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Speaker 5: But you've got these crazy monkeys running around in your

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Speaker 5: head that are telling you to do something different.

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Speaker 3: And the algorithms, I suppose that gap serving her content

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Speaker 3: on being stick thin.

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Speaker 2: That's right. And then it was how do I end

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Speaker 2: all this?

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Speaker 3: Oh my god?

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Speaker 5: Okay, So yeah, she became just a research person in

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Speaker 5: trying to find the answers to end at all because

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Speaker 5: she was just felt like she was in so much pain,

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Speaker 5: no way out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I think the impact on social media.

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Speaker 5: I don't think we've ever lived in a time when

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Speaker 5: social media has been having a negative impact on adults.

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Speaker 5: But then we've got those developing brains from like thirteen

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Speaker 5: to sixteen, which is really really dangerous influential time live

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Speaker 5: had a poor self image.

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Speaker 2: She's trying to grosse.

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Speaker 5: Even as adults, we're trying to find our identity and

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Speaker 5: our poor kids, and you jump on social media and

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Speaker 5: if you think that's your reality, then you're in trouble,

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Speaker 5: you know.

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Speaker 3: I mean important conversations that took place last night at

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Speaker 3: Parliament House was also you know when you look at

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Speaker 3: that third in sixty in your old brain, which you

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Speaker 3: know more than many others, to try and understand the

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Speaker 3: complexities of social media and the targeting of social media

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Speaker 3: and the addiction, it's a mine field. So trying to

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Speaker 3: navigate that and understand yourself at the same time, as

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Speaker 3: you mentioned, as you're developing and that prefrontal cortex which

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Speaker 3: you would have, it's impossible for a child to remain

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Speaker 3: balanced in that situation. So I want to say thank

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Speaker 3: you for being there last night and standing alongside Live

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Speaker 3: to recognize that you know, we don't want to we

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Speaker 3: don't want to kick the can down the road. We

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Speaker 3: want action and we want it now. So because there's

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Speaker 3: there's kids on the edge of a cliff and we're

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Speaker 3: playing with lives, yes, thank you, and thank you to

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Speaker 3: Live as well, because little does she know, and maybe

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Speaker 3: she does in spirit, then she is saving lives as

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Speaker 3: we speak, as you are too, mate, So thank you

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Speaker 3: so much for sharing your story.

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Speaker 2: Thank you.

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Speaker 3: Whippa with Kate Ritchie is a note for podcasts walk

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Speaker 3: great shows like this. Download the Nova Player via the

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Speaker 3: app Store or Google Play.

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Speaker 1: The Nova Player