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Speaker 1: Listen to this debate over in Australia about banning the

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Speaker 1: social media for kids. I've been thinking about it a lot.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure many parents have actually about what the best

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Speaker 1: way to deal with the social media is, whether you

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Speaker 1: ban it or do something else. And today I came

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Speaker 1: across an article that I think makes the best comparison

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Speaker 1: yet for how we should treat social media for kids,

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Speaker 1: and that is treat it like sex. Now, this particular article,

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Speaker 1: and I'll explain, but this particular article is by an

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Speaker 1: academic in Australia. What she argues is that the best

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Speaker 1: way to protect kids from social media is by teaching

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Speaker 1: them it's dangers, kind of like we do with sex.

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Speaker 1: Because I think we now know that banning sex for

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Speaker 1: teens doesn't work, right, Celibacy all the way through marriage

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Speaker 1: is just as a looney idea doesn't work. The best

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Speaker 1: way to deal with it is the way that we

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Speaker 1: do deal with it at the moment, which is sex education.

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Speaker 1: We teach kids how the whole thing works, We teach

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Speaker 1: them how to be safe, and most kids actually do

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Speaker 1: end up being completely fine. And that, she says, is

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Speaker 1: how we should treat social media. Teach the kids how

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Speaker 1: it works. Teach them about the alghai rhythm that will

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Speaker 1: push information at you. Teach them if they click something,

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Speaker 1: you'll get more of the same thing. Teach them how

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Speaker 1: the perfect model lined by the pool with her perfect

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Speaker 1: boyfriend on the perfect holiday is just a photo. It's

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Speaker 1: not real. And then teach them how to be safe

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Speaker 1: when they're using it, how to not look at certain things,

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Speaker 1: how to talk about the things that they see that

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Speaker 1: upset them, and so on and so on. Right, but

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Speaker 1: here's the next step with it. With sex, we do

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Speaker 1: ban it as well, don't we. We say kids under

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Speaker 1: sixteen cannot legally have sex. We put these guardrails in.

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Speaker 1: I think to take this comparison further, I think that

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Speaker 1: we should do that with social media too, if only

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Speaker 1: as a guardrail kids under whatever age. We decide no

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Speaker 1: social media, same as we decide no sex allowed to

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Speaker 1: happen legally, as I say, ban it. Knowing the ban

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Speaker 1: is just a guardrail. It's not gonna work for most kids.

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Speaker 1: They are going to flout it. But just like because

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Speaker 1: it doesn't work with sex, it's not going to work

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Speaker 1: with social media. But then we educate them as well,

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Speaker 1: and that is the most important part. If we think

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Speaker 1: about it like that kids are going to do this

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Speaker 1: thing that you don't want them to do, and that

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Speaker 1: you're banning them from doing it, they're going to do

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Speaker 1: it anyway, then you understand the best thing that you

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Speaker 1: can do as a parent, and as an educator and

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Speaker 1: as a country is teacher kids how to do it safely.

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Speaker 1: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 1: news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio.