In his global bestseller The Anxious Generation, acclaimed American author and social psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, opens with a powerful hypothetical. Haidt offers a fictional scenario where the reader’s 10 year old daughter has been selected for a spot on an exploratory mission to Mars. The reader does not recall consenting to her application. Haidt writes: “unbeknownst to you she had signed herself up for the mission because she loves outer space, and, besides, all of her friends signed up. She begs you to go.”

Haidt then runs through the many potentially devastating health and social consequences that such a journey would entail, including the suggestion that there is no guarantee that your daughter could return. He then posits the question “so, would you let her go?” The obvious response is: “Of course not. You realise that this is an absolutely insane idea – sending children to Mars perhaps never to return to earth. Why would any parent allow it?” 

Haidt questions the motivations of the company behind the mission and suggests that it knows little about child development or the potential harm that it would cause and that it did not take appropriate steps to obtain proof of parental permission. 

Haidt’s hypothetical dystopian scenario is actually a metaphor for the damage caused to young people through accessing social media. He neatly summarises a situation in which we are aware of the very significant harms that access can cause young people and the harm that it does to their development, body image, risk taking, sense of self and psychological well being, yet there is little in the way of measures to support parents to prevent this harm from occurring to their children. Further, social media conglomerates are motivated to increase traffic, data collation and revenue and not to watch out for the impact on their younger users.

Haidt posits that the following should be adopted to best support our young people to develop into healthy and functioning individuals:

– No smartphones before high school

– No social media before 16

– Phone-free schools

– Far more unsupervised play and childhood independence.

Last week, the Federal Government announced a proposed ban on children under the age of 16 accessing social media. This is likely to be adopted into legislation with bipartisan support and will include a twelve month leeway for social media companies to prepare for implementation of the ban.

In explaining the proposed ban, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated that: “I get things popping up on my system that I don’t want to see, let alone a vulnerable 14-year-old. The fact is that young women see images of particular body shapes that have a real impact in the real world. And young men through some of the misogynistic material that they get sent to them, not because they asked for it. If you’re a 14-year-old kid getting this stuff at a time where you’re going through life’s changes and maturing, it can be a really difficult time.”

The proposed age cap has been widely applauded as a significant positive step in protection of our young people although there are doubts around how effectively it can be implemented and monitored.  

You should be well aware that we have implemented rules to make King David a phone-free environment during the school day. Of course, parental support in our implementation of this is always appreciated.

Additionally, we appreciate the concerns regarding early access to smartphones and the many challenges around this area of contemporary parenting. We are in the process of formulating an exciting program that will target this area. The King David School is committed to providing education and facilitating conversations in order to help parents make the sometimes tough decisions that are in benefit of their children’s wellbeing.

While many accept Jonathan Haidt’s concerns regarding the detrimental impact of early and ubiquitous access to social media, it is clear that creating firm boundaries around such access is exceptionally difficult. However, through leveraging our knowledge, expertise, policies and warm community we can help enable our families to better manage this complexity. 

Shabbat Shalom,
Marc Light