Australians for Mental Health is calling for the NSW government to turns its focus on forcing tech companies to accept responsibility for the well-being of all their users rather than a narrow focus on the behaviours of young people at its Social Media Summit tomorrow, which happens also to be World Mental Health Day.

“Tech companies have failed to make social media safe for young people, instead generating billions in profit with platforms that are driving needless harm,” Australians for Mental Health Executive Director, Chris Gambian, said.

Gambian stressed that social media was not inherently harmful and that it clearly has many benefits for young people and that bans were not an answer to any negative impacts.

“Social media can be a great thing, but when bullying behaviour, hate speech, misinformation and mentally harmful content is waved through in the name of clicks and shares, governments need to step in.”

“There is no evidence or research that would indicate banning social media for people under sixteen improves their safety or mental health, and plenty of evidence that bans don’t work – they just drive the behaviour underground” Gambian said.

“Worse still, it places blame at the feet of young Australians and their parents, rather than the tech giants who could choose to make social media a much more positive experience through the design of their platforms.”

“If we’re serious about improving the mental health of young adults on these platforms, we need to implement evidence-based policies and measures focused on transparency and accountability.”

Media contact: Simon Black at [email protected], or on 0420 488 219.

About Australians for Mental Health

Australians for Mental Health was founded in 2014 to campaign for fundamental change in the way the country thinks and acts about mental health. Our mission is to ensure that Australia starts putting mental health at the heart of our national life.