Two Agencies are undertaking a joint campaign urging parents and carers to be vigilant about their children’s social media activity.
Principal Commissioner of the Queensland Family and Child Commission (QFCC), Cheryl Vardon and Commissioner of the Queensland Mental Health Commission, Ivan Frkovic joined together to issue a statement saying it was important for parents and carers to initiate conversations with young people about distressing, violent and abusive content on social media platforms.
“Harmful content appearing on social media channels is, of course, concerning and unfortunately when removing this type of material there is no guarantee that it will not re-emerge,” Ms Vardon said.
“The prevalence of horrific and harmful content available online is a challenge that calls for careful monitoring and frank discussions.”
She said harmful content was often disguised as harmless videos or imagery, such as a video that started with cute kittens and escalated to extreme self-harm.
Mr Frkovic said parents and carers needed to be aware of the channels and material their children were accessing, and to start difficult conversations to discuss context and appropriateness.
“Many parents and carers find the evolving social media landscape to be confusing and daunting, but we all need to build on our digital competencies and equip ourselves for conversations to protect young people from harm,” Mr Frkovic said.
“Harmful content online includes video of suicides and self-harm, groups promoting unhealthy body images, violence including abusive pornography, and encouragement to take extreme risks for video views.
