A recent forum connecting tech business leaders with members of gen Z produced some positive outcomes.
The Albanese government recently indicated its support for a push by some states to raise the minimum age for access to social media from 13 to 16 years.
The proposed age-related ban would have wide-ranging consequences, not just for youth, but any business or organisation engaging with youth online.
According to Minh Hoang, the proposed change is based on a complete misunderstanding of how young people use social media.
A member of the eSafety Commissioner of Australia’s Youth Council, Mx Hoang said their view was that such a move would be a massive disservice for all young people and would have a disproportionate effect on marginalised youth.
“With young queer people, social media is where they get to engage with youth queer organisations, and they get access to a lot of critical information on their sexual, physical, and mental health,” they said.
This was especially true in rural or regional areas, where social media was often the only place queer youth could connect with their community and overcome the isolation many faced.
Mx Hoang, who is also the Youth Pride Network’s youth engagement officer, said there had been only minimal engagement with young people in the decision-making process about what they wanted and needed.
Meaningful interaction
With communication the goal, Mx Hoang recently led a program titled In Dialogue: Online Freedom or Safety?
The forum brought together queer youth, industry leaders and decision makers in meaningful dialogue around the issue.
Among those to attend were: Lucy Chesterton and Jed Horner from TikTok; Meta Global Advisory Board member Lucy Thomas; Australia’s youth representative to the United Nations, Gavin Choong; and Julia Powles, who is visiting scholar at Stanford University and director of the Tech & Policy Lab at The University of Western Australia.
Mx Hoang said the forum was a win-win situation.
“The young people get leadership experience and tech companies get insights and knowledge from them,” they said.
“After we wrapped up, the two people from TikTok said recommendations that came up from young people were feasible and realistic and something they would potentially look at implementing.”
These recommendations included having social media platforms issue recommendations or cautions that required further actions from the users, rather than passive alerts easily scrolled past by users.
More broadly, young people wanted to be provided with better digital literacy skills and tools so they could keep themselves and their friends safe, while also being trusted to make wise and informed decisions for themselves.
Engaging gen Z
In bringing young people to the table in a meaningful way, the inclusive approach adopted at In Dialogue: Online Freedom or Safety? provided business leaders with a pathway to effectively engage, understand and employ young people, and leverage their input.
Youth have always been the early adopters of technology and communications, including social media, so including them in a meaningful way can give organisations a competitive advantage.
However, gen Z had moved past tokenism and box ticking, Mx Hoang said.
“We’ve grow up and in this post-truth, post-everything sort of era, so I think we have this very sensitive radar when it comes to authenticity,” they said.
“We can smell it if you’re not being authentic. If you’re not being authentic, gen Z will disengage immediately.”
So, if the value of young people and their perspectives were to be truly leveraged at work, or in consultation about the future of social media for everyone, it had to be in a way that was real and authentic and would lead to action, Mx Hoang said.
And this was across the board.
“I cannot stress enough that big tech needs to engage more with young people,” they said.
“Policy makers need to engage more with young people. Education needs to. Whatever sector you’re in, you need to engage more with young people.”
- Dr Kate Raynes-Goldie is a business anthropologist, strategic speaker coach, international keynote speaker and LEGO® Serious Play specialist. She is the Chief Connection Officer of The Up Next Company and the creator of SUPERCONNECT®
