A summit brought together experts, governments and teenagers to discuss the impacts of social media and a proposed ban. Here’s what happened.

Leaders, experts and teenagers gathered for two days in South Australia and New South Wales to talk about the harms of social media.

On the agenda: the impact of social networks on young people and society, and the plan to ban social networks.

Guests came from state and federal levels of government, and also included legal, health and digital experts, as well as teenagers.

And the federal government has made public for the first time details of its proposed ban on social media for teenagers.

Here’s what happened.

Who was at the top?

The summit attracted guests from many fields.

At a government level, it featured New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, and Federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland.

Also in attendance were ASIO Chief Executive Mike Burgess and National Electronic Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant.

There were youth advocates, including Sonya Ryan, founder of the Carly Ryan Foundation, created in honor of Sonya’s daughter, Carly, who was murdered by an online predator. And young people like Ellen Armfield, from the NSW Youth Advisory Council, were there to make their voices heard.

It also featured online content creators, such as ABC Indigenous journalist Tom Forrest, known as “Outback Tom”, who shared some of the positive aspects of social media.

Importantly, teens participated in both days of the summit, sharing their experiences with social media and their ideas for dealing with prejudice.

What was discussed?

There was a lot on the agenda over the two days.

Among the parents who spoke at the rally was mother Emma Mason, who shared the story of her daughter, Matilda “Tilly” Rosewarne, as an example of the harmful impact social media could have on young people.

The 15-year-old took her own life in 2022 after fake nude images of her were circulated around her school, with Ms Mason sharing how cyberbullying, exacerbated by social media, was devastating for her daughter and her family.

The country’s top intelligence official, Mr Burgess, detailed how social media also impacts ideological radicalism among children and highlighted growing concerns that AI technology increasingly becoming a weapon in the hands of terrorists.

Meanwhile, academics such as American social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt have urged Australia to “kill” the social media monsters created by its home country’s tech giants.

Young people were important voices, with teenagers pointing out that they were only 11 or 12 when they started using social media and that they sometimes faced sexual harassment.

What is happening now?

The Albanian government has pledged to present a bill banning children from social media by the end of this year.

The laws will have 12 months to be implemented.

It is not yet known at what age access to social networks will be prohibited, but it could be up to 16 years old.

The Communications Minister confirmed at the summit that responsibility for enforcing the age limit would fall on social media platforms, rather than parents or children.

Michelle Rowland also said social media companies that could “demonstrate a low risk of harm to children” could be exempt from the proposed ban.