MINISTER ANIKA WELLS: Good morning, everyone, and thank you to Minister McBride and Aliza from Black Dog Institute for joining us here this morning. The relationship between social media and children's mental health is one of the most important conversations of our time. That conversation led us to legislate a social media minimum age law for Australians and commit to legislating a Digital Duty of Care. And Minister McBride and I just spent the past hour in conversation with more than 20 mental health support organizations about these coming reforms. I want to especially thank the four organisations which contributed to the resources pack now available from esafety.gov.au, headspace, Beyond Blue, ReachOut, and Kids Helpline.
We understand social media can have benefits, including providing access to young people to find their community. Social media connects us and it binds us, but it’s also used to abuse, control, and harass us. There is a place for social media, but there is not a place for predatory algorithms, harmful content, and popularity meters damaging the brains of our kids. So, today was a useful step for mental health organisations, peaks, and government to get together and talk about what we are each doing in the 50 days left until the social media minimum age laws kick in.
And now, our Minister for Mental Health, Emma McBride, will speak about how the Albanese Government more broadly is supporting youth mental health.
ASSISTANT MINISTER EMMA MCBRIDE: Thank you, Minister Wells. And today was a really important next step as we head to 50 days to the introduction of the social media minimum age restrictions. As Minister Wells has said, the mental health and well-being of young people is a top priority for the Albanese Labor Government. We know that today young people experience the most distress of any Australian. But 20 years ago, one in five young people experienced mental health distress. That's now doubled today to two in five or 40 per cent of young people. And social media companies need to take responsibility for social harm, which is one of the drivers of the mental health distress amongst young Australians. The good news is that more young people are seeking support, and I'm proud to be part of a government that has made the most significant investment in the mental health and well-being of all Australians. We announced an additional $1.1 billion at the last election, of which more than $700 million will be directed to the mental health and well-being of young people, including $200 million to now create headspace Plus, the new model of care for young people aged 12 to 25 who are coming to headspace with more complex challenges and more severe distress. We're also going to be introducing the new youth specialist care centres, 20 across the country, the first specialist care centres in primary care for young Australians, a new model of care for young people seeking support for more complex mental ill health, including eating disorders and psychosis. And also for the first time, we'll introduce, with a $44 million investment, the new national centre for youth mental health. All important investments in the mental health and well-being of our young people.
And today, I want to acknowledge the contribution, the ongoing contribution, of the mental health peak organizations for young people in our community including Orygen, Black Dog Institute, ReachOut, Kids Helpline, and others who are making sure that young people, their families, and carers are well prepared for this significant change that's going to have a really positive impact on the mental health and young people in the coming days.
Thank you, Minister Wells.
ALIZA WERNER-SEIDLER: Thank you ministers, and hi everybody. I'm from the Black Dog Institute, and we are very supportive of any measures designed to improve young people's mental health and well-being. Our priority is to make sure that we support young people through this transition period. And what I'm going to be doing with my sector partners from mental health organisations is to make sure that young people have access to evidence-based informed information and support.
What Black Dog is doing specifically is around promoting two free evidence-based digital interventions to support young people. One is called ClearlyMe. That is a free app that that young people can now download on the app stores. It delivers cognitive behaviour therapy for young people experiencing distress and low mood, and we expect that during this transition period, there will be an adjustment and young people will require additional support for their mental health.
The second program that we’re promoting at the moment to our young people, to our teenagers, is called Sleep Ninja. It helps with young people’s sleep. We know young people spend a lot of time online, scrolling late into the evening. Once that’s no longer an option, we anticipate that there will be disruptions to young people’s sleep. We expect long term benefits, but certainly in the short term tools such as Sleep Ninja, which can help young people establish regular sleep-wake patterns, will be really important.
The final thing that I'd like to say is, as an independent research organisation, Black Dog was really keen to be collaborating with the eSafety Commission in the evaluation of this social media legislation. We want to see the effects on young people's mental health and wellbeing both short term and long term, and we look forward to working with the government to provide evidence and data back to them so that we can make sure that this legislation is refined and fit for purpose in the future. So I'd like to say thank you as well for the collaboration and opportunity to be involved in this discussion. I've just come from the roundtable with many of my sector partners, and it's been a really fruitful discussion. So thank you.
WELLS: Thanks so much Aliza, and thank you very much for the constructive and helpful relationship that the Albanese Government has with Black Dog Institute, not just on policy initiatives such as this, but the really practical, tangible ways you help young people such as the tools Clearly You [sic] and Sleep Ninja. Collectively we are now happy to take your questions.
JOURNALIST: Minister, Crikey reported today that one in three parents will help kids get around the social media ban and that the government had been privately warned. Are you concerned about non-compliance?
WELLS: You've heard me say from the start that we are not expecting perfection after such a seismic change to the way that kids interact with each other online. What we are seeking is cultural change. What we are seeking is a meaningful difference. And particularly what we are seeking here is the platforms to act. These are social media platforms who have been well aware of the harms that are occurring on their platform for years and years and have taken some to limit that harm, but not enough. Not nearly enough in the wake of the science, the data and the evidence that we see, the impact that it's having on Australian and particularly young Australians. So the onus here is on the platforms. The platforms must remove accounts belonging to under-16s. That is their requirement under the law come 10 December, and we are working, the eSafety Commissioner and myself and my team, weekly with the platforms on their compliance plans and what that looks like.
JOURNALIST: Will you be working with parents as well, or sending a message to parents in particular?
WELLS: Absolutely. On Sunday, we kicked off the $14 million awareness campaign that is going nationwide for parents and for teachers and for young people to be able to be aware of what's coming, what that's going to look like for them. And there's- in the information kit that we launched on Friday last week, there is a Q and A available for parents and teachers to help equip them to have those conversations with their children as we approach 10 December. But again, I reiterate, while those things are very helpful and it is for each family to determine how they navigate this within their household, this is about social media and their obligations to their Australian customers. They need to do the right thing by their Australian customers, and that is what we are making the law come 10 December.
JOURNALIST: Just a question about the Trump exchange. What did you make of his messaging towards Kevin Rudd?
WELLS: I think our Foreign Minister Penny Wong said it all earlier today: what a successful meeting. President Trump backed AUKUS, said that he himself wanted to see that happen more quickly, struck a critical minerals deal with our Prime Minister. Overall, an incredibly successful meeting, in large part helped by the ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, who put in place a lot of the work that made that meeting as successful as it was.
JOURNALIST: That was quite a pointed comment towards Kevin Rudd, though. What did you make of that?
WELLS: Honestly, I didn't make anything of it. I was too …
JOURNALIST: [Talks over] Was it an embarrassment?
WELLS: I was very pleased that the meeting was about President Trump signing a critical minerals deal that will have enormous benefit for Australians, and speaks to our incredibly good relationship with such an important strategic partner.
JOURNALIST: Do you think he will listen to calls from the Opposition to perhaps step down? Perhaps it is time for him to step down.
WELLS: Why would he do that when he has just been the architect of such a successful meeting between the President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister of Australia, which put in place a critical minerals deal and, as President Trump said, not only is he supportive of AUKUS, but he personally wants to see it move quickly? That is an incredibly successful outcome and one that we should all be proud of.