The social networking sites have presented a good idea for Australia to get ahead in controlling the impact of social media by hosting a two-day summit organized by the New South Wales and South Australia governments. This event, starting today at ICC Sydney and moving to Adelaide Convention Centre tomorrow, will feature specialists, policymakers, academics, young people, and community members discussing the opportunities and challenges of social media used in people’s lives and how the government can be of optimal assistance in improving Digital Wellbeing.

It is well-timed since soon after the summit, the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to put-forward laws regulating the use of social media among children. Almost all governments are in support of raising the minimum age on social media platforms given the adverse effects such social media platforms are having on children and young people.

The event will be arranged in the form of panel discussions and presentations moderated by Njatha Kinyomi and Nason, who will include academics, industry players, youth, and persons with knowledge of mental and physical health. Other speakers include Dr. of Psychology Jean Twenge from San Diego State; she will discuss the correlation between adolescent mental health decline and social media usage worldwide. A former Facebook product manager turned whistleblower, Frances Haugen, is also scheduled to speak. Haugen, whose organization is called Beyond the Screen, is a non-profit organization involved in holding social media companies accountable. She rose to fame when she leaked Facebook documents that showed the company put profits before people’s safety in 2021.

The Social Media Summit’s topics of great concern are the effects of social media on children and adolescents’ social and mental health, safety, fake news and expectations of social media on disinformation, the fight against hate and radicalization, and the social transformation of government business.

This summit seeks to provide relevant information to designers and deliverers of several polices, programmes and resources pertaining to problems caused by social media. In this way, the government will be able to combine various opinions and knowledge in order to create integrative and effective actions to reduce the negative effects of using social media while at the same time increasing all the possibilities of utilizing such platforms.

As the controversy about the regulation of social media gains momentum, the summit will afford an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas and help define the future of digital health in Australia. The discussions and conclusions made during such events will surely contribute to the formulation of new laws and policies related to social network usage by means of new media among youths.

This is aligned with the government’s worry about the negative effects of the use of social media, which has been over and over raised on topics concerning mental health, safety, and fake news. In addressing all of these threats and in soliciting advice from as many stakeholders as possible, Australia is putting itself in a position to be one of the leaders in the charge towards a safer and more responsible digital world.

At the end of the summit, it’ll be expected that key findings and suggestions that would help policymakers navigate the best approach to manage the risks while encouraging the value offered by social media will be made. From the findings presented in this event, there are sure to be widespread effects on how social media is useful and politically monitored in Australia, including establishing laws used as a reference for other nations experiencing similar events.