The harms of social media are becoming more and more evident, particularly for our young people.

The government has announced Australian children as young as four will get cyber safety training from federal police amid fears some are producing sexually explicit material.

Prince William has spoken out against online trolls saying “we’ve reached a moment of reckoning”.

Alan speaks with Associate Editor of The Australian Caroline Overington about the destruction of our children caused by the online world.

“We were the first generation to allow our children access, in particular to smartphones that have social media on them, and we did it because we didn’t know how awful it was going to be.

“We thought let’s give them a phone and we’ll know where they are, we’ll be able to track them, we’ll feel safe.

“What happened instead is it’s now in their pocket all day, when they walk to the bus, when they get to the school gates, when they go to bed at night, when they wake up in the morning.

“These endless updates telling them you’re too fat, you’re ugly you’ve got no friends, you don’t belong in this world.

“It causes depression, we know it, and depression is a potentially fatal illness.

“It is killing children because they don’t have the mental reserve that adults have to look at this kind of thing and think it’s not important, I’m important to my family.”

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