It’s time we stop sugar-coating the digital playground: Kids are being left exposed while policy drags its feet.

Australia’s online world is no longer an optional risk. It’s the default arena for young people’s social lives, identity experiments, peer pressure, and – ominously – mental-health damage.  

Why Australia's Sober Teens are Our Most Radical Generation Yet

For decades, Australians have treated alcohol as a social passport. To refuse a drink was to risk ridicule. “C’mon, just one” was as much a part of adolescence as acne and awkward school photos. But something is shifting, and it’s happening in the very demographic most marketers assumed would keep the grog flowing: our young people.

Urgent Action Needed: Social Media’s Neglect of Our Children’s Safety

As a child and adolescent psychologist, I am deeply alarmed by the rampant exposure of young people to graphic violence on social media. The recent assassination of Charlie Kirk has tragically thrust this issue into the spotlight, revealing a shocking reality: social media companies are failing to protect our children from trauma that should never be normalized.

Definitely Don't Ditch Dinner

It’s a statistic that might make you pause mid-bite. New findings from the University of Sydney show more than 40% of young Aussies are lonely. It’s a growing crisis in Australia, but modern life is eroding our ability to connect. And, while loneliness has many causes, experts are pointing to a quiet culprit hiding in plain sight – the decline of family dinner time.

Social Media Bans for Under-16s: Noble Idea, Fool’s Errand

You probably missed it (buried somewhere between the election postmortems and the slick handling of Daly Cherry-Evans by the Sea Eagles) the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre dropped a bombshell in March: marinating in social media, with its endless pings and dopamine hits, doesn’t just fray young nerves—it might actually rewire the emotional circuitry of the brain.