Social media ban will further isolate regional and rural youth, LGBTIQA+ advocates say
Some regional teenagers are concerned they will be left without vital online support networks once the social media ban comes into effect. (ABC Riverland: Shannon Pearce)
In short:
Advocacy groups are concerned LGBTIQA+ teens living in regional and remote Australia will be "cut off" from critical connection and support.
Some regional LGBTIQA+ teenagers say social media has been a safe space for them to escape homophobic experiences at school and in their community.
What's next?
There are calls for investment into dedicated queer-safe, in-person spaces for young people, to fill the gap in support once the ban comes into effect.
Young people and advocates are warning that the upcoming social media ban will leave regional LGBTIQA+ teenagers without vital access to support.
For 16-year-old Abbie Jane, social media offered her a reprieve from the intense homophobia she faced at her regional school in Broken Hill, which is more than 500 kilometres from the closest capital city.
"Growing up in a regional area felt really isolating," she said.
"It feels like you're completely alone in an area where you can't find like-minded people, and you're so far away from the rest of the world."
Abbie Jane said her experience online was vastly different to her experience at school. (ABC Mid North Coast: Marina Trajkovich)
Abbie was just 12 years old when she began to experience "relentless" homophobic bullying at school.
It had a significant impact on her mental health.
"I was standing with my principal and I started to raise the pride flag and this group of year 10 boys came up and started swearing and hurling homophobic abuse at me," she said.
"I remember being so terrified.
"I was stuck in a constant cycle of hatred, and it was horrible."
During this time, Abbie used social media to start the Rainbow Shoelace Project, giving away packs of pride coloured shoelace beads to people in her town.
Abbie Jane started the Rainbow Shoelace Project to improve queer visibility in Broken Hill. (ABC Mid North Coast: Marina Trajkovich)
She said the response to her project on social media was the reason she made it through that period of her teenage life.
"My safe place was going online,"Abbie said.
"It made me feel for the first time so proud of who I was.
"Without social media, I wouldn't have been able to create that thing that basically saved my life."
Ban due in December
From December 10 this year, under-16s will be banned from social media.
The government has not yet settled on exactly which platforms will be included in the ban.
However, it said platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube meet many of the legislation's conditions that define age-restricted services.
Social media has provided regional teenagers with connections to other queer people. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)
The online safety regulator, eSafety, has requested self-assessments from other popular platforms, such as WhatsApp, Roblox, Discord and Steam, to determine if they should also be included.
While the ban was introduced to reduce harm to young people online, the issue is more complex for young members of the LGBTIQA+ community.
LGBTQIA+ charity Minus18 surveyed nearly 1,000 queer youth on their social media use earlier this year, finding 91 per cent of participants said social media helped them find queer friends and 82 per cent believed a social media ban would leave them disconnected.
"There's a bit of a tension between … preventing us from harm but also preventing us from finding community," SA Rainbow Advocacy Alliance chief executive Varo Lee said.
SA Rainbow Advocacy Alliance CEO Varo Lee says young people want better regulation and moderation of social media platforms that could benefit all users. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)
"Being LGBTQI+ can make people feel different or isolated, and that's exacerbated in regional areas where they don't necessarily have that queer visibility.
"What we're hearing from young people is if we're taking that away, what are we giving back?"
'LGBT+ people will be cut off'
Kelsey Van der Woude is 15 and will have her social media accounts go dark this December.
She identifies as agender and lesbian, and grew up in the Riverland in South Australia, where she also struggled to feel accepted.
"When you're living in a regional area, there's less chance for there to be people around you … which means there's less people who are more likely to be more like you," Kelsey said.
"LGBT+ people will be cut off."
Those online spaces were where Kelsey was able to explore her identity.
"The fact that I was agender and being lesbian … I never really had the words for it until social media,"she said.
It was a reprieve from the homophobic attitudes she was surrounded by at school.
"Kids are mean, teenagers are mean," Kelsey said.
Kelsey Van der Woude said social media played a big part in the forming of their identity. (ABC Riverland: Shannon Pearce)
"I will definitely be a little more screwed when the social media ban happens, bullying-wise, because I'm autistic and queer. So, I'm a bit of a target."
Victoria's LGBTIQA+ Communities Commissioner, Joe Ball, said he has put questions to the government directly about the potential impact of the ban on queer people.
"LGBTIQA+ young people have higher rates of poor mental health and higher rates of suicide, so it's a population that will need, and does need, and historically needs to reach out to these services," he said.
Victorian LGBTIQA+ commissioner Joe Ball says it is important to talk to young people to find a solution. (ABC Rural: Timu King)
"With the introduction of the social media ban, we've lost one of our pathways to those services.
"We now need to turn to the consultations with young people and the services that support them to see what can be done."
Offline connection is vital
Ace Long, who uses they/them pronouns, is 16 and has just escaped the ban.
When they were not online, a local community arts group became an important in-person space for them to find support as an agender and pansexual person.
"Because I found a space … I was able to find it a lot easier because I was able to not fear being outed or not accepted because I know it's a safe space," they said.
Ace Long said the ban would work better if it was accompanied with education around how to use social media. (ABC Riverland: Shannon Pearce)
In the wake of the ban, Ace said part of the solution should be creating more spaces like that for queer people.
"I feel like it can fill the gap of loneliness that [the ban] will create because they'll lose many online communities,"they said.
Advocacy groups agree that physical places for support offline are crucial, but SARAA says there are not enough of them in regional Australia.
"We are seeing a real absence of offline, in-person spaces for LGBTIQA+ people to connect in," Varo Lee said.
"There's definitely a significant underfunding of those spaces.
"We're seeing government driving the social media ban, then I would want government to be stepping up and playing a lead role in funding and providing some of those spaces in consultation with community."'
Abbie, Kelsey and Ace all agreed that schools should also be stepping up.
SA Rainbow Advocacy Alliance says it is looking to government to fill the gap in support that the ban will create. (ABC Riverland: Shannon Pearce)
"My cyberbullying that I experienced wasn't from random trolls online — it was from people at my own high school," Abbie said.
"If the government had dealt with my situation and so many other people's situations better, the social media ban wouldn't have to be in place.
"[Social media] has taken many lives … but I almost lost my life because of what I was going through in real life, so I wish they took more consideration into that."
The federal government said it has consulted extensively with LGBTIQA+ groups, youth groups and mental health groups ahead of the ban and will continue to work with all stakeholders before December 10.
It declined to comment on how it will support queer-safe offline spaces once the ban comes into effect.