The Smartphone Generation: Why Our Kids Are Not Alright

Yesterday, Ros Thomas from The Australian published a confronting piece, The Kids Are Not Alright, which revealed what many of us working in mental health have known for years: smartphones and social media are causing profound harm to young people.

Over nine months, The Australian interviewed children and teenagers across the country, uncovering stories that should alarm every parent, educator, and policymaker.

As a mental health professional, I am deeply aware of the dangers that constant exposure to screens, social media, and unfiltered content pose to developing brains—particularly during adolescence, when identity and self-worth are still being formed. Yet one of the most chilling revelations from the article was a group of Year 8 boys who admitted the “best reels” are videos of beheadings, adding casually that “the girls hate it when we share those.”

This is horrifying. This is not normal. This is not okay. As a mother, I would be absolutely shattered if my children were exposed to such violence. And yet, when we send our kids to school, we cannot protect them from what their peers are showing on their phones. The choices of parents who allow their children unrestricted access to violent, disturbing, and pornographic content affect every child in the classroom.

That is why I want to thank the principal of Port School, Barry Finch, for taking a firm stand with a blanket ban on phones at his school. If students are caught with them, the phones are locked away and parents are called to collect their child. Likewise, Matt Hopkins, from the Middle School at Port School in Fremantle, put it bluntly: “Parents need to step up and do their job.” I couldn’t agree more.

Too many parents are turning a blind eye. We cannot rely on tech companies to protect our children. In fact, internal documents revealed by The Australian show the opposite. In 2019, a leaked Instagram presentation admitted, “We make body image worse for one in three teenage girls.” Even worse, the algorithms were shown to exploit that anxiety, deliberately flooding feeds with more unattainable images of “flawless bodies”—all in the pursuit of profit.

Parents, I urge you: ask yourself, are you really okay with this? Please don’t dismiss it with, “It’s not that bad,” because it is. It’s far worse than many of us want to believe.

We have reached a turning point. The safety, mental health, and future of our children depend on us taking action now. 

We cannot sit back and hope this problem will fix itself. Smartphones and social media are not harmless tools—they are shaping the way our children see themselves, relate to others, and make sense of the world. The research is clear, the stories are confronting, and the consequences are devastating.

It’s time for parents, schools, and communities to stand together and draw firm boundaries. We must demand greater accountability from tech companies, support schools that take courageous action, and—most importantly—take responsibility for what we allow into our children’s hands.

Our kids deserve better. They deserve a childhood free from violence, comparison, and manipulation. They deserve the chance to grow stronger, kinder, and more resilient without the constant pressure of an algorithm profiting from their pain.

Thank you, Ros Thomas, for shining a light on this critical issue. Let’s not waste the wake-up call. The time to act is now.