23,000 kids take a stand with social media blackout

More than 20,000 Aussie schoolchildren are giving up social media for 24 hours today, as part of a national campaign to raise awareness of the dangers.

Unplug24, the name of the initiative, is also being supported by a host of big names, among them singer Jessica Mauboy, fitness guru Michelle Bridges, Olympian Lani Pallister, Fox Footy presenter Sarah Jones, Opals basketballer Alice Kunek, actor Ada Nicodemou, as well as politicians including Health Minister Mark Butler and Senator Jacqui Lambie.

The national day of social media silence was conceived by Wayne Holdsworth, whose son, Mac, took his own life on this day a year ago.

The Melbourne teenager, who dreamt of becoming a carpenter, fell victim to a sextortion plot in which he was tricked into sending an explicit photo of himself and then blackmailed via his Snapchat and Instagram accounts.

Last month Sydney schoolgirl Charlotte O’Brien, 12, shocked the nation when she took her life after being bullied online.

The high profile stars join News Corp and SmackTalk, a suicide prevention charity set up in Mac’s name, along with every boarder in Australia, in backing the day.

Australian Boarding Schools Association CEO Richard Stokes said every one of the country’s 201 boarding schools – comprising 23,000 pupils – were taking part in Unplug24 today.

Among them are some of Australia’s most exclusive schools including Kambala School and The Scots College in Sydney, Brisbane Grammar School, Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, and Penbroke School in Adelaide.

There are also tiny rural schools like Torres Strait Kaziw Meta on Thursday Island, in Queensland, which has just 67 boarders, who have also quit social media for Unplug24.

“Social media has had the greatest negative impact on kids we have ever seen,” Mr Stokes said.

“It has a great power over some kids and a negative influence on them.”

He said one of the benefits of boarding is that every boarder has to hand their phones in before bed every night, so they all get a good night’s sleep, but coming off it for an entire day is the “greatest idea ever”, according to all the headteachers who agreed to do it.

And feedback was that the kids liked the “concept of showing they are strong and in control” and can do without it.

Mr Stokes said it was also an important to raise awareness of how social media can expose children to dangers like sextortion and bullying.

“When it comes to sextortion, the boys all think it won’t happen to them, but it does,” Mr Stokes said.

“With the girls it’s more about the bullying.”

Mr Stokes said one school in Perth was already doing something similar to this campaign but on a weekly basis. They have been running ‘Unplugged Thursdays’, where children learn life skills such as managing money, changing tyres and cooking instead of scrolling on their phones.

News Corp is also running the Let Them Be Kids campaign to raise the age children can access social media to 16, which has received support from thousands of parents across Australia, as well as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Originally published as Unplug24: 23,000 kids take a stand with social media blackout