Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 3-Oct-24

As the Federal government prepares to introduce legislation that would ban social media for young Australians, analysis of six years of data from the Roy Morgan Risk Monitor shows that Australians have long distrusted social media companies, and their perceived exploitation of children is a major reason. Key themes underlying Australia’s mistrust of social media include the lack of regulation, the negative effect on self-esteem, targeting of content towards children, and the addictive nature of the platforms. The Roy Morgan Risk Monitor contains hundreds of thousands of verbatim comments from more than 130,000 Australians about why they trust or distrust brands they nominate top-of-mind. A snap poll conducted by Roy Morgan in July 2022 showed that less than three in 10 (29%) Australians agreed that ‘social media solves more problems than it creates’. These results were in contrast to public opinion on the internet in general, which showed that almost two thirds (64%) of Australians agreed that ‘the internet solves more problems than it creates’.

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