Fiji can also explore banning social media from children below the age of 16 – says the Minister for Women and Children, Lynda Tabuya.

She says, while cases involving children are reported on a daily basis, there are more cases of child-neglect than child-abuse – which means that children are left unsupervised with smartphones.

The Australian government recently introduced a bill to parliament aimed at restricting access to social media platforms for children under the age of 16.

Minister for Women and Children Lynda Tabuya believes Fiji could benefit from similar measures to address the negative impacts of excessive screen time on children’s well-being.

“Australia has just introduced the law to parliament, and they hope to be able to have this in place by the end of next year”, Tabuya said.

She says, parents should play an active role in supervising their children’s online activity, before regulating social media on a national level.

“This is something Fiji can consider and look at as well, especially when you look at the amount of screen time our children are exposed to”, she said.

“The majority of our cases that are reported to us regarding children found that there are more cases of neglect than child abuse”, she added.

She says, government is also considering banning certain social media platforms, such as Telegram, along with adult content websites.

“Children are becoming unproductive because of the amount of screen time they are exposed to”, Tabuya said.

She says that average screen time is more than the time children spend on their homework and studies, which means parents are giving smartphones to children unsupervised, while cases of child-neglect continue to rise.