Provocations: Has Australia’s Social Media Ban for Children worked? At Queenscliffe Literary Festival

Provocations: Has Australia’s Social Media Ban for Children worked? At Queenscliffe Literary Festival

  • 25 Oct 2026
  • 11:15am - 12:15pm
  • $22 – $30
  • Queenscliff Town Hall, 50 Learmonth Street, Queenscliff
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RMIT proudly partners with Queenscliffe Literary Festival to take a closer look at one of the most hotly debated social issues facing children and families today: the world’s first social media ban for children, one year on from its introduction.

Tackling one of the most contentious issues facing families and children today will be our panel:

Virginia Trioli, veteran broadcaster, writer and author. Virginia is a two-time Walkley Award-winner and is the author of Generation F: Sex, Power and the Young Feminist, and her latest book is A Bit on the Side: Reflections On What Makes Life Delicious.

Dr Lisa Given, Distinguished Professor and Director, Centre for Human-AI Information Environments and Director, Social Change Enabling Impact Platform, RMIT University. A Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Lisa's research explores people's technology use, from social media to artificial intelligence. A former President of the Association for Information Science and Technology, her latest book is Looking for Information: Examining Research on How People Engage with Information. She has written extensively for The Conversation on Australia’s social media ban and provided commentary for hundreds of media stories in ABC News, The New York Times, and the BBC.

Dr. Leila Green, Professor of Communications in Edith Cowan University’s School of Arts and Humanities and a Chief Investigator for the Australian Research Council (ARC)-funded Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child. In addition, Lelia is working on ARC grants that investigate what teens want in a ‘porn literacy’ curriculum, and how they want adults to handle threats to their intimate digital communication, including image based sexual harassment and abuse, and sextortion. She’s researched children’s digital lives from birth to eighteen across the past quarter century. Her new book is The Digital Child: Creating Confident Children.

In a conversation chaired by RMIT University's Dr Dylan Bird, who is a lecturer in journalism and a broadcaster with over ten years experience. He currently hosts the weekly current affairs show Future Perfect on Triple R FM. He is also a podcast producer and has won two Australian Podcast Awards, and been a finalist in the New York Festivals Radio Awards. His academic research explores the role of media in democracy.

Presented by RMIT University in partnership with Queenscliffe Literary Festival.

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