The Federal government’s policy to introduce a nationwide age restriction for social media has received support from some young Australian adults.

In the government’s announcement on Tuesday, Prime Minister Albanese didn’t specify the age limit but said they were looking at enforcing the ban for kids either under 14 or 16 years of age.

Felicity Short is a 21-year-old mother living in South Lake. She is on board with a social media ban for children.

“Having grown up with social media and seen how it’s influenced me, and also having my own child now, I think the later you can put it back the better honestly,” she says.

She is wary that social media can present unrealistic standards for kids as people only post the best versions of themselves. She believes this can lead to fear of missing out and low self-esteem.

Ms Short thinks young girls are particularly influenced by representations of body image.

“I’ve had issues with that growing up. Even from primary school when I was exposed to the internet but didn’t have social media. That still had a big effect on me, I had eating disorders,” she says.

She also says the ability to speak to anyone on social media can be dangerous for kids. In her time at high school, she fell in with a crowd which used social media as a tool to acquire alcohol and drugs from adults.

Niamh Fairhart is a 24-year-old uni student who doesn’t use social media.

She stopped using platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat after negative experiences during her teenage years.

Like Ms Short, she believes that body standards for girls on social media are a big problem.

“I have no relationship with social media… As a teen I found it not the best for my mental health. Seeing what everyone else was doing, the comparison to other girls made me delete it,” she says.

Ms Fairhart also supports a social media ban for children and encourages older people to try living without it as well.

Professor Jeffrey Brand from Queensland’s Bond University is an award-winning academic in communications and media.

While he believes there should be conversations around age restrictions, he thinks that problems related to social media are far more complicated.

Currently in Australia, there are no laws which require parents to ask their children for consent before posting pictures of them online.

Professor Brand says parents should be wary of uploading images of their children to social media.

He says photos are being used by tech firms to create facial recognition programs, and by posting your kids online, you are only fuelling the opportunity for abuse.

He also says that it can also contribute to negative perceptions of kids’ body image.

“We do have a problem for young people around body image, self-image, diet. And as we post and glamorise images of our children particularly when we use social media filters to alter aspects of their appearance, we’re actually teaching them that who they are inherently isn’t enough. I find that devastating,” he says.

As a new parent, Ms Short is cautious about sharing images of her daughter Iris but says it can be tricky not to.

She has turned all her social media accounts to private and tries not to post too many pictures of Iris but she still likes to celebrate her daughter with close friends and family.

“I’m a mum, that’s my whole life. She’s always around, she’s always in my photos. I’ve got more photos of her than I do of myself now,” she says.

The government’s plan to introduce a social media ban for children has bipartisan support and will be presented to parliament before the election next May.