Snapchat Gambling Ads Entices Australia to Issue Advertising Ban
On October 28, public outrage broke as Snapchat faced backlash for exposing teens to gambling ads via Sportsbet’s interactive filters, demanding for gambling advertising ban.
Snapchat and many platforms are manipulating youngsters’ behavior as it becomes more integrated with social media filters. Critics argue that the filters blur boundaries between enjoyment and advertisements, misleading teenagers in identifying why gambling advertising should be banned.
It is a question of morality more than anything, especially about young users and how platforms manipulate their brains’ chemical components to alter their reasoning. Now, an agreement for the review of the guidelines’ governing and ban on gambling advertising on said socials will protect the interest of children, guaranteeing it comes before social giants’ money flow.
“The fact that children can see these filters at all is a major issue,” said independent MP Kate Chaney, adding that “gambling companies know that early exposure normalizes their products and creates a pipeline of future customers.”
Why Gambling Advertising Should Be Banned by Govt
The gambling advertising bans backlash has been nothing but harsh, with Australian politicians and mental health experts vocalizing outrage. Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young claimed to Snapchat and Sportsbet to “pull these ads down immediately today,” in reference to protecting drawing young users.
Independent MPs Andrew Wilkie, pediatric neurologist by profession Monique Ryan, and Chaney made similar statements, with Ryan highlighting that exposure to gambling advertising banned in Australia during childhood could have lasting impacts on mental health.
“It is simply not appropriate to allow this harmful industry to target our young people at an extremely vulnerable stage in their lives,” said the neurologist.
Mental health professionals have also highlighted the influence of Snapchat on teenagers and how it exceeds gambling ads, with features like “Snapstreaks,” “Best Friends” lists, and disappearing messages all tend to encourage compulsive usage in young users’ minds.
According to a 2019 study published in JAMA Psychiatry by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, teens who spend more than three hours each day on social media have a higher chance of suffering from anxiety and depression.
Dr. Danielle McMullen, Australian Medical Association President, said, “Not only are they exposing kids to the concept of online gambling, but by gamifying [the ads] and making them interactive, there is an additional level of risk and harm there. The lives of children are not a tool to make money.”
To Sum-up the Gambling Advertising Ban
Snapchat filters’ implications are to be questioned over their effect on mental health and children’s self-confidence, facilitating for countries that ban gambling advertisingto make a change in the lives of their young users.
Beauty filters in social media platforms create unrealistic beauty standards, making young users perceive themselves differently. Children and teenagers’ perception of beauty has become so distorted, they often compare themselves with digitally perfected images of themselves.
Children’s mental health and sanity should come first so to ban gambling advertising in Australiais perceived by many citizens as the literal bare minimum any government could do. Both parents and governments have a shared responsibility to reduce social media access, as it takes two to tango.
While parents are obliged to educate their children about the risks of social media, governments are in a good position to legislate a gambling advertising ban to protect minors from such content with set regulations.
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