or the case of they believe anything!
The Cathy Wilcox cartoon in The Age 10th December 2025 (Melbourne) says it all about an aspect of today’s society.
The catalyst for the cartoon was most likely the Australia Government’s ban on social media for those under 16 years of age. This I sort of support.
‘Sort of’ because it is an effort to at least deal with part of the issue. It is admirable that a federal government has seen the need to attempt to ban access to layers of misinformation and insane stuff being pumped out there daily waiting to be taken seriously by those who do not know better or how to filter such rubbish.
At this point we should recognise that while the federal government is taking credit for this action – and good on them (sort of) – the real credit goes to the South Australian State Premier, Peter Malinauskas, who committed his state government to restrict social media in his state. To quote:
Having already led the nation with a comprehensive phone ban in schools, and the world by drafting model legislation to impose an age limit for social media accounts, the Malinauskas Government will provide $6.5 million to make the Wait Mate program available to every public and private school in the state.
I recognised in the Wilcox cartoon the other layers of issues that now plague our society.
The overuse of social media is not restricted to any age group. I was amused today to see a 50s something person standing at the lights waiting for the pedestrian lights to go green. They did. She stood there scrolling down her phone. She was so engrossed in what she was reading, she missed the change of lights completely. But, once she realised what had happened, she rushed across despite the sight of the traffic now coming towards her.
Today’s democracies are damaged through the misinformation and liars that are taken seriously during elections and that then inform so many voters how to vote.
Cathy Wilcox got it right when she moved the focus of idiotic behaviour and the stupidity of so much social media back onto those who should know better – adults and parents.