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ABOVE: HENRY ROGERS AND CHRISTOPHER O ' CONNELL
Parliamentary insights for two Year 5 boys
As I walked up the grand stone steps to Victoria’ s Parliament House, my heart was hammering in my chest with excitement. I was about to have a valuable insight into the parliamentary system and process – and an opportunity to give input on an important question that affects young people’ s lives: this is what participating in the 2016 Parliamentary Program meant to me.
As the two delegates from Scotch Junior School, Henry Rogers( Year 5) and I attended the Victorian Students’ Parliamentary Convention, held at Parliament House, Melbourne, on 8 September 2016, accompanied by Senior School Extension Studies Coordinator, Ms Michele Linossier. Delegates from primary schools all over the state attended, to hear from leading politicians and to discuss the proposal that‘ All social media should be banned for children under 12’.
The convention was held inside the very grand Legislative Assembly Hall at Parliament House, which was huge and ringed with green-coloured seats. Massive chandeliers hung from the ceiling. Every seat was equipped with a microphone so each student delegate could be heard clearly.
The convention opened with a welcome to country from Aboriginal elder, Aunty Di Kerr from the Wurundjeri Council. Then the Deputy Premier and Minister for Education, the Hon James Merlino MP, introduced the topic. Mr Greg Gebhart, the Office of Children’ s eSafety Commissioner, gave a keynote address explaining why the government thought this issue was so important.
After morning tea, we broke into smaller groups of about 15 students to discuss a particular issue allocated to us. It was really interesting to meet and talk with boys and girls from many different independent and state schools. A number of the other delegates were Year 6 students, and many also were head students at their schools, so we felt very proud to be there, too.
My group discussed and agreed that learning about social media should be a compulsory subject taught in all schools. Other groups discussed issues like privacy, cyber bullying, addiction to technology, and sharing personal information. It was good practice to listen carefully to other’ s opinions, to take notes of all the important aspects of the argument, to try to clearly communicate your own thoughts, and then to agree as a group on a conclusion.
All groups then reconvened in the big Legislative Assembly chamber to report back. My group chose me as its speaker, and I presented our conclusions to the whole convention, recommending that learning about social media should be compulsory in all schools.
Outside our window on the Parliament House steps was a huge demonstration by a trade union – it was very loud indeed and quite exciting to see democracy in action!
At the end of the convention was a‘ soap box’, where delegates could raise further issues, followed by a group vote on whether social media should be banned for children under 12. The official closing speech was by the Shadow Minister for Education, the Hon Nick Wakeling MP.
I was very interested in this particular issue because social media has a huge impact on children’ s lives. I think the issue is not so much about what types of social media kids can and can’ t use, but more about how they use it. Children under 12 should also use social media in a more restricted way than adults. It is true that social media are fundamental to problems such as device addiction, destruction of social interaction, bullying, and possibly exposing children to dangerous people. We need to study this more, and make sure children are informed about the dangers of social media.
I was also excited to attend because I am fascinated by the parliamentary system and process. I wonder about how governments make their decisions about these very important matters that affect whole countries and people’ s lives. What do members of parliament do to gather information? How do they ensure multiple viewpoints are taken into account? Attending this convention gave me an inspiring insight into that process. Many thanks to Ms Michele Linossier, Mrs Dinah Waldie, and the Scotch College Junior School for organising this opportunity for us. CHRISTOPHER O’ CONNELL— YEAR 5
14 Great Scot Number 149 – December 2016