The world needs Australia to slay the monsters the United States created by legislating controls on social media to protect children, American psychologist Jonathan Haidt says.

Addressing the second day of the Social Media Summit convened by the SA and NSW governments in Adelaide, the author of The Anxious Generation thanked delegates for “leading the way in cleaning up the mess that America made for the world”.

He said the US Congress passed two “terrible” laws in the 1990s to help the internet grow without any guardrails which had limited legal action over online content and failed to impose strict age verification.

“With those two laws, we created monsters,” Dr Haidt said.

“We need you to slay them, or at least tame them.

“I’m thrilled by the legislation being introduced or drafted by Premier Peter Malinauskas, Premier Chris Minns and by your national government.”

The SA government released a report by former High Court Chief Justice Robert French in September that included a draft bill with the legislative framework to ban children under 14 from social media and required companies to gain parental consent for 14 and 15-year-olds to use their platforms.

Dr Haidt said the French report was “brilliant”.

“I read it, and was so pleased to see how he worked through how do you define social media, how do you make exceptions for certain things, what might legislation look like,” he said.

Mr Malinauskas told Friday’s summit all SA high schools would be resourced to deliver age-appropriate, evidence-based education programs on social media and online safety from 2025.

The “genuinely world-leading initiative” would empower young people with up-to-date information on cyberbullying, healthy body image, privacy issues associated with coercive control, image-based abuse and sextortion, and teach them to recognise scams, misinformation and fake news online, he said.

Mr Minns said the summit was a unique initiative that brought together two states to discuss a policy issue.

He said summits were often characterised as “complete talkfests”.

“But can I say, what’s wrong with talking?” he said.

“The point of this conference is that talking is far better than scrolling, and human interaction is the basis of social progress.”

Mr Malinauskas said governments would have a ready-made excuse to put social media regulation in a too-hard basket and the industry would be emboldened to operate in self-interest if “we stuff this up”.

“But if we get this right … we will embolden other governments around the world to follow our example, and that success will embolden more governments and more after them,” he said.

The summit is hearing from young people, policymakers, educators, parents, health professionals, academics and researchers on the challenges and potential solutions to the damage social media is inflicting on children.

Federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland told the summit social media companies would be responsible for blocking children’s access to their platforms.

She is reviewing a minimum age of between 14 and 16 years to access social media, with legislation to be introduced before the end of November.

Children and parents would not face penalties.

“Instead, it will be incumbent on the platforms to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to ensure fundamental protections are in place,” she told the summit.

Exemptions for social media platforms that demonstrate a low risk of harm to children are being considered.

The industry will have 12 months to adapt to any laws and changes introduced by the federal government.

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