While the government is exploring the possibility of introducing restrictions on social media use for children under the age of 16, Minister for Women and Children believes there is also a strong need for cultural and behavioral shifts in how children are raised in the digital era.

According to Sashi Kiran, Fiji is losing a generation of children to gadgets.

Kiran believes that increasing gadget use among children is weakening traditional family values and cultural learning.

It’s easy to give a gadget to entertain a child when they’re all super hyper. And we are losing a generation of children to gadgets. They’re not learning about culture, about tradition, about values. So we really need to unfortunately now make a law to take children away from gadgets. And that’s what we’ll have to do to make sure that children actually learn culture.

Kiran says it is critical to foster responsible online behavior and protect children from harmful communication in the growing digital space.

“I believe that rural kids who grow up without the gadgets will be the stars of future because they’re learning the problem-solving skills, the thinking, you know, when they have to cross a river and make a bamboo raft or things like that. They’re learning much more soft skills that are required in a world to live in decision-making than children who are stuck to gadgets. So while we are now working on developing parenting apps and support systems, we are also working towards banning the gadgets below 16.

Online Safety Commissioner Filipe Batiwale says digital safety laws are currently under review to determine how similar restrictions could be implemented.

“There’s a lot of calls for that in Fiji to follow suit with Australia, but at the moment there’s no study that’s been conducted to see whether we can actually operationalize that in Fiji. I’m sure it’s possible, but that’s something that the government has to decide at the end of the day in terms of where we’re heading with those kind of restrictions and the current sort of laws that we’re working with under the Online Safety Act.”

Australia’s new age restriction targets major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok — sites where scammers often make first contact with young users.

Similar measures in Fiji aims to protect children from online exploitation, harmful communication, and cyberbullying.

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