Australia Plans Kids’ Social Media Ban | BBC 6 minutes English

this is learning English from the news our podcast about the news headline in this program Banning teenagers from social media could this happen in Australia hello I'm Phil and I'm Georgie in this program we look at one big news story and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it so let's hear more about this story okay Australian prime minister Anthony albanes has announced plans to ban young people from social media sites the ban is likely to apply to children under 14 but critics have questioned whether it can actually be in forced also some people are worried that this approach May block young people from information about important issues and I have a headline here that talks about this announcement it's from GB news Australia set to ban social media for children under 14 enough is enough that headline again Australia set to ban social media for children under 14 enough is enough and that's from GB news this headline is talking about Australian prime minister albanese's announcement and we have this expression enough is enough now we all know what enough means but when do we use it like this we usually use it when a problem has carried on for too long or become so serious that we just want it to stop yes and often it's used when you're about to do something about the problem isn't it yes so um well it's related to the story actually but um in my home we got fed up with our children being on their phones all weekend so we just said enough is enough and now we only let them have their phones for an hour a day wow Phil that's a bit harsh it's for their own good we've had enough is enough what we say when we want a problem to stop so for example the price of petrol has gone up so much I just said enough is enough and bought a bicycle this is learning English from the news our podcast about the news headline today we're talking about a proposed ban on young people using social media in Australia now this measure is controversial and has been criticized by some experts in youth mental health yes they've pointed out that banning children from social media could leave them cut off from sources of mental health support and limit their opportunity to voice their concerns ORS about different issues and our next headline is about this it's from the south coast register in Australia social media ban poses barrier to mental health support okay let's hear that again social media ban poses barrier to mental health support So this headline is saying that a ban on social media for young people could stop them accessing mental health support and that's from the south coast register and we're looking at the verb pose now pose makes me think of posing for a photo but what sense is it being used in here okay pose has different meanings but used like it is in this headline pose a barrier it can mean cause that's right so something can pose a threat was a problem and in this case pose a barrier also if something poses a question it raises an issue and makes us think about it yes now it is quite formal so you're probably more likely to see it written down you might see a report saying High interest rates pose a barrier to home ownership do we had pose and it means cause for example High fees pose a barrier to University access this is learning English from the news from BBC learning English we're talking about a proposed ban on social media for young people in Australia another criticism of the Australian government's planned social media ban is that it might just lead children to access different kinds of websites that could be even more risky than big social media and here's our next headline this is from the guardian in the UK Australia's dummy spit over kids on social media isn't the answer you need an internet for children and again Australia's dummy spit over kids on social media isn't the answer we need an internet children that's from the guardian so the writer of this headline is saying that just Banning Social Media is unlikely to solve the problems that children have online and the expression we're looking at is dummy spit can you tell us a bit more Phil okay well this is a noun phrase that's been taken from an idiom to spit out your dummy now a dummy that's what you give a baby it's the thing that you put in their mouth that they can suck on to calm down the idiom to spit out your dummy is not literal but it refers to an angry reaction to something it might also be suggesting that the reaction is a bit childish and we actually have another expression with a similar meaning throw your toys out of the pram which again means you react in a childish or dramatic way yes you wouldn't usually someone spat out their dummy if you agree with their reaction quite critical yeah and perhaps if you thought someone was complaining unfairly about something at work then you could maybe say oh they're just spitting out their dummy so we had spit out your dummy to react in a childish way exactly for example don't spit Your dummy out I just asked you to tidy up that's it for this episode of learning English from the news we'll be back next week with another news story goodbye bye for now

Share your thoughts