Teen surfers’ world championship dreams threatened by account ban
They’ve both turned 16 but these two elite Australian teen surfers selected for junior world games this year have been left gutted by a shock social media decision leaving their fundraising in tatters
READING LEVEL: RED
At least two 16-year-old teens making waves on the surfing scene have been booted off their social media accounts even though they meet the new age guidelines, right when they’re fundraising for a crucial junior event in El Salvador later this year.
Lucy Darragh hopes to join the pro circuit and qualify for the 2028 Olympics but has been frustrated since her Instagram account was blocked in June.
“These days, social media is important for athletes,” Lucy told news.com.au.
“It’s a big part of getting myself out there for more sponsor opportunities, and posting results, which can help me financially, and get me into my next event – so it’s really important.”
Surfing since she was eight, Lucy joined social media at 11 and believes her Instagram account was wrongly disabled due to the recently introduced social media delay for under 16s.
But when Lucy submitted a passport photo proving that she was of age, her account was permanently disabled.
“I haven’t violated* any of the guidelines. I just post my surfing and everything to do with that, so it’s a bit frustrating,” said the teen, who hails from Gerringong on the NSW South Coast.
Fellow junior surfer Rio Luther Barr also turned 16 earlier this year. His mum Pam Luther had been running his Instagram account and said it was crucial for Rio’s career.
“Surfing is really for the love,” Ms Luther said. “But at the same time, it’s an incredibly expensive sport, because the equipment’s expensive, the international travel and competitions are expensive, and so they rely on social media really to get sponsorships too.
“It’s important to the sponsors that they’re being seen and that you’re putting out stories and you’re putting out reels and posts.”
She said sponsorship delivers Rio everything from clothing, wetsuits, surfboards, accessories and suncream and was worth around $15,000 a year.
Rio had planned to use the platform to raise up to $10,000 through the Australian Sports Foundation for his campaign at the upcoming ISA World Junior Surfing Championship in El Salvador, which was a big breakthrough for the teen.
Ms Luther said Rio only got his first phone two months ago.
“I probably do 95 per cent of the social media,” Ms Luther said.
At the start of June, Ms Luther received an email from Instagram stating the account had breached guidelines and was later told it couldn’t be used by someone under 13.
“I was uploading his ID, which clearly shows that he’s over 16,” she said. “It says keep your window open, this takes one to two minutes, and in that process it appeared to just glitch out, and then it just logged me out,” she said.
“From that point on, I wasn’t able to get into his account or my accounts. They’re all disabled.
“Not only was this primary account disabled, but two others that were connected to my email address. I used my FB account to help run my business, so that is a double blow.”
RMIT Professor Lisa Given said the need for a dispute resolution* service was urgent.
“We know that these technologies are not foolproof, and can have an error rate of one to three years, which means that many people may be locked out of accounts due to inaccurate age estimations,” Prof Given said.
For Ms Luther, even paying for Rio’s Instagram account to be Meta verified hasn’t helped.
“I’ve literally just poured endless hours into trying to figure out how to contact a person. I’ve written so many emails to addresses that I get from ChatGPT, but honestly, I don’t think they’re landing anywhere,” she said.
A Meta spokesperson said users were told in an email and in-app message when accounts were suspended or disabled.
“When you log in, you’ll see “We suspended your account” or “We disabled your account” and there is a link to an appeals process. We use a combination of technology and people to review appeals,” they said.
Ms Luther was “shocked” there was nowhere for Australians to get help and would like to see a Communications Ombudsman* introduced to hold social media companies accountable.
Meta rolled out Meta AI Support Assistant in Australia in March this year, which was designed to help resolve account problems from start to finish, including helping regain access to a person’s account, reporting scams, impersonation* accounts, or problematic content, the spokesperson said.
POLL
GLOSSARY
- violated: broken or defied or acted against something or someone
- dispute resolution: a way of resolving disagreements without going to court or a set of actions used by an organisation to solve disagreements
- impersonation: the act of attempting to deceive someone by pretending that you are another person, which can be illegal depending on the context
- ombudsman: someone who works for a government or large organisation and deals with the complaints made against it
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QUICK QUIZ
- What is the new minimum age for holding a social media account in Australia?
- What proportion of Instagram activity was Rio’s mum managing on his behalf?
- Why does Lucy say that social media is important for athletes today?
- What are some items Rio is able to access via sponsorships and what is their combined estimated value?
- Both junior surfers were planning to use social media to help them fundraise for which important junior event in El Salvador?
LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Involved stakeholders
Create a stakeholder diagram representing the perspectives of all the people involved in this article. Your diagram should include the stakeholder name, and how the use or ban of social media affects them in this story.
Stakeholders:
- Lucy
- Rio
- Parents
- Sponsors
- Meta
- Professor Given
- Government regulators
Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Health and Physical Education, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking
2. Extension
“If technology can wrongly identify someone’s age and remove their account, should important decisions be left to automated systems?”
Do you answer yes or no to the above question? State your opinion and justify the reasons why.
Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Digital Technologies, Ethical, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking
VCOP ACTIVITY
Read with Kung Fu punctuation
Pair up with the article between you and stand up to make it easy to demonstrate your Kung Fu punctuation.
Practise reading one sentence at a time. Now read it again, while acting out the punctuation as you read.
Read and act three sentences before swapping with your partner.
Take two turns each.
Now ask your partner to read a sentence out loud while you try and act out the punctuation. Can you keep up? Swap over?
Try acting out two sentences – are you laughing yet?