60 Minutes S2024E17 - Messing With Minds, Death in Byron

On Sunday's 60 Minutes, Tara Brown unravels Byron Bay's underbelly while Adam Hegarty reports on a push to ban social media amongst kids.

Messing with Minds
How much more evidence is needed before the message is fully understood that social media is a serious health hazard for young people? Leading researchers like world-renowned U.S. psychologist Professor Jonathan Haidt warn that it's messing with our kids' minds, and in an increasing number of tragic cases, it's killing them. Of course the tech giants who control the social media platforms downplay the dangers, but their views are compromised by the enormous profits they make by having children spend hours and hours on their smartphones. On 60 Minutes, Adam Hegarty investigates calls to do what to many was once unthinkable: Ban social media for the young.
Reporter: Adam Hegarty
Producers: Anne Worthington, Sheree Gibson

Death in Byron
It might not be the lifestyle for everyone, but 25-year-old Jackson Stacker loved his happy-go-lucky existence. He lived in the moment, thriving on not knowing what each day would bring. Home was a van, and wherever he parked it was where he slept. Without a care, Jackson was roaming around Byron Bay in July 2021 when one night he disappeared. A month later he was found dead. Police said it was likely that he had taken his own life, but his distraught family believe something far more sinister happened. As Tara Brown reports, that's because his skull was discovered 13 metres from his body, and there was a 30-centimetre hunting knife embedded in his chest.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producer: Serge Negus