Luke and Daniel Mancuso

18th November 2024

Luke and Daniel Mancuso, brothers and creators of the social enterprise Yiayia Next Door, have joined the Stop it at the Start campaign to talk about the role adults play in helping kids navigate the online world and the power of positivity.

Young kids can be exposed to negative content online and the adults in their lives need to help them understand and learn how to deal with this type of content.

“It’s important for adults to call out the disrespect from the start because they are the role models and the kids do see that,” Daniel said.

Luke and Daniel created Yiayia Next Door as a platform for good after their own experience with domestic violence.

“Yiayia Next Door is a social enterprise Daniel and I founded in 2019. It's in honour of our late mum who sadly passed to domestic violence. We never want anyone to experience what we've been through in today's society,” Luke explains.

When adults—parents, family members, friends, teachers, coaches, employers, work colleagues and other community role models—work together as a team to promote respect, we set a positive example for our young people.

Generation Respect has practical tips to help you build the confidence to make a start.

Luke and Daniel Mancuso join as campaign ambassadors

Stop it at the start resonates a lot with Daniel and I because experiencing domestic violence at such a young age, we understand the pain and trauma that comes with it.

Hi I'm Luke. And I'm Daniel. And we're the creators of Yiayia Next Door.

Yiayia Next Door is a social enterprise Daniel and I founded in 2019.

It's in honor of our late mum who sadly passed to domestic violence.

We never want anyone to experience what we've been through in today's society young people are learning about gender stereotypes through social media.

There's a lot of negative impact for the younger generation, especially with social media because everyone can sit behind the screen and be quite negative or abusive and not feel the real percussions.

I think online there is a lot of negativity that comes across to the younger kids that might be appealing, but doesn't necessarily mean that it is useful and positive.

If you're an adult or a friend, you can help your friends that are a little bit younger, that maybe don't know the the difference between right and wrong and let them know that, hey, this is actually quite toxic behavior.

If we can start to change the norm and start promoting positive content or messaging out there that hopefully it'll be a domino effect for others to follow suit.

It's important for adults to call out the disrespect from the start because they are the role models and the kids do see that.

So Luke and I really wanted to use our social platform for good through obviously our role models in our life with Yiayia and our mum.

I feel like it's important that we do speak up and, and have those emotions brought up to one another because I feel like it only helps your relationship grow with your friends or family.

And as you grow older, it just only enhances that relationship with one another.

And we should use our stories to help one another.

Hopefully the stories are smaller by the year, so we don't have to share these experiences.

It takes a village to raise a child and you know, a strong community is, or a strong team, is if everyone's on the same page.

Learn the hidden trends of disrespect before they lead to violence.

Visit respect.gov.au