Ministers launch session on social media ban for under-16s | EUROtoday

The authorities has introduced plans for a session on social media restrictions for under-16s amid rising requires an Australian-style ban.

The session will take a look at all choices for reform, together with a blanket ban, limits on app time, elevating the digital age of consent, and proscribing doubtlessly addictive app options corresponding to “streaks” and “infinite scrolling”.

Ministers will go to Australia as a part of its session, the place a social media ban for under-16s got here into pressure in December.

It comes after dozens of Labour MPs signed an open letter urging prime minister Sir Keir Starmer to again a ban, and to “protect young people from the consequences of unregulated, addictive social media platforms”.

Another letter, written by the mom of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey and signed by eight units of bereaved mother and father, urged Sir Keir to again an modification to cease youngsters underneath 16 from utilizing social media platforms.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) mentioned it is going to be taking rapid motion on youngsters’s social media use, together with by directing Ofsted to look at faculties’ cell phone insurance policies and whether or not they’re successfully applied.

The authorities will produce display time steerage for folks of kids aged 5 to 16, earlier than steerage for folks of under-fives can be printed in April.

Later this week, the Lords is ready to vote on an modification to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which if handed would require social media platforms to cease youngsters under16 from utilizing their platforms inside a 12 months of the Bill passing.

The modification, tabled by former faculties minister Lord Nash, is supported by the National Education Union (NEU) and the 61 Labour MPs who signed the open letter to Sir Keir.

Lord Nash mentioned the federal government’s session will solely produce extra delay. “This announcement offers nothing for the hundreds of thousands of parents, teachers, medical professionals, senior police officers, national security experts and parliamentarians of all parties who have been calling for a raising of the age limit for social media,” the Conservative peer mentioned.

“The prime minister must be in no doubt about the strength of feeling on this. The longer we delay, the more children we fail. I continue to urge all peers to back my amendment on Wednesday which would begin to end the catastrophic harm being done to a generation.”

In her joint letter from the Bereaved Families for Online Safety on Monday, Esther Ghey described how her daughter had a social media dependancy and was “exacerbated by the harmful content she was consuming online”.

“I speak not only as Brianna’s mother, but alongside many other bereaved parents who have lost their children to harms that began or were amplified online,” the letter, signed by numerous bereaved mother and father, reads.

“Some have lost children after they were groomed by online predators, others through dangerous online challenges, and others following prolonged exposure to self-harm and suicide content.”

It provides: “The online world our children are living in, and the harms that come with it, are vast. We need a multi-pronged approach to address this crisis properly, one that includes legislation, regulation, education, and societal change.”

Speaking on the federal government session, Jess Asato, Labour MP for Lowestoft mentioned: “Consulting on a social media ban for under 16s is a good first step in protecting our children from the huge harms they face on platforms which were never designed with their wellbeing and development in mind.

“Parents and carers across the country are calling for bold action now and it’s crucial the consultation does not simply kick this issue into the long grass.

“There is strong evidence that social media has a significant negative impact on children’s physical and mental health, educational attainment and exposure to harms such as child sexual abuse and exploitation.

“Listening to parents, children and the generation who have grown up with this technology must take priority over the industry itself.”

On Monday, Sir Keir mentioned that “no options are off the table” with regards to adjustments to using social media for kids.

“We are obviously looking at what’s happened in Australia, something I’ve discussed with the Australian prime minister,” he added.

“I don’t think it’s just a question of social media and children under 16. I think we have got to look at a range of measures.”

The open letter from 61 Labour MPs learn: “Across our constituencies, we hear the same message: children are anxious, unhappy and unable to focus on learning. They are not building the social skills needed to thrive, nor having the experience that will prepare them for adulthood.”

The letter, signed by dozens of backbenchers in addition to training choose committee chair Helen Hayes, former whip Vicky Foxcroft, and former training minister Catherine McKinnell, says Britain dangers being “left behind” if it doesn’t act.

The UK’s largest instructing union has additionally mentioned the prime minister ought to absolutely assist an modification for an outright ban.

National Education Union (NEU) normal secretary Daniel Kebede mentioned No 10 signalling it’s open to elevating the age restrict for social media “was a welcome shift”.

Mr Kebede mentioned: “The additional pressure from Labour backbench MPs needs to move Keir Starmer to full support of this amendment to ban social media for under-16s. This cannot be a moment for passivity – it demands leadership.

“Every day, parents and teachers see how social media shapes children’s identities and attention long before they sit their GCSEs, pulling them into isolating, endless loops of content.”

However, on the weekend, 42 baby safety charities and on-line security teams issued a joint assertion warning a blanket social media ban wouldn’t ship the development in baby security and wellbeing wanted, and would deal with “the symptoms, not the problem”.

Instead, the federal government ought to strengthen the Online Safety Act to require platforms to robustly implement risk-based age limits, the organisations mentioned.