Online safety campaigners have urged the British Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, to force social media platforms to prove they are safe before children can access them.
Six online safety groups, who made the advocacy head of the government’s online safety consultation closing this week, in a letter to the prime minister urged him to get platforms to earn the right to offer services to children by meeting strict safety standards before minors could use them, noting that and if they fail, then they should not be allowed to have young users.
The groups and charities are also calling for the PM to stick to his pledge of acting “within months” and not delay changing the law. Some of the groups had called for a social media ban for under 16s while others warned that would push children into unregulated spaces.
But they have now said a binary debate between a ban or not could oversimplify a complex issue. Their intervention is the first since Australia banned social media for under 16s, which has largely seen teens get around the ban.
Under the charities’ proposal, children would have to be protected from harmful design as well as harmful content, with tech platforms not allowed to offer addictive design features to under 16s, including infinite scrolling, video autoplay, push notifications and streaks.
It would also ban features which present a risk to children’s safety and wellbeing, such as disappearing messages, location sharing and the ability to be contacted by strangers.
The groups say legislation with their proposals would have to include a mechanism so they can be applied to any new features that put children at risk or exploit their attention.
The NSPCC, Smartphone Free Childhood, the Molly Rose Foundation, People vs Big Tech, FlippGen and the Future of Technology Institute have all signed the letter. “This consultation is an opportunity to deliver the real change that children, parents, and British families across the UK are calling for.
“We urge you to seize it – and to stick to your pledge to act ‘within months not years,’” the letter says. Chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, Andy Rose, who had warned against an Australian-style ban, said: “Parents are rightly demanding action to protect children online and it’s crucial the government acts quickly and decisively off the back of the consultation to make safety a precondition for tech firms to do business in the UK.
“There are united calls for safety by design to be embedded in online platforms used by children and the prime minister must use this impetus to commit to action.
“The time for tech exceptionalism is over and by standing with parents, children and civil society the government can finally end the harm caused by big tech.” Also, co-founder of Smartphone Free Childhood, Joe Ryrie, who had called for an under 16s ban, said: “Parents across the country are no longer willing to accept a system where tech giants are free to profit from children while families are left dealing with the harms their products cause.
“What’s so significant about this moment is that organisations across civil society are aligning around a simple principle: access to our children should be treated as a privilege that must be earned, not an automatic right.
“The prime minister now has a historic opportunity not just to implement world-leading regulation, but to help reclaim childhood for a generation. He must seize it.” For the shadow education secretary, Laura Trott, she said: “Children are being exposed to extreme and violent content on social media every single day.
Boys are being fed material about knives and pornography, while girls are seeing content that makes them hate themselves. “Until social media companies can prove their platforms are safe, they should not have access to our children.
The Government has kicked this issue down the road, but I have continued to fight for stronger protections.
