This week the Government took a historic step in protecting young people online by banning social media for the under 16s.
I support this decision. It is one that I have been pushing the Government to take for several months in my meetings with the relevant Ministers.
I’ve received well over a thousand emails on this topic, and the message has been clear: parents overwhelmingly support a ban. But that’s not the only reason I’m backing this announcement.
It’s a wild west online with addictive, harmful and toxic material rife across the platforms that children spend hours on every day. And that’s before you get to the life-threatening risks posed by online bullying or the impact that prolonged social media use is having on young people’s mental health.
People talk about parental responsibility, but I think most parents are doing the best they can. They can’t check their children’s phones 24 hrs a day, and we can’t seriously expect them to compete against the power of big tech companies and the resources they invest in making their platforms as addictive as possible.
I’m not pretending that a ban is a silver bullet, but I do think it’s a big step in taking power away from the social media giants and putting it back into the hands of parents.
This ban will mean that the UK is going further than any other country in protecting children from online harms. I think that’s something to be proud of.
For me, this ban is about supporting parents and protecting children. It is about giving young people their childhoods back and putting families before tech company profits.
I appreciate not everyone will agree, but that’s where I stand. You can always get in touch to let me know what you think.