At 1pm UK time today, the world’s first law banning young people from accessing social media came into effect.
British teens and preteens may be relieved that it was happening on the opposite side of the world, as the clocks passed midnight in the Australian capital of Canberra.
From today, a precise list of social media sites – Snapchat, TikTok, X, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Kick and Twitch – are legally required to bar access to Aussie under-16s.
Even as the law kicks in, there are questions over whether it is enforceable, amid reports of kids using basic techniques such as holding up a photograph to beat facial recognition software.
But back in the UK, a different question hovers above the news: could it happen here?
Like in Australia, there’s certainly no shortage of concern from parents and other adults here over the impact social media can have on young people.
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A study from the Centre for Social Justice released at the beginning of this month suggested more than 800,000 British children under the age of five are already active on one or more social media site.
Former education minister Lord Nash said that finding was ‘deeply alarming’.
He added: ‘We need a major public health campaign so parents better understand the damage being done, and legislation that raises the age limit for social media to 16 whilst holding tech giants to account when they fail to keep children off their platforms.’
His words echoed those of Esther Ghey, mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, who called for the UK to follow Australia in introducing the law earlier this year.
She told ITV Granada: ‘We need to keep young people off social media, like what Brianna was accessing online which was self harm sites and eating disorder sites, that is just the tip of the iceberg.’
And according to a YouGov survey published last week, a significant majority of the British public agrees with Esther and Lord Nash.
It found that 74% of people support blocking under-16s from sites like TikTok and Instagram, with just 19% saying they opposed it.
In some respects, the UK did pre-empt Australia with its own law to protect young people online in July, when the age verification aspect of the Online Safety Act came into effect.
As a result of that legislation, X – one of the UK’s most popular social media sites, which also allows adult content – currently requires users to verify their age before they can access the site.
But Dame Chi Onwurah, the chair of Parliament’s Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, told Metro the Online Safety Act is ‘failing the British people’.
She said: ‘The UK needs a much stronger, more responsive online safety regime to keep people, and particularly children, safe.
‘We’ve published a detailed report setting out how the government could deliver this, but whilst they accepted many of our findings, they have not implemented any of our recommendations.
‘The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology told us that if you ban children under a certain age from using smartphones and social media, they may be unable to cope once they are old enough to do so.
‘The committee encouraged her to work with the Department for Education to consider how better to address the threats children face.’
Dame Chi said her committee would be exploring these issues in greater depth as part of a new digital childhoods inquiry in the new year.
A government spokesperson said they had already taken ‘some of the boldest steps globally to ensure online content is genuinely age appropriate’ – but that the results from Australia were being watched closely.
They added: ‘It’s important we protect children while letting them benefit safely from the digital world, without cutting off essential services or isolating the most vulnerable.
‘The government is closely monitoring Australia’s approach to age restrictions. When it comes to children’s safety, nothing is off the table, but any action must be based on robust evidence.’
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