I’ve had many conversations over the years with parents, children and teachers about technology in young people’s lives. The most recent was this month in Alton (pictured above) with parents who had written to me about an upcoming private member’s bill: the Safer Phones Bill to be debated on 7th March.
It would be difficult to overstate the role of tech for this generation, with huge advantages for staying in touch, education, research and productivity – both work and personal.
There are also worries around the sheer amount of time spent on the group chat, the effect on sleep, rabbit holes of dark material, safeguarding risks and the impact of extended exposure to the curated lives of ‘influencers’.
Lots of people agree that ‘something should be done’ but it is much harder to say exactly what.
In its survey of 7,500 13-17 year olds, the Youth Endowment Fund asked “If you could push a button that turned off all social media permanently for you and everyone you know, would you push it?”. 35% said yes.
Now, 35% is not a majority, but it is a strikingly high number for what is quite an extreme proposition. But most of these 35% of course still are on social media themselves, precisely because everyone else is.
As parents it is natural that we too don’t want our children to be the odd one out.
There is much else about tech, including phones, that many parents value. Top of that list is knowing your son or daughter can call if they are in trouble, or lost, or just if an after-school club is cancelled. But there are also apps that can be very useful – and the adult world children are preparing for is one in which digital is everywhere.
Hundreds of East Hampshire residents are among the 127,000 signatories who prompted the e-petition debate this week on a minimum age for social media. We will also debate implementation of the Online Safety Act, on which I worked when I was a minister.
I don't know what the Government’s position will be on the Safer Phones Bill, but I do know that ‘online’ has changed, even since the Online Safety Act. We will need to keep coming back to this.
Making law requires definitional precision: What is a smartphone? What are social media? Or, rather, what is it about these things that we would seek to change or restrict for children?
Much has been said of Australia’s upcoming ban for social media for under-16s. The country’s internet regulator said in a recent interview that not everything will change overnight, and “some of the social media functionality could be removed, rather than an entire app being blocked off”.
Postscript: There's an interesting story about how Denmark will be banning phones in schools in today's Guardian: Denmark to ban mobile phones in schools and after-school clubs | Denmark | The Guardian
