Children could have their access to social media switched off while they’re at school under plans being considered by ministers.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle is looking for ways to help kids manage their online lives and stop young people wasting hours doom-scrolling on the internet. The Mirror understands these could include a social media curfew or limiting kids’ access to the internet during school hours.
Mr Kyle has said he will be examining the results of TikTok’s recently announced 10pm curfew for under 16s. “I’m looking at all the measures that would positively contribute towards a positive, enthusiastic, supportive environment online,” Mr Kyle told the Mirror.
After years of bureaucratic consultations, media regulator Ofcom published its Children’s Codes under the Online Safety Act (OSA), which sets out rules tech firms must follow by July.
Under the codes, online sites must introduce robust age verification tools to make sure underage kids aren’t accessing things they shouldn’t. They have also been ordered to tame toxic algorithms and take faster action on removing harmful content.
Mr Kyle celebrated the “first step” in the journey to improving kids’ safety online but admitted the OSA is “lopsided” and more action is needed. He said he was taking a step back to think about how the addictive nature of phones and social media is also “disrupting the childhood experience”, as well as online harms.
“Sometimes it’s interfering with young people’s sleep or ability to concentrate when they’re doing school work, sometimes out of hours, as well as focusing on the school day itself, even though 97% of schools do exclude smartphones from school itself,” he said.
Mr Kyle has confirmed he would not support an Australia-style blanket ban on under-16s using social media and the Government has also ruled out a statutory ban on phones in school, arguing that the majority already enforce one.
But he said he was “looking very carefully at what comes next” to help the kids who beg him for solutions after suffering from “resentment” after accidentally wasting hours scrolling on their phone.
Elsewhere Mr Kyle insisted he is confident tech billionaires X/ Twitter owner Elon Musk and Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg will follow Ofcom’s new rules despite the pair having recently rolled back content moderation on their platforms.
The Cabinet minister said anyone who breaks the codes will “face the full consequences of the British law” – which can include fines of up to 10% of global turnover from Ofcom or, in extreme cases, their platforms being switched off in the UK.
He also said Britain’s online safety laws were not up for negotiation amid fears the Donald Trump administration is pushing for them to be eased in UK-US trade deal talks. Concerns have been raised about the leeway social media giants will have to work around Ofcom’s codes.
For instance, the media regulator is only telling tech firms they have the “option of excluding” content showing dangerous online challenges, material that incites hatred or misogynistic content.
In an interview with the Mirror, Ofcom’s child protection policy lead Almudena Lara said tech companies will be able to choose whether to exclude such content from being pushed to kids through their algorithms to give them the freedom to show different content to older teens and younger children.
“The ball is in their courts to understand their user base and to understand the content that they have and how best to serve their users,” she said.
Ian Russell, the dad of Molly Russell, who took her own life at 14 after being bombarded with harmful material online, said he was “dismayed” by Ofcom’s codes and that he has lost trust in Mr Kyle.
“I am dismayed by the lack of ambition in today’s codes. Instead of moving fast to fix things, the painful reality is that Ofcom’s measures will fail to prevent more young deaths like my daughter Molly’s,” he said.
“Ofcom’s risk adverse approach is a bitter pill for bereaved parents to swallow. Their overly cautious codes put the bottom line of reckless tech companies ahead of tackling preventable harm.”
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