The UK tempted to follow in Australia's footsteps
by Sophie Kerr
Keir Starmer is trying to introduce a ban on social media to protect children online, with concern growing over the rise in sexualised deepfake images of women and children.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting asked Jonathan Haidt, a US expert in social psychology to get UK officials to research Australia’s under 16’s ban of social media as Haidt has recently become a voice for the negative impacts of social media on adolescent mental health.
While banning social media for those under 16 isn’t directly tackling the issue of online dangers, without enforcing platforms to try and tackle issues like cyber bullying, grooming and explicit content there is still risks for those over 16 to be targeted.
Australia’s social media ban in December has proven that although children have supposedly been banned, there are ways around this. Many parents are helping their children get back online by using their face for facial recognition instead of their child’s - the app determines the user is over 18, and the child is back on social media.
Although there is currently no set plan to introduce this ban, the introduction of the Online Safety Act has taken major steps to ensure children are experiencing age appropriate content.
The people of Glasgow gave a range of opinions on whether this ban should be implemented or not.
Ava McGraw, a 14-year-old from Airdrie said: “I think the ban will affect me in a really negative way because that’s how I talk to all my friends. Not having it will really isolate me and I'll feel really lonely. I think it's really mean to get rid of it because that’s how people talk to each other. Australia is sad now because no one wants to go there because of the ban, I think we should have our own safety precautions to keep us safe.”
Ava believes that if this ban comes into place, she won’t be able to have contact with her friends anymore as the social media platforms that would be banned is where she communicates with them.
15-year-old Lily Campbell from Uddingston has a different opinion, she said: “On the one hand it's good to have children off, but I also don’t want it to because I love watching TikTok. But any child under 12 should definitely not be on social media.”
38-year-old John Price, who 13-year-old son, said: “I’m all for the ban because I really want my son to get into football or any sport, but he’s just on that computer all day and who knows what he’s doing, so I'm all for it.”