Blaise Tapp: Banning social media won’t make the internet any safer
As a dad to a teenager and a primary school age child, I am acutely aware of the very many potential dangers that lurk online.
Ask anyone half sensible with kids and they will tell you that the online safety of their little darlings is never far from their thoughts.
Forty years ago when I was permanently in shorts and sported a haircut which looked like it had been done with a knife and fork, mums and dads worried about strangers in scruffy Cortinas, hanging around school gates, these days the threat is in millions of homes. In the wrong hands, the digital universe can be a dangerous place and it is clear to anyone that much more needs to be done to make it safer than it is.
There has been much talk about the UK following the lead of Australia in banning social media for under 16s, a move which is being watched by the rest of the world. Although there seems to be an increasing number of politicians who would support a ban, some campaigners believe a ban would be a blunt instrument and that we would be better served by continuing to strengthen the Online Safety Act, which came into force more than two years ago and, among other things, means that there are now age verification checks for certain apps and games. These are a start but there are many loopholes that need closing and, it goes without saying that the all powerful big tech companies need to do so much more to protect our kids online. Parents also play a central role too.
I am one of those who doesn’t think we should rush into a ban on under 16s using social media for a number of reasons including that Australia is only weeks into its ban so we really don’t know if it works. What really bothers me is what happens when a child reaches 16, will they suddenly be equipped to deal with the very many perils that await them on social media? Harmful and hateful content shouldn’t exist on social media and while policing that is easier said than done, the companies behind these apps need to try much, much harder.
Parents mustn’t shirk their responsibilities either - we need to talk to the young people in our lives about the risks that are out there and supervise and manage what they are consuming online. This isn’t somebody else’s problem to deal with, it’s ours.