UK Health Secretary threatens new laws as he blasts social media for failing to protect children
Jeremy Hunt threatens new laws as he blasts social media
for FAILING to protect CHILDREN
JEREMY HUNT has accused internet giants of turning a
blind eye to children being harmed by social media and has threatened new laws
to protect young people from online dangers.
Mr Hunt said the Government would set its own limits on
healthy screen time
By CAMILLA TOMINEY AND NICK LESTER PUBLISHED: 00:01, Sun,
Apr 22, 2018
The Health Secretary hit out at the lack of action taken
by companies including Apple, Facebook and Google to protect youngsters’ mental
health, dubbing it morally wrong and deeply unfair on parents.
He accused them of failing to police underage users and
has written to them demanding a response by the end of the month.
Mr Hunt said the Government would set its own limits on
healthy screen time as part of a review on the impact of social media on
children’s mental health.
Voicing his “disappointment” at the lack of headway since
discussions were held in November, Mr Hunt said: “I fear that you are
collectively turning a blind eye to a whole generation of children being
exposed to the harmful emotional side effects of social media
prematurely."
It is clear to me
that the voluntary joint approach has not delivered the safeguards we need to
protect our children’s mental health
Jeremy Hunt
“This is both morally wrong and deeply unfair on parents,
who are faced with the invidious choice of allowing children to use platforms
they are too young to access or excluding them from social interaction that
often the majority of their peers are engaging in.
“It is unacceptable and irresponsible for you to put
parents in this position.”
Although he welcomed products like Google’s Family Link
which help parents control what their children can access online, Mr Hunt said
some websites had been too focused on complaining about the challenges they
faced “rather than offering innovative solutions”.
He added: “It is clear to me that the voluntary joint
approach has not delivered the safeguards we need to protect our children’s
mental health.”
Refusing to rule out legislation, he warned he would
pursue the reforms needed under its Internet Safety Strategy in the absence of
any meaningful contribution from the internet giants.
He said: “I would like to know what additional new steps
you have taken to protect children and young people since November in each of
the specific categories we raised – age verification, screen time limits and
cyber-bullying.”
Mr Hunt is a family man with three children: Jack, eight,
Anna, six and Eleanor, three.
A source close to Mr Hunt said he was keen to provide
parents with evidence-backed advice on screen time limits “in the same way families
are recommended to eat five fruit and vegetables a day”.
The source added: “At the moment parents feel completely
in the dark about what constitutes healthy internet use for their children and
that has got to change, with or without the help of the companies.”
Mr Hunt has asked the Chief Medical Officer to undertake
a review of the impact of technology on children.
His letter to Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Instagram,
Google, YouTube, Snapchat and Twitter comes after Children’s Commissioner Anne
Longfield warned young people faced “significant emotional risk”.
She found secondary school pupils were particularly
susceptible to becoming addicted to “likes” as a form of social validation.
Between them Google and Facebook are involved in dozens of social media
companies, including WhatsApp and Instagram. Google’s parent company Alphabet
owns video platform YouTube.
Common mental health disorders
Fri, June 23, 2017
Common mental health disorders from anxiety and
depression to post-traumatic stress disorder and phobias.
·
Anxiety - A feeling of uncontrollable unease
such as a worry or a fear
·
Obsessive Compulsive Disease (OCD) - This
illness causes suffers to have unwanted thoughts and compulsions
·
Phobias - A specific phobia of a an object or
situation that is out of proportion to the actual danger
·
Depression - Persistently feeling sad, unhappy
or helpless for weeks or months
·
Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia) - One of
the most common anxiety disorders is a fear of social situations
·
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) - Causes a person
to have a distorted view of how they look
·
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - This
anxiety disorder is caused by stressful, frightening or distressing events such
as a road accident or robbery
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