In the wake of the Australian government gaining support from all states and territories to pass legislation barring under 16-year-olds from using social media, it appears that the UK may soon follow suit.
Peter Kyle, the science secretary of the UK, stated that he is ‘demanding that the regulator will be more assertive when it comes to protecting children online.’
This is a direct call on tech companies to increase the restrictions placed on age-appropriate content, which have been known to fall short over many safeguarding concerns throughout the last decade.
One group campaigning for stricter regulations on the content promoted on social media, the Molly Rose Foundation, stated that this is ‘an important marker for Ofcom to be bolder.’
From next year The Online Safety Act will be coming into effect.
This ensures that Social media platforms could be met with substantial fines, potentially reaching billions of pounds, if they do not comply and strictly enforce age verification methods on those accessing their platforms.
The implications of this act have caused many platforms to introduce changes already, with Instagram creating new teen accounts in the September of this year.
However, regardless of this call to increase regulations online, many believe that further action must be taken.
The tragic tales of those who have lost their lives over content they have viewed online serves to show that these dangers online will not be prevented simply by increasing the restrictions on these apps themselves.
Instead, the government must place legislations into place that will prevent this harmful content being available anywhere on social media.
This is one factor which influenced Australia’s decision to restrict the social media usage of under 16s, and which caused Peter Kyle to state that regarding whether the UK will follow suit ‘everything is on the table with me’.
That being said, Peter Kyle further mentioned that before the United Kingdom goes down the same road as Australia further research on the impact of social media on young people will need to take place.
Therefore, whilst the prospect of a social media ban for those under 16 years of age remains, it is clear this will not be taking place at any point in the immediate future.
