March 10 (UPI) — British MPs defeated proposals to ban children younger than 16 from using social media after the House of Lords, the upper house, tacked the measure onto children’s legislation it passed in January.
In a 307-173 vote, lawmakers rejected the amendment to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill introduced by a Conservative peer, but restrictions could still materialize after the House of Commons agreed to grant extra powers to Science Secretary Liz Kendall.
Lord, John Nash, and supporters of a ban said parents were in “an impossible position” that made it extremely difficult to protect their children from being harmed online.
The opposition Conservatives called the situation an “emergency” that required the government to get a law on the books to safeguard children. They said surveys indicated 40% of children are shown explicit content on smartphones during school hours.
Many Labour MPs agreed, refusing to support the government’s effort to defeat the ban. More than 100 abstained from the vote.
During the debate, MP Sadak Al-Hassan, a professional pharmacist, told lawmakers that any drug anywhere as addictive as social media would be made illegal.
“It would be withdrawn, reformulated or placed behind a counter with strict controls on who could access it. We would act, because that is what the evidence demanded. The same logic must apply here.
However, children’s advocacy groups argued a ban could drive children to seek out the so-called dark web, which is beyond the reach of regulators.
The alternative plan, put forward by the Labour government’s education minister, Olivia Bailey, calls for a consultation process to figure out if setting a minimum age and requiring platforms to disable autoplay and other addictive features were the way forward.
Kendall would get the power to limit or ban children from accessing social media and chatbots and restrict “specific features that are harmful or addictive.
She would also be able to “restrict or limit children’s Virtual Private Network use” and raise the legal age of “digital consent” in Britain — the age platforms are permitted to process children’s data without parental consent — from 13.
The development comes three months after Australia became the first country to implement a ban for under-16s in December.
In January, French lawmakers passed a bill banning under-15s from accessing social media but it still needs to get through the Senate to become law.
Spain, Germany, Indonesia and Malaysia are all actively looking at bans for under 16s while Denmark, Slovenia and Greece are considering making the minimum age 15.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.