Ministers 'racing fast' to decide on social media ban for under 16s

The UK’s online safety minister has said the government is “racing extremely fast” to settle the question of whether children should be banned from using social media.

Kanishka Narayan MP made the comments after speaking to parents, youth workers, and teenagers at The Citadel community centre in Leith on Friday morning.

Mr Narayan told The Herald: “There are lots of challenges online, instances of bullying, impacts on mental health, impacts on sleep and how young people relate to each other.”

The minister and his team have criss-crossed the UK in the final days before the ‘Growing up in the online world’ consultation closes on May 26.

The government minister visited Leith on Tuesday morning. (Image: NQ)

Ministers will use the survey’s findings to introduce a package of online safety legislation, including the possibility of an Australian-style outright ban on social media use for under 16s.

Asked about the possibility of such a ban, Mr Narayan added: “What I am hearing is that I think parents and families in particular … want something that is effective and has a degree of simplicity because they live very tough, busy lives trying to make things happen for their families.

“This is such an important question that we're racing extremely fast at it. And so we are going to be responding to the consultation within the summer.

“And my hope is very much that by the end of the year, we will have acted on it because we have already secured powers in the law to be able to do so quickly.”

Nearly 800 young people between the ages of 10 and 21 have already filled out the consultation in Scotland, as well as more than 1,400 parents and carers.

Mr Narayan remarked: “There are a few more days to go, so we encourage everyone in Scotland to get involved.

“We've had thousands of great responses from Scotland already, but the intent here is to listen deeply to the voices of Scotland and to make sure they're at the heart of our decisions.”

Leith Walk councillor Katrina Faccenda, a trustee of the charity which operates The Citadel, was also present on Tuesday morning.

“We had quite a discussion about education,” she remarked. “What I raised in that was about the platforms and responsibility, rather than taking away rights from young people to access it.

“I was quite impressed by what the minister had to say about that and about the fines and how big those fines could be against companies, because in the end, they're making money, they leave the stuff up online, they allow it to be a free for all.

On that point, Mr Narayan remarked: “This UK Government has put in place a series of tough measures against companies when it comes to keeping people safe online,” he said.

“This year, for example, we have introduced direct criminal liability for tech bosses if they don't comply with their requirements for intimate images without consent being taken down.

“So all the powers of government are at the disposal when it comes to keeping young people safe online. We are not going to compromise with that in any case.”

However, some charities have warned that an outright ban on social media use could have unintended consequences.

Hilary Phillips of Youth Link Scotland. (Image: NQ)

Charity worker Ryan McKay, who regularly leads discussions on online safety with young people at The Citadel, remarked: “Young people are telling us, I found this cool hobby or I found this amazing connection and actually banning it means I would lose that.

“And another thing is the fact that it will go underground. And they're telling us that people will just use VPNs, they'll just figure out different ways of beating around it.

“So my worry with [a ban] would be that it just takes it further underground, it makes it less likely that young people will want to chat.

“And like other issues in life, other social issues, it then becomes a kind of taboo subject.”

Hilary Phillips, who leads on digital issues for support network Youth Link Scotland, agrees.

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She said: “There's real nuance [about a ban] and I mean, I suppose that whether or not you ban it, in a sense, the most important thing is to create places where young people can develop their own digital literacy.”

Two of those young people, Euan and Cameron, spoke to The Herald. The boys, both 14, are about to begin S4.

Asked about the use of phones at school, Cameron noted: “There can be times where like everyone's on their phones, they're just like scrolling on TikTok and sending each other TikToks and it's just quite quiet and awkward.

“There should be a bit more stricter rules with phone use,” Euan said.

“Talking online is a completely different skill from talking to someone. You need to develop two things at the same time, maybe for children that's harder. Maybe they want to learn one more than the other and that's why some people are more chronically online than the others,” he added.

Parents and children between the ages of 10 and 21 have until May 26 to fill out the consultation.