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UK Youth has joined charities across the country in calling for improved measures to keep young people safer online.
UK Youth has added its name to an open letter to Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, asking for support for the Safer Phones Bill, ahead of its next reading in Parliament.
The Private Members’ Bill aims to help make young people safer online, by protecting them from the addictive harms of social media.
The Bill, proposed by Josh MacAlister, Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington, aims “to make provision for the protection of children accessing digital services and content”. It is due to have its second reading on March 7.
The letter says:
Dear the Rt Hon Peter Kyle MP,
We write to you today as a collection of 10 charities and organisations concerned with the wellbeing of children, urging the government to support The Protection of Children (Digital Safety and Data Protection) Bill, also known as the ‘Safer Phones Bill’.
The online world now plays a major role in children and young people’s lives. Children derive several benefits from going online and we are committed to supporting their right to accessing the online world in a safe and healthy way.
However, it should not be ignored that the online world also poses significant risks to children. Many of these risks emerge from the persuasive design features of online services and the devices used to access them.
We believe current legislation does not go far enough to protect children from the harms posed by these functionalities and that is why the Safer Phones bill is a positive intervention that deserves government backing.
There is a growing body of evidence for the correlation between excessive screentime and the health and wellbeing of children, with vulnerable children especially exposed.
Children and parents are calling out for more action. It is positive that the government have commissioned new research in this field, but it is unlikely that this research will be able to reach conclusions on the causal nature of social media use for some time. We therefore need to act with the evidence available.
While the Safer Phones Bill does not protect children from all the risks posed by the online world, and further legislation and amendments will inevitably be needed as technology develops and our understanding of risks emerges, we should not forgo this opportunity to pass further positive legislation.
Thank you for your consideration of our views.
As well as UK Youth, the letter is signed by: the 5Rights Foundation; Action for Children; Barnardo’s; the National Children’s Bureau; the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC); Parentkind; School Home Support; The Children’s Society; and Young Minds.
About UK Youth
UK Youth is a leading charity with a vision that all young people are equipped to thrive and empowered to contribute at every stage of their lives. With an open network of more than 9,000 youth organisations and nation partners; UK Youth reaches more than four million young people across the UK and is focused on unlocking youth work as the catalyst of change that is needed now more than ever. To find out more, visit ukyouth.org
UK Youth is involved in a range of programmes designed to help young people thrive, such as outdoor learning, physical literacy, social action and employability. For more on UK Youth’s programmes, see ukyouth.org/what-we-do/programmes
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