Richard has received many emails from constituents in support of increasing the minimum age for social media.
Commenting he said:
Through social media, children and young people can be exposed to extreme violent content, sexual material and online strangers in ways that would never be accepted in the real world. British children spend almost three hours a day online, with 70 per cent of them seeing videos of real-life violence.
Over the past decade, as smartphone and social media use have increased, there has been a sharp increase in anxiety, isolation, self-harm, and poor sleep among young people, which has knock-on effects for learning and behaviour.
It is for these reasons that the Leader of HM Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, and the shadow Education Secretary, Laura Trott, have led the way in calling on the Government to help protect children from these harms by implementing a minimum age requirement for social media.
Having initially refused to entertain the idea of a ban, Labour announced a 3-month consultation on January 19th however this has yet to launch. If you agree with me then please sign the petition https://www.getkidsoffsocialmedia to hold Labour to account on their promise.
