UK can learn from Australia with under 16s social media ban, says mum of murdered teen Brianna Ghey
The UK can learn from Australia and do a better job in banning under-16s from social media, the mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey has said.
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Esther Ghey told MPs on the Education Select Committee that she believes Australia’s ban on social media for under-16s has been successful so far in some ways, but that the UK can use lessons from there to make any restrictions more effective.
It comes after the Government announced on Monday that it will introduce “age or functionality” restrictions on social media for under-16s.
Brianna, who was 16 at the time of her death was murdered by teenagers Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe in a frenzied stabbing attack in a park in Chesire back in 2023.
Ms Ghey said she and Brianna were “constantly battling over her phone use and social media”, and an age limit like Australia’s would help parents in this battle.
Polling in Australia earlier this month found three in five children aged between 12 and 15 still have access to one or more online accounts that should have been restricted as a result of the ban.
“We need to wait a bit longer to see the full success of the ban in Australia,” Ms Ghey said.
“But I think that it doesn’t mean that we have to delay, and I think that we could do it better,” Ms Ghey said.
“I think there’s already things to learn from there, and I think that the UK can do a better job, because we’ve got the hindsight to learn from.”
The committee heard evidence on Tuesday on the harms of social media for young people.
Ms Ghey, who has been campaigning for restrictions on children’s smartphone and social media use, said Brianna really struggled with her mental health as a result of her smartphone and social media addiction.
She welcomed the news that the Government will make the guidance on phone bans in schools statutory but said “out of sight” policies – which require pupils to keep phones out of sight and not use them but do not necessarily ban phones from being on students – do not work.
“I know from a personal perspective that it doesn’t work because of how Brianna was in school and I hear from teachers all of the time,” Ms Ghey told the committee.
She said Brianna “could not put her phone away” and that she would go to the toilets to film TikTok videos.
She said her daughter had been accessing live-streaming apps where young people can meet strangers online and also criticised Snapchat.
“There is no way Snapchat is suitable for anybody under the age of 18,” Ms Ghey told MPs.
Darren Northcott, national official for education at NASUWT, said there is not a specific social media platform that is seen as more damaging than others but that “you do hear quite a lot about Snapchat” when he spoke to the committee.
A representative from Snapchat will also give evidence to the committee on Tuesday.
Andy Burrows, chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, said 14-year-old Molly Russell, who took her own life in 2017, had been “algorithmically recommended substantial amounts of harmful material, including content that promotes and glorifies suicide”.
Mr Burrows said social media companies “have been able to subvert” the Australian ban, and said tougher sanctions were needed to make effective change on social media use.
The relationship between social media platforms and young people right now is “exploitative”, he said.
'Alarmed'
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, told the committee everyone should be “alarmed” about what children see on social media.
“Young people at the moment are spending around 35 hours a week on social media… and the content that they are viewing is extreme, it’s misogynistic, it’s racist, it’s homophobic,” he said.
“We are absolutely insane to think that does not shape their interactions with each other and with teachers. Female teachers in particular are experiencing a huge increase in misogyny, misogynistic language.
“What young people, particularly boys, are experiencing online is completely distorting their views of women, sex and relationships and we should be all alarmed.”
Education minister Olivia Bailey told MPs on Monday that measures to tackle social media harms for children would be imposed regardless of the outcome of the Government’s consultation.
Peers voted four times to press the Commons into accepting a ban.
Consideration of restrictions such as curfews will be in addition to the age or functionality restrictions, the minister said.
On Tuesday, education secretary Bridget Phillipson told Sky News the Government will “absolutely” act on addictive features, but that “we need to design something that stands the test of time”.
Caroline Voaden, MP for South Devon and member of the Education Select Committee, said: “The contrast between how Meta and TikTok and campaigners, like the Molly Rose Foundation and Esther Ghey, speak about social media safety for children is absolutely glaring.
"Last week, the social media giants denied reality by claiming their platforms were not addictive. The fact is they are the only ones still buying their rhetoric.
"Yesterday, the government signalled it was a question of when not if restrictions for under-16s would come.
"The sobering testimony of the Molly Rose Foundation, Esther Ghey and the NSPCC today only emphasises why there is no time to waste to protect our children from the grooming, pornographic, violent and self-harm content which is rife on social media.”