'Social media ban will be a big fight - but thank God it's begun'
Andrew Marr says the harm being done to young minds is so great that the country has to act
Some people are saying today that Keir Starmer‘s proposed social media ban for under 16s is a cynical last minute attempt to show he has conviction.
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Some people say it doesn’t go nearly far enough. Some people say the plan has holes in it and won’t work nearly as well as the prime minister thinks. They may very well be right.
But I say tonight, with the greatest of respect to all the critics of this proposed ban, that I don’t care.
Online safety and the reshaping of the brains of a generation, a vast social experiment, carried out at reckless speed with no guardrails or preparation or forethought, is a massive challenge to this country.
Yes, we have to start somewhere, and yes, it’s going to be a big fight, but thank God it’s begun.
The media companies are predictably derisive. And the Conservatives make the good point that the Prime Minister wants to give the vote to 16-year-olds – so 16 and 17 year-olds are old enough to choose a government or an MP, but will face a social media curfew so won’t be easily able to check the result of that vote.
As I say, the harm is being done to young minds – pornography, lies about everything, endless comparisons of body shape, political provocations from bad actors overseas; and, perhaps more important still, the relentless, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, distraction, tugging children away from the real, complex, intriguing human world all around them to grimmer fantasies – those harms are so great that a grown up country, serious about its mental health, has to act. Already, it’s been too long.
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Andrew Marr is an author, journalist and presenter for LBC.
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