Laura Trott says it would be 'enormous mistake' not to include YouTube in social media ban for under 16s
The Shadow Education Secretary has told LBC it would be a "mistake" not to include YouTube in a social media ban for children.
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Speaking to Shelagh Fogarty, Laura Trott said social media has "normalised" violence for young people and that the rapid online circulation of the video of Monday's knife attack in Belfast demonstrates the need for it to be banned.
Unrest has swept across Northern Ireland following the attack by a Sudanese national in which the victim lost an eye.
"That is the most dangerous thing that we can do in our society, normalise violence, normalise aggression" she said on Wednesday afternoon.
"When you are a young boy, if you are seeing people, everyone is carrying around a knife on your social media feed, frankly, everyone is using a knife on your social media feed. You think that is normal. That is so dangerous."
Caller Sam asked the Sevenoaks MP if YouTube should be included in a ban on social media.
"There's rumours at the moment this is not going to be included and that will be an enormous mistake because firstly, it's just not fair and secondly, if we think about a lot of the harms that are happening, they're happening on YouTube.
"This is what we're seeing over and over again because it is the most used app, right, by young people.
"So it definitely needs to be included."
Ms Trott added that the assassination of podcaster Charlie Kirk in the US last year showed her the scale of the issue.
"This is one of the reasons why I've been so passionate about social media ban overall, because actually, what young people have become normalised to is violence every single day.
"I was in a school directly after the Charlie Kirk murder. Every single child I spoke to had seen it from multiple angles.
"That's not normal."
She added that young people are seeing this kind of content "every single day".
"When you talk to young boys, right, 13, 14 years old, they see knives on their social media feed all the time.
"This is not good for them. It's creating a culture which is unhealthy and it's creating a culture which is dangerous, and this is why we need to do something about it."
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to “crack down on anyone who is fuelling this division” amid criticism of Elon Musk and social media’s role in the night of violence in Belfast.
The billionaire X owner, who continued overnight to promote calls for people to take to the streets in response to Monday’s knife attack, hit back at accusations he was inflaming tensions and blamed immigration policy.
The reaction to the incident saw protesters set homes, a bus and cars on fire, with people targeted based on their race.
Sir Keir on Wednesday said “there is no justification for the violence and disorder that we saw threatening our communities, nor for those who encouraged it, online or elsewhere.”