Labour will launch a trial of social media bans, time limits, and curfews on 300 young people in a test run for wider restrictions on the internet.The six-week pilot scheme, run by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), will feature children aged 13 to 17 trying out different restrictions on social media use and judge the impact on their schoolwork, sleep and family life.Participating young people and their parents will be split into four groups for the study.One set will be shown how to use parental controls to remove or prevent access to selected social media apps, imitating a social media ban.
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Another group will have a one-hour-a-day cap on the most popular social media apps including TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram.The third group will see children have social media access blocked between 9pm and 7am, allowing students to go online only immediately before and after school.The fourth group will serve as a control, with the same access to social media they currently have.Families will be interviewed at the start and end of the trial to see how the bans or limits affected them and any difficulties in implementing them.Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: “We are determined to give young people the childhood they deserve and to prepare them for the future.”This is why we are listening to parents, children and experts with our consultation, as well as testing different options in the real world. “These pilots will give us the evidence we need to take the next steps, informed by the experiences of families themselves.”The DSIT’s consultation on a potential Australia-style social media ban is set to conclude on May 26, having already received nearly 30,000 responses from parents and children.It invites views on what age a social media ban could begin, and if social media platforms should be forced to switch off features deemed addictive, such as infinite scrolling and autoplay.An amendment introduced by the House of Lords which would have implemented a social media ban on under-16s was rejected in the Commons in a vote earlier this month.Critics of a ban, including the Chief Executive of Children First, have said it could drive teenagers into unregulated corners of the internet.While Michael O’Flaherty, the human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, has warned that bans are neither “proportionate nor necessary”.MORE ON CHILDREN AND SOCIAL MEDIA:Children’s charity boss says ‘blunt’ Australia-style social media ban will make teenagers less safeArgos sparks backlash with controversial £15 ‘influencer kit’ aimed at 3-year-oldsMPs vote to reject ban on social media for under-16sInside Sir Keir Starmer’s party itself, the Labour Digital Rights Network warns that “Giving current and future Governments such vast influence over our internet acccess is a profound threat to freedom of expression and privacy”.Members of the All-Party Parliament Group (APPG) for Digital Creators will launch an inquiry on Wednesday to urge the Government not to overlook the benefits of social media for young people.Content creators such as Katie Etrusch, whose “Miss Etrusch Biology” channel provides resources for A-level and GCSE students, said a ban would “cut young people off from some of the most effective, engaging educational content and study communities”.The APPG also pointed to the role of political content creators in making current affairs accessible at a time when the Government aims to lower the voting age to 16.Labour’s Feryal Clark, co-chairwoman of the APPG, said: “Creators are producing content that young people genuinely value; content that educates, entertains, builds community and supports wellbeing.”We cannot legislate effectively without understanding what we would be restricting, and who would bear the consequences.”Conservative former minister Lord Nash, who originally introduced the Australia-style ban in the Lords, said the methods being evaluated in the pilot were “simply half measures” which “put the pressure on parents rather than holding big tech accountable”.On Wednesday, peers will be asked if they would like to continue to back Lord Nash’s proposal or side with MPs who removed the amendment.A group of 21 bereaved parents have written to members of the Lords to urge them to “vote to raise the age”.
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