Children need to be given right tools to navigate dangers of social media

The effect of social media and smartphones on children should be treated as a ‘public health crisis’, says Mumsnet founder

According to the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Children's Online Safety, Gregor Poynton, there is a risk that children are being radicalised through social media by misogynist, ‘manosphere’ influencers and other preachers of hate.

The Labour MP said that while the firms involved “somewhat talk a reasonable game when it comes to children's online safety”, they were not spending enough money to deal with such content. “The manosphere stuff really is incredibly dangerous... over a period of time, it can have a really negative effect,” he said.

His remarks add to a growing chorus of concern about the effect of social media on children and society in general. Mumsnet chief executive Justine Roberts described the effect of smartphones and social media on young people as “a public health crisis”, warning the government had not “grasped the scale or seriousness of the problem”.

Children need to be better protected from the horrors they can access on social media (Picture: Matt Cardy) | Getty Images

“The very nature of addictive-by-design social media apps negatively affects children's still-developing brains... tech companies have designed algorithms to hook kids in and make them addicts,” she said.

Social media is a relatively new phenomenon and one that have massively changed the way we communicate in a short period of time. This truly is an information revolution.

So while it is understandable that governments have been slow off the mark to address the downsides to this, they need to get a better grip on what is happening – and quickly. Some schools have introduced bans on mobile phones, which may or may not help, and there has been talk of banning children entirely from social media.

Short of that dramatic step, which many young people would likely circumvent, children need to be taught how to navigate the virtual world. Given the seriousness of the situation, building an ‘online studies’ class into the curriculum might be part of the solution.

However, many young people have a much better handle on the pitfalls of social media than their parents. Given the right tools, perhaps they might grow up to create civilised social media platforms that don’t promote hatred of women, suicide and all the other horrors allowed in the name, not of free speech, but of profit.