00:00The UK's social media ban has been ruffling feathers and raising questions since it was
00:04announced by Sir Keir Starmer on Monday. The ban is a landmark move by the government to give kids
00:10their childhood back with less time for scrolling and more time for play. Among the apps included
00:15in the ban are Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Blue Sky, YouTube, Facebook and X.
00:22So in practice for a young person when they wake up on the day of implementation if they have an
00:26account already they will be asked to verify their age. If they're found to be under 16 that account
00:31will have to be deleted. For a new account that you might try and create again you'll be asked to
00:37verify your age and if you're found to be under 16 you will not be allowed to create a new
00:40account as
00:41well. Age checks have to be highly effective and so in some cases platforms will be able to use
00:47existing data to do that. In other cases they might need facial recognition like you do with say
00:51Apple Pay when you go to the cafe on a daily basis. The government's definition of the social media
00:56ban takes inspiration from Australia but there are also a lot of differences with the UK's ban
01:02being described as tougher and going further. Two regards in which we're going further and tougher.
01:07One we want the age checks here to be tougher than in Australia and two we are not just looking
01:12at
01:12social media we think there are some really harmful features on gaming platforms that allow child
01:17abuse we're tackling those as well and so live streaming combined with stranger adults contacting
01:22kids we're going to stop those for young people in Britain. Not everyone is pleased
01:26about the ban particularly not young people many of whom feel they've been cut out from the
01:31conversation or have raised concerns about losing communities loneliness and a lack of opportunity
01:37as well as parents who have voiced concerns about their young ones finding the dark web. Young people
01:42aren't involved in these conversations and it's about them and the people that are talking about this
01:47and deciding about this aren't. I think a lot of adults don't understand because they grew up in a
01:52different generation that most children stay connected with their friends through their phones
01:57like without my phone I'll probably forget like who half my friends are. If you want young people
02:01to comply you have to listen to the actual issues that they're facing and legislate according to what
02:06they need. I've actually had leukemia for three years so I actually finished my treatment a few months ago
02:12so I've just been like during the whole kind of process I felt kind of incredibly isolated and just on
02:18my own
02:19spending a lot of time at home and connecting with friends and people from the outside world
02:23through social media has helped me so much I think I would felt so alone and it would have been
02:29so much harder on me
02:29without social media. I live in a rural area and like nobody around me has like talked about OCD really
02:37so social media was the only way that I could
02:39kind of get an understanding of these things that I'm feeling aren't aren't an issue of me this is an
02:44actual thing
02:44um it's kind of changed my life. Under-16s are really really important but what about when you turn 16
02:50you're then just left in a minefield like a digital space rife with harm. Often on Instagram and TikTok
02:56and all these other social medias you'll see a warning before you see the video say may contain graphic
03:00content may contain nudity. My message is if the tech companies have this technology to detect it
03:07surely they have the technology to remove it as well. I think the best way is to like find a
03:12mid-ground
03:13where you're like discussing with children what they think could be harmful content and making
03:18children aware of what is harmful content for them. The digital world is much much younger than the real
03:24world there is still time to make it safe by design rather than trying to like firefight. How would you
03:29kind
03:29of respond to claims that a social media ban like this will push children into darker areas of the web
03:36of the
03:36internet that maybe aren't as regulated? I don't think that's inevitable at all and it is our
03:41responsibility to make sure that that doesn't happen and so one of the things we're focused on
03:46is the existing uh liabilities and responsibilities on all platforms and particularly risky platforms
03:51they will continue to apply and we want the regulator to be tougher and quicker in uh stamping those out
03:57as well and so there is no inevitable risk that young people are going to somehow move on to riskier
04:01platforms we want to prevent that from happening. The government has acknowledged that there will be
04:05difficulties for young people especially for those who have become accustomed to life on social media.
04:11I acknowledge that uh this isn't going to be kind of all upside and no downside of course there are
04:16some trade-offs to be made here but as I said the scale of harm has been so significant that
04:21we think
04:21this is the right call to have made. In terms of supporting uh people who have built uh great followings
04:26and greater careers online as well you know the thing I'd say to them is uh we would love to
04:31support you
04:32through the experience of growing up into a context where you can use those skills and those
04:36uh capabilities later in life as well and I of course I'm sorry to see anyone uh lose what they
04:42currently really value but I hope the overall argument that we've made about the scale of damage
04:47for young people is convincing and assuring as well. Half a billion pounds will also be invested
04:52into improving opportunities for young people in the form of arts, culture, music and wider youth support.
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