Online Safety: Children and Young People

Debate between Lola McEvoy and Peter Dowd

Tuesday 26th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[Dan Aldridge]

I thank my hon. Friend for allowing me to intervene again. In my previous role as head of public policy at the British Computer Society, the one thing that my colleagues and I talked about a lot was the lack of focus on education in the Online Safety Act. I commend the previous Government for passing that legislation, which was very brave. The Act has tried to do some wonderful things, but what is missing is that we have failed to empower a generation of young people to act safely online, to be able to take back the power and say, “No, I am not going to do that.” We have failed in that so far. How do we build that in for the future?

[Peter Dowd (in the Chair)]

Order. I would like to bring to the attention of Members that we have had a huge number of interventions and we are 20 minutes into the debate. The Minister and Opposition spokesperson will get up at just after half past 3. It is a matter for the speaker whether she takes more interventions, but that does mean that the amount of time for those who have asked to speak will be significantly more restricted than I originally planned. That is just a housekeeping matter to be aware of. There is also an issue about the length of interventions: they are getting a bit long. On a matter of this importance, I do not want to restrict interventions and contributions, but I ask Members to please bear that in mind.

[Lola McEvoy]

Okay, I will make progress. On the live location element, which I have discussed, I am not sure that there is any advantage in children using that, unless it is a specifically regulated live location app where the parents have given consent for their child.

I do not know whether chatting to strangers on games is suitable for children. Adding peers to a group and enjoying playing with them on games is fine, but there could be strangers from other countries, with no indication of their age. One child told me that he had found out, after about three weeks, that the person he had been playing with was a 50-year-old man on another continent. That man was probably mortified, as was the child, and they stopped playing together. Why are we leaving it up to them? That is such a high-risk strategy for those apps; we need to think about that.

It is down to Parliament to decide what is safe for our children, and to enforce it. Asking platforms to mark their own homework and police themselves will undoubtedly lead to more children seeing inappropriate, harmful content and sharing it with others. I would like the Government to strengthen the children’s codes, and consider changing the onus from reactive safety measures that make apps safe for children, when we suspect they are children, to proactively making apps or platforms safe for all children in the first place, and creating adult-only apps that require strong age verification, because adults can consent to giving their data.

A number of ways to protect children online are being debated, as I am sure we will hear this afternoon. I feel strongly that retrofitting apps once children have been exposed to harmful content or strangers, or have shared things they should not, is not the safest or most effective way to do this. A number of options around age verification are on the table, but I would like the Government to consider that being a child is tough and that children have a right to make mistakes. The issue is that those mistakes involve mass communications to peers and a permanent digital footprint, because someone has consented, aged 13, to give away their data.

We need to see whether any child can consent to give away their data, and therefore whether apps that identify their audience as children should be allowed to keep data at all. Should children be in chatrooms with strangers across the world? Should children be allowed to share their live location with strangers or people they have accepted as contacts? Should children be allowed to view unregulated livestreams or addictive-by-design content? Those questions have been raised not only by children themselves but by parents and national advocacy charities and leaders in this space. There is a consensus that we have to take action on this issue, so let us make the most of it.

[Peter Dowd (in the Chair)]

Order. I remind Members that they should bob if they wish to be called in the debate.

Mental Health Support

Debate between Lola McEvoy and Peter Dowd

Thursday 10th October 2024 Westminster Hall

[Lola McEvoy (Darlington) (Lab)]

I rise to speak about this issue on World Mental Health Day. I have championed it many times across my career and I will continue to do so in my time in this place.

My constituents—and, I am sure, those of all hon. Members—want something that we used to take for granted: a happy, decent life, with a better future for their children. For too many in Darlington, that is not the reality, and I believe that the current mental health crisis is a product of our times. I will focus my brief contribution not on those with severe mental illness, who are often in crisis, but on those who are struggling with day-to-day poor mental health.

I agree with the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans), who advocated a cross-departmental approach. Poor mental health is pushing people out of work, and that is a huge issue for the Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions. A lack of child mental health support and a failure to tackle the online safety crisis for children is leading to school refusals, which is an issue not only for the Department for Education but for the economy and for future generations. Loneliness is impacting the physical health of our older people, which is an issue for the NHS. The lack of opportunity, quality work, maternal mental health services, veteran support and childcare support is driving people in my constituency to despair.

I have mentioned this before, but I will mention it again on this day: within my own network, I have lost seven men to suicide. Only one of them had a severe mental illness. In my region, we have the highest rate of male suicide and the lowest wages. I ask that we, as a Government who are committed to equality of opportunity for our regions, consider my constituency and my region for a cross-departmental pilot to tackle poor mental health before we lose any more people to avoidable deaths.

[Peter Dowd (in the Chair)]

I now come to the Opposition spokespersons.