Protection of Children Codes of Practice

Lord Watson of Invergowrie Excerpts

Thursday 30th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

My Lords, I apologise: I came to listen to this debate from the steps of the throne, but the more I listened, the more I thought I would make a very short contribution. I join others in thanking the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, for his Motion. The noble Lords, Lord Storey and Lord Watson, and others in the House, will know that, as part of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, the noble Lord, Lord Nash, and I and others have introduced a number of amendments that are relevant to our debate today. One would raise the age of access to social media for children from 13 to 15. Another would prohibit the use of VPNs by children. A third would ban the use of smartphones in schools during the school day.

The Department for Education and the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Malvern, in their rejection of our proposed amendments in Committee, cited as reasons for waiting the lack of convincing evidence and the fact that these codes were going to be implemented, and said it was premature to act. I hope there is some way of making sure that the noble Baroness is briefed on today’s debate, because I think she might feel, if she listened to some of the comments around the House, somewhat less reassured. She would also have been less reassured if she had been present earlier this week at the round table we hosted, across parties and with Cross-Bench support, which took evidence from medical experts including the noble Baroness, Lady Cass, academic experts and safeguarding experts. What we heard was deeply troubling.

The Minister may be aware that there are a number of ongoing campaigns about aspects of this and the way in which social media has led to tragic deaths of children. The noble Lord, Lord Russell, referred to Ian Russell and his daughter Molly, but Esther Ghey, mother of Brianna Ghey, and Ellen Roome, mother of Jools, also lost their children tragically as a result of their involvement with social media. This is an opportunity for the Government to be on the right side of history. All the evidence seems to be going in one direction and one direction only in terms of harm to children. If there is ever a time to adopt the precautionary principle, surely this is it.

[Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, began with an apology and I must do the same, because I did not leave my office soon enough and I missed the first few paragraphs of the speech by the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, to whom I personally apologise, and I apologise to the House in general for that. As the noble Lord, Lord Russell, said, I am the chair of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, but I speak today in an entirely personal capacity.

The noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, has actually left very little to say—so I will say very little. I certainly agreed with the important points he highlighted and went into in some detail. The gaps remaining in those codes are a genuine concern. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and Ofcom have pointed to the fact that they are simply the first iteration. That may well be the case, but both will need to ensure that any shortcomings that emerge are addressed at the earliest opportunity, and I hope it may be possible for my noble friend, whom I welcome to her post on the Front Bench, to offer an assurance that the necessary legislative changes that result from the shortcomings will be implemented as a matter of priority. Anything else would be entirely inappropriate, and indeed perhaps even unforgivable.