As a GP, I see the impact of social media on childhood every day. Problematic issues of children sexting, watching porn, absorbing health misinformation, accessing violent or terrorist content, or just losing hours of sleep or study time to this valueless, addictive rubbish, are now of pandemic proportions.  

This isn’t inevitable teenage angst. This is criminal records, dangerous relationships, extreme violence, unplanned pregnancies and abortions due to contraception misinformation, complex mental illness featuring major red flags like animal cruelty, psychotic features and suicidality. Take all these harms that can impact any of our children at any time and then double down on our most vulnerable.

Children living in care, child carers, and those living in poverty or with additional needs are much more vulnerable to harm on these platforms. A child awaiting an ADHD assessment, struggling at school and with peers, spending upwards of eight hours per day on social media or gaming, is a common occurrence in practice now. 

This week, Australia is bravely acknowledging that these problems are too great for further rumination over perfect policy. Age verification that works will now be a statutory obligation for these knowingly negligent tech companies. If following suit feels too unpalatable for us here, then we need to come up with something similar, and quickly, given that we know 800,000 three to five-year-olds in the UK are using social media independently.  

I hear the concerns that some children may go elsewhere to find the same thrill or convenience that social media offers them. However, I believe this does a disservice to many children. There will always be teenagers who push boundaries more than their peers, break laws, including this one, which will feel new and unfair to them. However, this can only represent an element of dependence on these platforms, a cycle that is healthier broken; there are, after all, plenty of other ways to communicate.

This ominous prediction also implies that the content they crave is something they actively seek out. The Youth Endowment Fund found that 25% of children are seeing violent content because the platforms are sending it to them, and a recent Children’s Commissioner report revealed 59% have seen pornography by accident rather than seeking it out themselves (35%). 

Whichever way we cut it, more children will be protected with this legislation, and more tech companies will face meaningful punishment.  

In the new year, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill returns to Parliament. With Lord Nash, the former schools minister, having tabled an amendment to ban social media for children under 16, the Government now has a clear chance to take decisive action to protect children. I urge policymakers to support and pass this amendment without delay.  

Dr Rebecca Foljambe is founder of Health Professionals for Safer Screens