Social media should be age restricted like cigarettes and alcohol to protect children from online harm, MPs told

Children under the age of 16 should be banned from using social media to prevent them from harm in the same way that they are not allowed to buy cigarettes or alcohol, MPs have been told.

Matt Hancock, the Culture Secretary, suggested earlier this month that Facebook and other social media websites should require parents to confirm that their children are over the age of 13 before they are allowed to use the platforms.

Campaigners have now called for the Government to go further and to impose effective age verification and enforcement measures to prevent children from accessing pornography, violent content or other harmful material.

Meanwhile, charity bosses have urged ministers to introduce digital literacy training for parents so they know what their children are doing online.

It comes amid fears “parents are terrified of the internet” and are “crying out for more help”.

Mr Hancock criticised social media websites for only requiring children to tick a box to confirm that they are over the age of 13 as he said it was now "one of the hardest times to be a parent".

The minimum age for Facebook users is 13, but surveys suggest that three-quarters of children aged between 10 and 12 have social media accounts.

Concerns have been raised about the potentially harmful effect social media can have on young people and campaigners told the Science and Technology Select Committee that more needed to be done to address the issue.

Asked if the Government should find ways of imposing age verification, Duncan Stephenson, from the Royal Society for Public Health charity, suggested social media should be treated in the same way as the sale of tobacco and alcohol.

He said: “Absolutely. I work for public health and if you were to take parity of esteem, if there are issues around young people’s mental health and wellbeing where it has been affected by social media, why should it be treated any differently to other risk factors like smoking and drinking?

“Yes, there are positives around social media but we should look at how we can graduate usage, particularly for those who are vulnerable under the age of 16.”

Carolyn Bunting from the Internet Matters group which aims to keep children safe online stressed the importance of education but also backed the use of more technology.

She added: “We would equally welcome technical solutions in that space. I think it’s great to have a backstop for parents so parents have something to rely on.

“But I think ultimately this is about educating our young people to behave online and that the environments that we have offline should be the same that we have online.”

Meanwhile, Sue Jones from the Ditch the Label anti-bullying charity said parents needed digital literacy training so they are better prepared to protect their children from online harm.

She told MPs: “I think there is a need for parents to really be involved in that. I am not sure whether the school [could do the training], because they are already hugely overworked, many teachers, I am not sure it is right for them or who would be best placed to deliver it.

“But there is definitely a need for it. Parents are terrified of the internet.”

Ms Bunting added: “Overwhelmingly parents are just crying out for more help in this area. I think we need clearer, more succinct guidance and we need the equivalent of public service broadcasting.

“I don’t know how we make that happen but we need to be motivating parents to get involved, giving them the right advice so they can help support their children.”