Children’s Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza has visited Nottingham as part of work to draw up new guidance on children’s screen time.
Guidance is expected to be published this autumn for parents of children aged five to 16, following a three-week call for evidence.
Dame Rachel is travelling around the country to speak to children about social media, Artificial Intelligence and screen time. She visited Nottingham on Monday 8 June, including a session at Nottingham Playhouse, to hear young people’s views.
The visit comes as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to announce new measures on children’s access to social media platforms. Reports suggest this could include restrictions similar to Australia’s ban on under-16s using social media.
Children in Nottingham expressed mixed views on whether a ban should be introduced.
Freya Allen, 16, of Bulwell, said she believed restrictions were needed because of the “many dangers online”.
Some children said they felt Nottingham was dangerous, particularly in relation to knife crime and racism, and said young people were being influenced by what they saw online.
Others raised concerns about the use of AI tutoring tools, saying they could lead to learning that was less emotional and less creative.
Freya said more action was needed from both government and parents.
“More precautions need to be put in place not only by the Government, but also the parents as well, and having that communication about the internet and AI is a really good conversation to have,” she said.
She added that scrolling on social media had been a problem for her.
“I would go on TikTok to revise or look at something creative that I needed to do for inspiration, and you just end up scrolling, and there are endless videos and you are sort of trapped in this cycle. I feel after a while it is really hard to get out of that cycle and you procrastinate about a lot of things.
“For me I have locks for about an hour a day, or less, depending on what I need to do, for going online. I think getting out, doing loads of clubs, I do loads of musical theatre and drama, that is a way of me escaping from social media.”
Noah Harroe, 14, who is an actor, dancer and singer, said he did not believe a ban should be introduced.
“I feel like, obviously, yes, there are not so great things on the internet, but also people go on the internet to learn,” he said.
“I feel the parents should be the ones to keep an eye on social media, instead of the Government. My mum controls my social media accounts.
“I wouldn’t say it is the wrong path. I understand [the Government] is trying to help kids our age, but I feel they need to be aware that also kids do this to learn, and it is going to change how kids learn these days.”
He said decision-makers should speak to more children before making changes.
“I would love to be spoken to more, I think it would be very helpful,” he said.
Dame Rachel said her work on children’s online lives had been ongoing throughout her time as Children’s Commissioner.
“I’ve been working on this for six years since I became children’s commissioner, looking at children’s lives online, looking at how to keep them safer online, and sadly hearing about some of the terrible things they see and their terrible experiences.
“Today was no different. Talking to children at the Playhouse here in Nottingham we were talking about scrolling for too long, wanting to cut down, finding it hard to cut down, recognising they were having bad experiences and seeing bad things.
“But at the same time seeing they could learn about the world and the possible excitement of AI.
“There is talk of a social media ban, you could see today children in Nottingham weren’t so keen on a social media ban, but when we turned the question around and said; what if we protected children from companies that were exploiting children and putting bad things [online]? Yes, they were keen on that.
“There is a lesson for the Government there, have a listen, stop trying to ban the children and start trying to ban the companies that are putting dreadful things into our children’s timelines and algorithms.
“They need holding to account. That is very much my argument.”
