Jeremy Hunt Offers Stark Warning to Social Media Companies: Protect Our Children or Face New Legislation
Amid the recent wave of criticism directed at Facebook
regarding the Cambridge Analytica Scandal and general fears concerning user
privacy, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has thrown his hat into the ring by
calling upon social media companies to do more to protect the wellbeing of
children, insisting that if they failed to do so then the government would
force their hand with new legislation.
In a letter penned to several prominent social media
companies including Facebook, Google and Apple, the health secretary slated the
“extremely limited response” to concerns previously raised. He gave said
companies a rough deadline of the end of April to resolve widespread issues
such as underage use and cyber-bullying, before the publication of the
government’s response to the Internet Safety Strategy consultation in May.
In his letter to leading online groups and corporations, Mr
Hunt wrote, “I am concerned that your companies seem content with a situation
where thousands of users breach your own terms and conditions on the minimum
user age.
“I fear that you are collectively turning a blind eye to a
whole generation of children being exposed to the harmful emotional side
effects of social media prematurely.
“This is both morally wrong and deeply unfair to parents who
are faced with the invidious choice of allowing children to use platforms they
are too young to access or excluding them from social interaction that often
the majority of their peers are engaging in.”
This is not the first time that Mr Hunt has attempted to
publicly address this problem. The health secretary in fact met with many
social media companies six months ago to discuss matters relating to the mental
health and wellbeing of children and young people. The response offered by
these companies however appears to be lacklustre, as Mr Hunt told the Sunday
Times, “There have been a lot of warm words - and a few welcome moves to improve
children’s online protection - but the overall response to my challenge has
been extremely limited, leaving me to conclude that a voluntary, joint approach
has not been sufficient.
“None are easy issues to solve I realise, but an industry
that boasts some of the brightest minds and biggest budgets should have been
able to rise to the challenge,” he added.
Sam
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Currently working as Editor of Social Songbird, he hopes to one day drop that
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Jeremy Hunt Offers Stark Warning to Social Media Companies: Protect Our Children or Face New Legislation
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Monday, April 23, 2018
Rating:
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Monday, April 23, 2018
Rating:
Unknown
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