Letter to Prime Minister from Ian Russell as online safety consultation closes

Ian Russell has written to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer off the back of the Government’s social media consultation, urging him to go beyond a blanket ban and make safety and wellbeing the price for tech firms to pay for doing business in the UK.

In the letter Ian says, “the emerging evidence from Australia should not be ignored. Multiple studies have shown that a majority of teenagers, around two-thirds, continue to access prohibited social media accounts. Most young people say they either feel no safer or even less safe. We can do better so we must go beyond a blanket ban.”

He concludes: “If you are evidence led, you will deliver a plan that has the teeth and rigour to bring about the transformative and lasting change that parents and young people want, and that the experts say you can achieve. Britain would lead the world with an approach to children’s safety that makes building responsible products the price of tech firms doing business in the UK. That starts with banning high risk design features and functionalities and stopping the laissez faire tolerance of the unacceptable.

“Taking bold, evidence-led action will swiftly unite parents and they will cheer you on if you act decisively and with conviction. This is not a time to choose between emotion and evidence, but, for the sake of the nation’s children, to deliver what is needed and right.”