UK MPs Urge Regulating Social Media to Protect Children from ‘Online Wild West’

By Staff, Agencies

Addiction to social media should potentially be classed as a disease, British MPs said as they called for tough new regulations to protect children from firms operating in an “online wild west”.

In a new report looking at the impact of social media on mental health, MPs said platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram should be regulated by Ofcom and forced to adhere to a statutory code of conduct.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group [APPG] on Social Media and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing said more needed to be done to tackle graphic online content, including on suicide and self-harm.

It comes after the father of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who took her own life in 2017, said Instagram had “helped kill” his daughter.

In its report, the APPG said the government must publish advice for young people about time spent online, while research should be carried out into whether the “addictive” nature of social media should be officially classed as a disease by the World Health Organization [WHO].

The WHO already lists gaming disorder – such as addiction to video games – as a disease.

On regulation, the APPG said the government must now “establish a duty of care on all social media companies with registered UK users aged 24 and under in the form of a statutory code of conduct, with Ofcom to act as regulator”.

The code, which would establish rules around social media and known harms to young people – such as self-harm, disordered eating, low self-esteem, lack of sleep and overdependence on social media – should be in place by the end of October, it said.

MPs also called for a new Social Media Health Alliance to be set up to review the “growing evidence on the impact of social media on health and wellbeing”, funded by a 0.5 per cent levy on the profits of social media companies.

The APPG said social media has the potential to positively impact young people’s lives, such as through “allowing young people to open up about their feelings, find support, and feel less isolated and lonely”.