Rochdale’s MP has teamed up with Gladiators star “Steel” to call for stronger protections for children facing harmful content on social media and on smartphones.
Paul Waugh joined TV athlete Zack George in Parliament to support the ‘Smartphone Free Childhood’ campaign to urge parents to take part in Government consultation on how to best help kids online.
Mr Waugh, who used a speech in the House of Commons to attack “manosphere” TikTok influencers, also signed a new letter from MPs demanding that regulator Ofcom should specifically protect boys at risk of online harms and manipulation.
The Government has invited parents and children to give their views on whether there should be a minimum age for social media and other restrictions, including on infinite scrolling and autoplay.
In his speech, Mr Waugh lambasted the negative impact of influencers like Andrew and Tristan Tate, HS TikkyTokky and Myron Gaines as he highlighted the latest Louis Theroux Netflix documentary on the “manosphere”.
Ministers are weighing up whether there should be an outright ban on social media for under-16s, as in Australia, or whether the UK can have a different set of protections.
Mr Waugh said: “We need to help parents who are desperate for support in combating the daily nightmare of wresting back control from their children’s phones and computers.
“Suicide ideation, self-harm, pornography, animal cruelty, child sex abuse, anti-Muslim hatred and anti-Jewish hatred are all things that we want to protect our youngsters from seeing online.
“It was great to meet Zack, who does brilliant work helping kids get offline and who is a much better role model to our kids out there than any of the dodgy influencers online.”
The MP also signed a letter to Ofcom chief Melanie Dawes, which urged her to come up with a specific strategy to protect boys and men from online harms, just as the regulator has already devised a strategy tailored for girls and women.
The government’s online harms consultation ends on May 26. Parents and youngsters are invited to give their views here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/growing-up-in-the-online-world-a-national-consultation