MPs: Tax tech giants to help online kids
But now David Jason has gone up in the world, touring the west coast of America by plane, train, helicopter, motorbike and car – and even having a go at stunt driving at the age of 79.
And Sir David found the stunt driving a doddle – but then the car did have four wheels, unlike the Trotters’ three-wheel runaround in Only Fools and Horses.
After a month spent travelling the west coast, from Seattle to LA, for his Trains, Planes & Automobiles series on the heritage of American transport, Sir David said: “One of the things I learned was that I really enjoyed stunt-car driving.
“I didn’t realise they would ask me to do it.
“The producers told me we were going to see this stunt driver on a skid pan, and I thought, ‘That’s interesting.’
“The next thing, they were saying to me, ‘We want you to do it.’ But I coped because I understand vehicles and I like driving.” EASY ACCESS Social media FACEBOOK, Instagram and Twitter should face a 0.5% levy on their profits to help protect youngsters who live online, MPs say today.
It would fund “educational initiatives” and “establish clearer guidance for the public”.
Addiction to social media should potentially be classed as a disease, the cross-party group on Social Media and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing also say.
Chairman and Labour MP Chris Elmore said: “For far too long social media companies have been allowed to operate in an online Wild West – and it is in this lawless landscape our children work and play online. This cannot continue.” The father of Molly Russell, 14, who took her own life in 2017, said Instagram had “helped kill” her.
The MPs call for a “duty of care on all social media companies with UK users aged 24 and under, and a statutory code of conduct, with Ofcom as regulator. The code should establish rules around known harms to young people, such as self-harm, disordered eating, low-self-esteem.”
The 32-page report also recommends “further research into whether the ‘addictive’ nature of social media is sufficient for official disease classification”.