Call to block social media ‘hooks’ for children

Children’s Commissioner demands curbs on algorithms that get youngsters addicted

SOCIAL media firms must switch off addictive technology that deliberately keeps children hooked online, the Children’s Commissioner warns today. Anne Longfield told The Daily Telegraph of her deep concern that children had become “dependent” on the internet and on social media. She said it was now time to “break that dependency”.

Computer algorithms can identify what children have liked online and bombard them with an incessant reel of similar videos and other content. Ms Longfield said such programs should be removed for children up to 15.

It comes after The Telegraph launched the Duty of Care campaign, calling for digital companies to commit to a legal duty to protect children using their services.

Ministers are considering measures to rein in the worst excesses of online tech companies amid fears that a generation of young people has been damaged by addiction to social media and online gaming.

Last night MPS backed the campaign, and said social media firms must be prevented from luring youngsters into staying “glued to their screens” for hours every day.

Ms Longfield highlighted her concerns over “addictive” techniques that include auto-play videos, alerts for replies to posts and Snapchat streaks, where children are encouraged to keep up a stream of communication via the app over consecutive days. “I would like all these to be looked at and really reduced down, if not taken away,” she told The Telegraph.

“The internet is set up to be addictive. All of the algorithms on it are silently working there to keep us addicted, whether it is the little dots that come up to tell you someone is writing a reply, to the Youtube video that moves on to the next in a nanosecond.

“It’s set up to keep us dependent, and part of what I hope to see in the next phase is to break that dependency so that children have the chance to make positive, informed choices about what they do when they are on it. I would remove algorithms from any content for children up to the age of 15. I am told that is quite possible. They have no place for children below that.”

Ms Longfield’s comments come as one of Britain’s leading experts on addiction says that social media companies are using the same techniques as the gambling industry to keep young people glued to their products.

Prof Mark Griffiths, a behavioural addiction expert at Nottingham Trent University, lays out the seven psychological “hooks” most commonly used to encourage excessive use. They in- clude unpredictable rewards, as seen in slot machines and fixed-odds betting terminals, psychological investment, experienced by regular lottery players, and reciprocation – our instinct to return the kindness of others.

Almost a quarter of children spend more than six hours online a day outside school, while weekly internet usage among eight to 11-year-olds has doubled in a decade and increased by

50 per cent among 12 to 15-year-olds.

Ms Longfield praised The Telegraph’s campaign, arguing safety features should be built in to social media. This meant settings should be fixed at the highest privacy and safety levels by default.

“What we need to do is to build in the resilience, safety and power for children by design,” she said.

Age verification should be tightened so it was “not just about ticking a box” but could be modelled on what is being developed for 18plus pornographic sites where proof of age and ID will be required.

She advocated parent power to encourage schools to require children to keep their phones switched off all day, adding that in her visits to schools, she detected evidence of a backlash against the digital “avalanche”.

“When I talk to children, just recently there’s someone in the group who says I am not on that platform, I am not online. They are the ones that are confident and leaders of the pack. There’s something changing there.”

Fixing time limits on usage would be difficult, Ms Longfield conceded. Rather, she was more concerned about screens for babies. “[There are] screens you can fix to high chairs and cots... That is deeply depressing and has no place in the baby equipment list,” she said.

Simon Hart, a Tory member of the Commons digital, culture, media and sport select committee, which has oversight of social media firms, said he would be raising the concerns.

He said: “The whole approach of social media companies – and their value – is dependent on people spending too many hours glued to their screens. This puts children at particular risk and any measures that deal with this, and protect children who may suffer adverse side effects, must be good news.”