Social media must answer for children’s mental illness epidemic, says NHS chief
NSPCC publishes list of online platforms which, it claims, fail to shield young from internet’s excesses
THE NHS is “picking up the pieces” of an epidemic of mental illness among children, fuelled by social media, the head of the health service has warned.
Simon Stevens urged companies such as Facebook and Google to take more responsibility for the pressures they were placing on today’s youth.
The Daily Telegraph has launched a duty of care campaign calling for more stringent regulation of such firms, in order to protect children from harm.
Mr Stevens yesterday signalled his support for such measures, which have already been backed by MPS.
“We have to ask some pretty searching questions around the role of technology companies, social media and the impact that is having on childhood,” the father-of-two said. “This cannot be a conversation that is simply left to the NHS to pick up the pieces for an epidemic of mental health challenge for our young people, induced by many other actors across our economy.”
Speaking at the NHS Confederation conference in Manchester, Mr Stevens said Britain’s children were being hit by a “double epidemic” of mental illness and obesity.
It comes as research shows that Facebook has exposed the majority of its British child users to violence and bullying. The study by the NSPCC, involving more than 2,000 children, found them describing how images or videos of beheadings, terror attacks, violence and sex were routinely shared on popular networking platforms.
Mr Stevens also called yesterday for more action to tackle unhealthy lifestyles, saying he hoped to see “renewed pragmatism” from the Government in its updated childhood obesity strategy.
“The average person in this country spends twice as long on the toilet as they do exercising,” the NHS chief executive said.
Mr Stevens said the NHS was a “bargain”, and told delegates: “The case for the NHS can be made very simply. We are a high quality health service – that’s not to say we’re perfect and get it right all the time – that removes the money worries for people at times of sickness.
“And we are a tremendous economic bargain for the people of this country. Costing on average £6.60 per person per day – 30 per cent less than the German system – with productivity that’s growing far faster than the rest of the economy.”
FACEBOOK is guilty of allowing British children to be exposed to violence and bullying, according to an analysis of “unsafe” networking and gaming sites.
A third of children aged 11 to 18 have also been exposed to self-harming or suicide material on Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, according to research by the NSPCC.
The children’s charity has published a breakdown of 14 sites, apps and games where children are most likely to see inappropriate content such as violence, hatred, sex, suicide, self-harm, bullying, drugs, alcohol or illegal activity.
With Facebook in the top three was Youtube, where 40 per cent of children said they had seen violent material and 37 per cent had experienced cyber-bullying. Nearly a third reported seeing self-harming or suicide content.
The research, based on reviews of the platforms by more than 2,000 children and 2,000 parents, found the children describing how images or videos of beheadings, violence and sex were routinely shared on the platforms.
A 17-year-old girl on Facebook told the NSPCC: “If your friends have shared it, it is unavoidable – such as beheadings, terror attacks etc.”
Another girl, aged 15, told the researchers that on Youtube “you can see anything. Little children can easily see disturbing things as well as harassment that can be horrible – and little ones can see sex videos.”
And they criticised “hard-to-access” privacy settings that left them exposed to predators trawling their posts.
The data – based on analysis from 40 of the sites, apps or games most widely used by children – is released today as part of The Daily Telegraph Duty of Care and the NSPCC Net Aware campaigns to regulate social media and gaming.
Andy Burrows, who has led NSPCC safety campaigns and investigations, said: “It can’t be right that you have least regulation on sites where you have the greatest risks for children.”
Abbie Gilligan, of the NSPCC, said children were becoming desensitised to some of the extreme content they could view. “A lot of it is quite troubling,” she said. “Sometimes they can seem almost nonchalant about it.”
Top of the list of platforms with the most inappropriate content viewed by children aged 11 to 18 are Facebook, Youtube and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. The latter has long been criticised for its violent content, and has a multiplayer function for users to play against each other online.
This week The Telegraph revealed that one of the final posts on Facebook by the tormentors of Felix Alexander told him he should hang himself. The 17-year-old took his life three months later, after relentless cyber-bullying.
Miss Gilligan said children in the survey told similar “shocking” tales of “young people told to kill themselves.”
Predators were also a big fear. “Privacy settings are very difficult to access which means that strangers can look through your posts,” said a boy of 16.
“I don’t like that just random people can send you a friend request,” said a girl aged 13. Another, aged 15, spoke of her concerns about explicit sex: “You can see anything,” she said.
The concern over Grand Theft Auto was the behaviour it encouraged. “This is unsafe for kids because it can influence them to be violent,” said a boy, 15.
The comments in the Yougov survey pointed to parents’ exasperation with the lack of controls over their children’s digital experiences: “My son finds [sex images] easily, even through the parental controls,” said a mother of two young boys. “He has found full porn videos [on Youtube] along with many half naked women dancing provocatively.” Another mother said: “One, a baby being physically abused by adults, made me feel sick.”
For the NSPCC, it is further evidence of the need for regulation. “For the last decade the social media giants have been able to do what they like when it comes to child protection. There’s been no legal requirement to take action,” said Mr Burrows. “There’s been no re- quirement on them to disclose what measures they take, what resources they have in place to address inappropriate or illegal content on their platforms. It’s time we had regulation to catch up with a sector that has become so dominant and where firms have shown they are not prepared to take the steps needed to ensure the sites are safe for children.”
Backing the Telegraph campaign, he added: “The duty of care principle is built into corporate structures and rightly so. And yet you don’t have the equivalent on sites that the vast majority of children are using. It can’t be right that you have least regulation on sites where you have the greatest risks for children.”
Facebook said it did not want young people seeing inappropriate content and had doubled its safety and security team to 20,000. It worked closely with agencies and notified them if there was a risk of imminent harm: “This is an evolving challenge which requires us to be vigilant and to collaborate with industry and government to develop new solutions, including AI.”
Snapchat said accounts promoting abuse, nudity, threats and other inappropriate content were banned and its online safety team worked round the clock to respond to reports and concerns. In most cases it acted within two hours. Twitter said it had zero tolerance of child exploitation and had put in place more than 30 safety policy changes, adding it blocked accounts engaging in inappropriate behaviour.
Roblox, an online game platform, said safety was its priority. “We strive to ensure all content and activity on the platform aligns with our Rules of Conduct,” said a spokesman.
The firm said it supported the charity’s Net Aware campaign and had met the NSPCC to review the findings.