Social media curfew on children at night
Children could face a curfew on night-time social media use, under plans being considered by the information commissioner. It could mean social media firms are threatened with action if they send notifications during school hours or at night. Elizabeth Denham is to ask parents and children what measures they want included in a new legally enforced code.
CHILDREN could face a curfew on night-time social media use, under plans being considered by the information commissioner.
Elizabeth Denham is to ask parents and children what measures they want included in a new legally-enforced code, that could include making social media firms switch off technology that keeps children awake at night.
Details of the consultation on the code, which aims to protect children’s privacy, their rights and to ensure they only access material appropriate to their age, will be unveiled this week.
“We are looking to do research directly with children and parents,” said a senior official. “We are looking to make sure it’s more tailored to them. It’s giving children and parents a voice.”
Proposals that social media companies could be expected to abide by or face action from the commissioner, up to and including hefty fines, are not sending notifications during school hours or when children should be asleep. One in five children said they check their phones during the night.
Other options included deactivating features designed to promote extended use such as autoplay videos or Snapchat streaks. Almost a quarter of children are “extreme users”, spending more than six hours online outside school on weekdays.
High privacy settings by default for child users will also be considered, as well as not revealing children’s GPS location and minimal use of their data; making sure commercially-driven content is visible and understood by a user under the age of 16; effective processes so that children can report problems, expect a resolution and be told the result; and child-friendly terms and conditions.
The code, which is part of the Government’s new Data Protection Act, is expected to take 18 months to devise, coming into force at the end of 2019.
It was made possible by Baroness Kidron, the film director and crossbench peer, who led a cross-party campaign to amend the bill to protect children’s privacy and rights online.
She told The Daily Telegraph: “The principle behind the age-appropriate code is that a child is a child until they mature, until they are 18, not until they pick up the smart phone.
“It is unacceptable to ask a child to tick a box at 13 and treat them as an adult.
“It’s the duty of online services whether its Amazon or a newspaper to treat the child according to its status as a child. It’s not the responsibility of the child to adapt to the commercial needs of these companies.”
“The second principle is that it’s the responsibility of services to adapt and provide. We have to get the digital world designed better for children.
“It needs to anticipate the presence of children in these spaces.”
The third principle was that social media and gaming firms needed to be sensitive to the needs of children at different stages of their development.
“It might be the case that you need more protections for a 12-year-old than an eight-year-old who will do what they are told,” said Baroness Kidron.