Church hits out at ‘irresponsible’ tech giants

THE Church of England has criticised “irresponsible” social media giants for failing to do enough to protect children from online “harms”, including abuse, bullying and low self-esteem.

Backing The Daily Telegraph’s Duty of Care campaign, the Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Rev Rachel Treweek, who has led Church campaigns on social media, said the firms’ excuses for failing to take action, and denials about the risks, were no longer sustainable.

“They should stop wringing their hands and saying it’s all too complex. I am not technologically minded but I don’t believe it’s impossible to develop algorithms that could tackle these issues,” said Bishop Treweek, the first female diocesan bishop in the Church.

“They say it is all too difficult. They say they are not promoting their businesses but are doing it because they want young people to have access to things that will help their relationships. I want to say to the companies: be honest and look at what you could do responsibly.”

In particular, she said, the firms should give young people a bigger say in taking down offensive or abusive material that upset them, do it faster and inform them of what action had been taken. “Young people should have some way of being in control of stuff being removed,” she said.

Bishop Treweek also endorsed night-time restrictions on young people’s access to social media and phones, as well as deactivating features that encouraged them to stay online and were to blame for children’s “addiction” to the technology.

“I was utterly shocked when I met one group of girls who had been on the Sarahah app and told me how awful it was, how it was all anonymous and people could just abuse them,” she said.

“I asked: why do you use it if it’s causing all this angst and upset? The answer was this addiction, that if you are on an app, then you crave this positive affirmation. They really long for, and hope, that someone is going to say that really affirming thing, but what you discover is that rarely happens.”

It was why she supported night-time restrictions and bans on mobile phones in schools, as had been introduced for younger pupils at her local Stroud High School. “I have been shocked at children saying that although they don’t want to use their phones late at night, they have this fear that they are going to miss out,” said Bishop Treweek.

She welcomed The Telegraph’s campaign for a legal duty of care on social media and gaming firms to protect children from online harms as “very powerful” but said there was also a deeper societal problem with people’s loneliness and isolation. “We are not working at human relationships,” she said.

Her comments came as Matt Hancock, the Culture Secretary, yesterday said at an event hosted by the Politico website: “There was an attitude that pervaded for a generation that these companies are global and therefore you can’t regulate them. Not true. That the technology changes fast and therefore you can’t regulate it. Not true. That people don’t understand and therefore we can’t regulate it. Also not true.”