Under-13s face social media ban

CHILDREN under 13 could be barred from social media as part of a Government crackdown on access to pornography.

New regulations laid before Parliament yesterday give Britain’s chief censor new powers from January to close down porn sites that fail to prevent under-18s getting on to them.

Anyone seeking access to the sites will have to prove they are over 18 via third-party firms who will use people’s mobile phones, cards bought in newsagents, passports or credit cards to check ages and then confirm them anonymously to the porn companies.

The age-verification scheme, the first of its kind in the world, could become a model for keeping under-13s off social media. A decision on extending the age verification system to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media sites will be made next year after its impact is reviewed by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and government.

In an interview, David Austin, BBFC’S chief executive, said: “The solutions we are seeing evolve and regulating in relation to porn would apply to age verification for 13 if that’s what the government wants. The technology is there, the systems are there. You just need a different database.”

Ofcom says 23 per cent of children have a social media account by 11 despite the 13 age limit. Some 1.4million children visit a porn site every month, half of whom say they stumble upon it.  Head teachers should be free to ban mobile phones in the classroom, the Education Secretary said yesterday. Damian Hinds said he believed that mobile phones “get in the way of education”, adding that it was good for children to have a “zone” in which they are free from technology.