‘Children must not be pestered at night-time by social media’

SOCIAL MEDIA firms must stop pestering children by sending them notifications in the middle of the night, a leading privacy expert has said.

Speaking at an event organised by Telegraph Technology Intelligence yesterday, Jenny Afia, a partner at law firm Schillings, said it was “bonkers that children are treated exactly the same online as adults”. Under new laws, social media firms will have to use “age-appropriate design” for users who are children to ensure that their experience is tailored to their age group.

The nature of the new regulations is set to be decided by the information commissioner. According to Ms Afia they should include making privacy settings on children’s accounts as high as possible by default and ensuring terms and conditions are written in accessible language for young users.

Ms Afia, a member of the children’s commissioner’s task force on growing up in the digital age, said the rules should also consider restricting the hours when social media companies are allowed to send push notifications to young users.

“Children shouldn’t be getting notifications at 1am when they should be asleep – they need 10 hours a night.”

‘Children shouldn’t be getting notifications at 1am when they should be asleep – they need 10 hours a night’