May warns of dangers as bullies use social media
THERESA MAY warned of the dangers of “social media bullying” to children as she faced calls from Jeremy Corbyn to protect NHS mental health budgets.
The Prime Minister said she hoped the Labour leader would join her in saying there is a need to help young people have “greater resilience” in dealing with such bullying, in order to avoid it leading to lifelong problems.
Mr Corbyn replied by saying he hoped the PM would support the Opposition’s push for digital protections, before continuing to raise concerns over “insufficient” funding for mental health services.
He claimed mental health spending fell by £600m between 2010 and 2015, and asked why “only six per cent of the overall budget is spent on children and young people when they make up 20 per cent of our population”.
Speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Mrs May said Mr Corbyn was right that a high proportion of mental health problems start before the age of 14.
She added: “That is exactly why we’re doing more in our schools, why we’re working to ensure that we do have that training for teachers. But there’s a wider issue here that I’m sure everybody in this House will recognise.
“Because when I go and talk to young people who have developed mental health problems, when I hear from them about the problems they’re facing, sadly one of the issues that puts increasing pressure on the mental health of young people today is the use of social media and the bullying and harassment they get on that social media.
“I hope he will join with me in saying we need both to help our young people have greater resilience in dealing with that social media bullying, but we also need to ensure that we see social media not being used in a way that leads to mental health problems that could well be with those young people for the rest of their lives.”
Mr Corbyn replied: “I hope in the light of what the Prime Minister has just said she will support our digital bill which will ensure that there are proper protections for people.”