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A scorching potato: The usage of smartphones by kids has lengthy been a contentious topic. Within the UK, ministers are contemplating giving mother and father extra management by banning the sale of the gadgets to anybody below the age of 16. It is a transfer that has the assist of most mother and father within the nation.
The discussions come because the UK clamps down on smartphones use amongst younger individuals. In February, the federal government issued steering on the usage of the gadgets in English colleges with a purpose to scale back disruption and enhance habits. It was steered that colleges may ban handsets by requiring college students to depart telephones at residence, hand them in upon arrival, retailer them in inaccessible lockers, or prohibit their use in school rooms.
Banning telephone gross sales to below 16s is among the measures being thought of to guard kids from the potential risks of social media, in addition to different on-line threats resembling crime, cyberbullying, publicity to pornography, and hacking.
A latest survey of two,496 mother and father of school-age kids in England discovered 58% imagine the federal government ought to ban smartphones for below 16s. It additionally revealed that 4 out of 5 mother and father felt smartphones had been dangerous to kids and younger individuals. One other survey discovered 64% thought a ban on promoting telephones to below 16s was a good suggestion. Solely 20% felt it was a foul thought.
Parentkind survey
The mom of Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old schoolgirl murdered final 12 months, has referred to as for “kids’s telephones” designed particularly for below 16s that can’t run social media apps, which feels like “dumb” or function telephones.
The Guardian notes that some politicians are nervous concerning the authorities overstepping its boundaries and microparenting. One supply mentioned the federal government was solely meant to make mother and father extra conscious of on-line baby protections, resembling web site restrictions and parental controls in apps.
A ballot final 12 months discovered that 97% of kids have a telephone by the age of 12 within the UK, whereas 99% of teenagers have one by the point they’re 17.
Meta has simply introduced it’s increasing its marketing campaign to guard younger Instagram customers by testing a function that can blur express photographs despatched in direct messages to minors. It is hoped that along with stopping individuals from seeing undesirable nudes, it should additionally assist forestall sextortion incidents.
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