The Government’s Culture Secretary Matt Hancock has said that ministers are looking into imposing time limits for children using social media. The Culture Secretary has previously said that more needs to be done to safeguard young people online, and he is now suggesting an age verification system.
It is thought that there will be new legislation for social media companies to ensure there users are over the age of 13. Current rules on social media sites can easily be bypassed if a child lies about their age. Hancock wants to change this, so the age of users are verified. However, there are currently no indications of how this may be achieved. While details of how a system could work are still in development, Hancock has said he does not believe it is “beyond the wit of man” to develop an age-verification system for children.
Hancock told the Times, “There is a genuine concern about the amount of screen time young people are clocking up and the negative impact it could have on their lives”
It is thought some children as young as eight years old are spending over seven hours a day online.
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