Watch my speech on protecting children from social media

It’s time we started treating the mental health issues arising from social media and phone addiction as a public health crisis.

It is in no way acceptable to allow a status quo to persist where children as young as 9 or 10 are watching hardcore violent pornography and young girls are starving themselves to achieve an unrealistic body image.

This week, during the debate on the Data Bill, I spoke in favour of a new clause that would raise the minimum age for social media data processing from 13 to 16.

I also spoke in favour of another clause that would compel social media giants to share data on recently deceased children with their parents.

This is something I’ve long been calling for. A week before Christmas, I joined Ellen Roome and other heartbroken parents who’ve lost their children because of online harms, and listened as they pleaded with senior representatives from all the major tech firms to release the information that could give them some peace of mind.

There can be nothing worse for a parent than losing a child, but to lose a child and not understand why must compound that agony.

You can watch my contribution to the debate below – including my call for the government to strengthen copyright laws to protect artists from AI.