Britain’s House of Lords voted Thursday to try to force through a social media ban for children only two weeks after lawmakers in the lower house overturned a previous attempt. Photo by Pixelkult/Pixabay
Britain’s House of Lords revived an effort to ban children younger than 16 from using social media, only two weeks after the House of Commons voted to override a previous bid by the upper chamber of Parliament.
In a 266-141 vote early Thursday, peers backed former Conservative education minister Lord John Nash’s amendment to the Labour government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill for a second time after MPs defeated it in favor of a 3-month public consultation and bounced the legislation back to the Lords.
“Delay has consequences,” Nash said in a statement after the vote.
“Tonight the House of Lords sent for the second time an unambiguous message to the government: hollow promises and half-measures are not enough. That they voted in even greater numbers than before sends a very clear message to the government that they must act now to raise the age limit for access to harmful social media sites to 16,” he added.
Nash, a venture and private equity capitalist who has served on the boards of a number of Californian tech firms, which he said were run by “some of the most able, innovative, entrepreneurial, wealth and job-creating people in the world,” said the industry was not taking child safety seriously.
“In relation to that cavalier approach that they have taken to harmful content online for our children, I think they’ve gone way too far in prioritizing their commercial instincts, and we need to act now in a way that is truly effective,” he told the chamber.
Paying tribute to some of the families campaigning for the law after the deaths of their children watching from the gallery, Lord Nash criticized the government for kicking the can down the road with its consultation.
“I don’t want to be standing up here in six or 12 months banging the same old drum with even more bereaved parents in the gallery,” he said.
Children’s online rights campaigner Baroness Beeban Kidron, a crossbench peer, said immediate action to protect children was required.
“While we consult, children are harmed in real time and we cannot afford to wait,” she said.
Baroness Floella Benjamin accused the government of trying to bulldoze the upper house into taking “a gamble on our children’s safety,” saying the consultation contributed nothing except “more and more delay.”
Labour’s Baroness Elizabeth Lloyd said Lord Nash’s ban would tie the government’s hands in a way that may not be the most effective or proportionate approach, warning of unintended consequences of not waiting to find out “what the consultation tells us and what parents and children need.”
The Lords’ amendment will now be sent for consideration by lawmakers in the House of Commons, where the Labour government’s 158-seat majority means it is likely to be thrown out again.
The path forward from there remains unclear as the Lords is principally a “revising chamber” and cannot block bills that have passed in the House of Commons indefinitely.
Nearly 30,000 parents and children have provided their input since the consultation was launched on March 1.
The vote in the House of Lords came hours after a jury in California ruled Meta and YouTube must pay a 20-year-old woman $6 million in combined damages after finding them liable for harm to her mental health caused by using their products.
The landmark verdict, which could have lasting consequences for the tech giants in the United States and beyond, found Meta and Google’s YouTube liable for products designed to be addictive and negligence in protecting children using them.
Both firms said they plan to appeal.
Historic March moments through the years
Founder of the Women’s Tennis Association and tennis great Billie Jean King (C) smiles with representatives after speaking during an annual Women’s History Month event in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX in Statuary Hall at the U.S .Capitol in Washington on March 9, 2022. Women’s History Month is celebrated every March. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
