Parents crying out for online regulation, MP Eastwood says

Parents are “crying out for guardrails” for young people using social media, Alliance MP Sorcha Eastwood has said.

Ms Eastwood also said Sir Keir Starmer’s move to show Netflix drama Adolescence in secondary schools shows the Government is “out of touch” and “blind to the concerns”.

On Thursday, the MP for Lagan Valley is hosting a backbench debate on the impact of digital platforms on UK democracy.

Ahead of the debate, she told the PA news agency: “I think a lot of people have just resigned themselves to some sort of inevitability about this and in actual fact, I think our young people, and certainly those who care for them, whether they’re carers, adults and people that are in and around supporting our young people, mums and dads, guardians. I think they’re crying out for guardrails.”

She added: “Certainly not having any protections and no laws and not revisiting the age of consent, I think is completely wrong, because as far as I’m concerned, we know that it’s harmful. It is absolutely harmful. It’s damaging our young people. It’s damaging society.”

Ms Eastwood is currently undertaking legal action against influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate over social media posts made a day after she told the House of Commons she was a “survivor of abuse” and had received rape threats.

Andrew Tate has previously been banned from TikTok, YouTube and Facebook after the platforms accused him of posting hate speech and misogynistic comments, including that women should bear responsibility for being sexually assaulted.

She said: “Even whenever you look at some of the language that certainly followers of the Tates would use in terms of ‘lover boy’ methods and ‘love bombing’ and all that sort of stuff.

“Young people now are operating in a sphere where it’s a different language, it’s a different way, and most older people would not understand it and if they can’t understand it then they can’t deal with it.

“People like me, who are older, who do understand it, who can see it unfolding, and can see the absolute carnage that is resulting in terms of our young people’s lives, are desperate for action, are ringing the bell.

“If there was a dashboard, every light on it would be red and the Government are just blind to the concerns.”

The Netflix series Adolescence, which examines so-called incel (involuntary celibate) culture, has prompted a national conversation about online safety.

This week the Prime Minister backed Netflix making the show – which centres around a teenage boy accused of killing a girl from his school – free to stream for all secondary schools across the UK.

Ms Eastwood said the move shows “a Government certainly that are out of touch, but it also shows the Government that are wanting to just close its eyes and ears to this”.

She said: “This has been going on for such a long time and that the Government responded by saying, ‘we will allow this programme to be shown in schools’ without any reference to the fact that we need to revisit the age of consent, and so far as digital platform usage, we need to immediately have financial sanctions for these companies that platform this harmful and often criminal content, and absolutely no mention of legislation at all.

“It’s already clear that the Online Safety Act isn’t robust enough. These companies will only respond to what they understand, and that’s money and that’s cash, and that’s hitting them where it hurts, right in the pocket.”

Ms Eastwood called for additional taxes on “tech oligarchs”, which she said the Government were using as a “bargaining tool with the US”.

“Nothing at all can be used to denigrate the rights of our children and young people, and yet that’s exactly what they’re doing,” she said.

“Second of all, we need financial sanctions and consequences for these firms and lastly, we need robust legislation, because none of that will be enforceable or policeable without legislation.”