Keir Starmer, spooked by Andy Burnham, apparently wants to leave a legacy, in much the same way that a herd of buffalo, scenting a lion, leave a legacy on the prairie. The Prime Minister has settled on banning children from social media, and possibly also installing some yet-to-be-invented software that will prevent under-16s from viewing porn or taking and sending photos of their naked bodies. Childrens’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza has further mooted extending these provisions to include 16 and 17-year-olds.
Labour is planning to give 16-year-olds the vote, while simultaneously forbidding them to scroll through Instagram
So, Labour is planning to give 16-year-olds the vote, while simultaneously forbidding them to scroll through Instagram. Why is Labour so excised by social media in particular? And where will the social media crackdown stop? Does the government intend to include messaging platforms, like WhatsApp or Snapchat, in the ban? Something about this smells.
I do not dispute that there is an almighty problem with kids accessing porn, and with ‘sextortion’ offences involving kids. I flinch at the idea that noticing that is having a moral panic. In general, I think flashing distraction boxes of nonsense are bad for developing brains, and perhaps not all that fantastic for fully grown ones. But my suspicion is that the device itself is the problem – and, even then, only because it has exposed the rottenness of the wider culture and concentrated it, as the sun is concentrated by a burning glass.
