School leaders in Didcot urge government to act quickly on banning social media for under-16s
Head and deputy head at Aureus School believe it is continuing to impact children's mental health
Educators in Didcot are urging the government not to wait on banning social media for under-16s, highlighting concerns about the impact of digital platforms on children's mental health and wellbeing.
Kirsty Rogers, head teacher at Aureus School in Didcot, believes the current system is putting children at risk and that teachers should be having to discuss the dangers of social media with them at a young age.
"I do think that we as a nation aren't protecting our children enough," she said. "We don't want to be teaching children in primary school about terrible things they can see online. We want to be teaching them at an age where they're mature enough to understand.”
She highlighted the risks associated with early exposure to social media, saying, "It's posing quite a danger to them, to their mental health, to their wellbeing and we want them to connect in real life.”
Vicki Knight, deputy head teacher and safeguarding lead at Aureus School, echoed these concerns, highlighting the disturbing content prevalent on platforms like TikTok.
"People can post other young people with offensive music over it, with comments that are sexualised, harassment, bullying sometimes racist and homophobic," she said.
She highlighted that despite effort at schools and at home, keeping young people safe from social media needs to be written into legistation.
Ms Knight said: "Not all parents feel that they can stop their children looking at it and we simply don’t know what pops up on an algorithm, even with the best parental controls in place.
"If children are have seen disturbing content it stays with them so I want the government to take a stand because we can only do what we can do in school."
She also referenced that there are bans in place elsewhere, such as in Australia, and believes that the UK should be next to implement restrictions.
"We’ve seen other countries do it which don’t want to be the last one following suit," she said.
"I fear that if this doesn't happen, we will look back in 10 years with a potential generation of children who have been damaged by the effects of social media," Ms Knight added.
The government is currently consulting on more measures to keep children safe online, including setting a minimum age to use social media.