Darlington MP continuing calls for stronger online protections for young people
We've been speaking to Lola McEvoy
The MP for Darlington is continuing to call for better online safety for young people.
Lola McEvoy is part of the Darlington Online Safety Forum.
She says the Government's move to launch a three-month consultation is real progress: "Before I was elected I had heard some of these horror stories about bereaved parents and the things they've been through and their children, so I had already known about it being an issue for young people. My starting point is always 'what's happening to the normal, ordinary 14 year-olds? Because being 14 is pretty tough.
"Just think they get a rough deal, your hormones are going mad, so we need to make sure that we think about the ordinary 14 year-olds and when I spoke to people about it, it was unbelievable how many people in Darlington, no matter their voting intention, no matter what sort of background they had, how worried they were and how parents, grandparents and young people themselves are sounding the alarm.
"I've been campaigning ever since I was elected. The first meeting I had was bringing the all headteachers from secondary schools together as I really wanted a cross-cutting understanding of what's going on in the schools, what's going on inside the schools and the results were shocking. I mean over 70 percent of 14 year-olds have been contacted by a stranger online and that's absolutely horrendous. You wouldn't let your kids into places where they were going to meet strangers unsupervised.
"We're not at the same level of protection as we are on the offline world and the behaviour is seeping into the offline. Some of the girls were telling me their fear of going viral, the fear of someone filming you, and it changes your behaviour. It makes you more anxious and it wrecks your self esteem. I just think at a time when your hormones are going wild and your body's changing, we've got to do more to protect them.
"I've been a big advocate for stronger protections online and the big question in Parliament at the moment is how do we do it? And it's very easy to say ban under 16s from social media but actually what we've seen in Australia, they did this facial recognition and I read one article where people were putting fake moustaches on and they were getting past the facial recognition.
"What I'm focussed on is actually how do we do it? And my view is it's got to be about the functionalities; is it safe for young people to be contacted by strangers? No. When you say to them 'do you want to?' They say no. They still want to be online, they just don't want any weirdos there and I think that's fair."