Britain’s head of counter-terrorism policing has called for Parliament to “explore” implementing age verification on social media sites as he compared the harm caused by social media to the “cancer” caused by smoking.
Giving evidence to The Times Crime and Justice Commission – a year-long project considering the most urgent problems facing police, prisons, courts and victims – Matt Jukes said his team had discussed a ban on social media use by children with colleagues in Australia, which passed world-first legislation on the issue last year.
Mr Jukes said the UK could not afford to delay taking serious action on the negative impacts of social media.
“If I give you a parallel with the harm caused by smoking, by 1950, it was clear that smoking was causing lung cancer and killing people,” he said.
“But it took decades for governments to decide to regulate, not even the supply of tobacco more closely, but even just the advertising of tobacco to young people in places where young people could see it.”
Mr Jukes added the “cancer” of dangerous online content “which is driving violence is in our communities and in the lives of young people now”.
Asked if he supported Australia’s decision to ban children under 16 from using social media, Mr Jukes said: “We have spoken to Australian colleagues about that. It hasn’t happened yet. We don’t understand its effect. But I think it warrants serious attention.
Mr Jukes said the Online Safety Act may need to be strengthened to require platforms to police private messages (Yui Mok/PA)
“I think those things which are in Australia definitely warrant our attention, should be explored.”
While Mr Jukes credited Parliament for passing the Online Safety Act, he said it may need to be strengthened to require platforms to police private messages.
“We are going to need to move forward with online safety in a way which is at a pace with a rigor, with determination, which we’ve not yet been able to achieve internationally,” he said.
“That means revisiting the Online Safety Act, looking at the question of whether it can be extended to private communications and the responsibility of platforms who provide private messaging as well as publishing.”
His comments come after it was revealed that Southport killer Axel Rudakubana watched violent and extremist videos online prior to killing three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on July 29 last year.
A review into the handling of Rudakubana under the Government’s counter-terrorism programme Prevent found there was an “under-exploration” of the significance of the 18-year-old’s repeat referrals, including his history of violence.
The teenager attacked a pupil with a hockey stick, used school computers to look up the London Bridge terror outrage and carried a knife on a bus and into class before he carried out the Southport murders.
The review found Rudakubana’s research of school shootings, talking about stabbing people and saying the terrorist attack on ‘MEN’, believed to refer to the Manchester Arena attack in 2017, “may have shown a real interest in terrorism”.