The government “Review our children and surrender to Big Tech” by “exercising” a draft law of a private member that would have included a ban on smartphones at school.
The conservative former educational secretary Kit Malthouse described the protection of children (digital safety and data protection) as “hollowed -out gesture” before his exam was postponed.
The version of the law introduced by Labor MP Josh Macalister would instruct the British medical officials to publish advice for parents to use smartphones and social media by children.
It would also force the ministers to say within a year whether they would like to increase age in which children can agree that their data is shared without parental permission.
Mr. Macalister had originally planned that the legislation called for the legal requirement to establish all schools in English mobile phone zones and to oblige the government to check the further regulation of the design, delivery, marketing and the use of mobile phones by children under the age of 16.
Mr. Malthouse said he had told the MPs that he decided “the equipment of a pioneering bill”, and the government “watered down and capitulated”.
He said, “We should all be angry about it. We should all be angry about the delay and the distribution, which can be injected into a big step forward for parents and children.
“I then cannot understand why the government put pressure on (Labor MP Josh Macalister) to produce a cosmetic plug that reveals our children and surrendered to Big Tech. I am afraid that this bill is a cover of what it could have been, and as a result, another missed opportunity to improve the lives of our young people. “
Mr. Macalister-Ein former teacher announced to the MPs that the average 12-year-old spends 21 hours a week with his smartphone and added: “This is a fundamental new wiring of childhood itself and it happened in a little more than a decade.”
He said: “Today we have to react to the excessive screen time in the same way as we were about smoking at the time.
“That is why it will be completed today with these first steps and will soon be pursued with great measures.”
Conservative MP Sir Ashley Fox (Bridgwater) said that he suspected that a state whip had said Mr. Macalister that he had a very promising career in front of him, should he agree to do the right one and pour this legislation to the point where it doesn’t do much at all. “
Mr. Macalister said: “The invoices of private members are often a shot in the dark, and my goal from the start was to have the national debate, but also to bring all my energy to land with some action and progress.”
Sir Ashley then assumed that “there is nothing in this legal board that requires the law”, and Mr. Macalister should be ashamed of having used so vigorously and then presenting this bill “.
Caroline Vaden, the Liberal Democratic MP from South Devon, said she hoped that the Bill marked “the first step on a journey that will be far -reaching and hopefully quite quickly”.
She said: “I know that I am not alone in order to be a little disappointed that the legislative template we see today is only a shadow of her former self and that the government is so shy to do what it is ready to save our children and young people from something that clearly causes them considerable damage.”
In her contribution from Labor MP for Darlington, Lola McEvoy said: “There is no case for children to have their smartphones in schools” and asked the government to “continue and take as much measures as possible”.
The conservative MP Damian Hinds, who, like Mr. Malthouse previously acted as an educational secretary, said a lack of evidence of digital damage is no reason not to issue laws, and ask the government and the researchers to prove that online rooms for children are safe before they can be used.
“It seems strange that we allow our children to happen something because we cannot prove 100% that it does damage and because we can prove that it is safe,” he told MP.
“We do not avoid children’s toys, it is not the way we deal with children with children, it is not the way we deal with children’s medication.”
Data Protection Minister Sir Chris Bryant said that he would “make no arguments against actions today” and added: “Everyone accepts that measures in this area are inevitable.”
He said he wanted “the freedom of the individual at the same time as the protection of vulnerable, and that is exactly what we need to be able to adopt when we go forward”.
Sir Chris said that the government has worked to implement the already suitable online security law “as soon as possible”, and added that illegal content codes will come into force this month, with new tasks in social media companies to recognize and remove some content such as sexual abuse and terrorist material.
He said that the security codes of children were “almost closed” and informed the commons that the department for science, innovation and technology carried out a feasibility study on the effects of smartphones and social media that are reported in May, according to the ministers “have all the information we need to take up a considered perspective”.
The MPs agreed to postpone the debate that will be accepted on July 11th for the resumption.
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