The House of Lords Communications Committee today launches its
report - Growing up with the internet. The
Committee call on the Government to establish a Children’s
Digital Champion to ensure coordinated and sustained action from
Ministers across all departments and to present robust advocacy
on behalf of children to industry.
The report highlights that children are adopting recently
innovated technology in their everyday lives before policy
makers, schools or parents can consider the implications of such
technology.
The Committee heard evidence that the internet does not take
sufficient account of the fact that the needs of children are
different to those of adults, and the current regime of
self–regulation is underperforming. The Committee believes that
intervention at the highest level of the Government is needed to
promote the best interests of children online.
The report has set out a series of recommendations to the
Government that will better enable to children to navigate the
complex world of the internet:
- Minimum
standards should be established for child-friendly design,
content control filtering, privacy, data collection, terms and
conditions of use, and report and response mechanisms for all
businesses operating on the internet, public bodies and the
voluntary sector.
- Digital
literacy should sit alongside reading, writing and arithmetic as
the fourth pillar of a child’s education. Therefore, online
responsibilities, social norms and risks should be part of
mandatory, Ofsted-inspected Personal, Social, Health and Economic
(PSHE) education—in all schools whatever their
status.
- Irrespective
of its membership of the EU, the UK should maintain legislation
which incorporates the standards set by the General Data
Protection Regulation in respect of children, including the right
to be forgotten, as a minimum.
The Committee welcomes the Prime Minister’s announcement that she
will hold round-table discussions with industry to develop an
Internet Safety Strategy. The Committee recommends that these
should culminate in a summit with the aim of establishing minimum
standards of behaviour for industry and a code of conduct.
Commenting on the report, Chair of the Committee
, added:
“In the past twenty years, the internet has become an
all-encompassing aspect of growing up. One Minister described
this as “almost the largest social experiment in history”. It is
in the whole of society’s interest that children grow up to be
empowered, digitally confident citizens. This is a shared
responsibility for everyone, it is essential that we improve
opportunities for children to use the internet productively;
improve digital literacy; change the norms of data collection and
to design technology in ways that support children by
default.
“We believe that children must be treated online with the
same rights, respect and care that has been established through
regulation in offline settings such as television and
gambling.
“The Government’s Internet Safety Strategy is a welcome start
in addressing many of the dangers children are faced with online
but action must be broader than a focus on preventing harms, and
it must be sustained in the long-term.”
Other findings from the report include:
Parents and carers need clearly
communicated information about the digital world. The Committee
recommends that the Government and industry should invest in
regular public campaigns to promote information and tools that
help parents and carers.
The Government should commission research based on in depth
consultation with children. This should include the impact of
screen time on social and cognitive development. Because of the
rapid nature of technological change public policy may on
occasion have to anticipate the conclusion of long-term research.
