Ex-chancellor Jeremy Hunt backs social media ban for under-16s saying Brits will 'wonder why we didn't do it sooner'
Ex-chancellor Sir Jeremy Hunt has thrown his support behind a ban on social media for under-16s.
The senior Tory MP said it was a 'no-brainer' to stop children accessing sites such as Instagram and TikTok as he voiced fears about the impact on society.
At the end of this year, Australia is set to ban children under 16 from using social media with hefty potential fines for tech companies if they don't comply.
Sir Jeremy told Sky News he would vote in favour of similar laws in the UK if they were proposed in the House of Commons.
'In a few years time, we'll look back and say why didn't we do that earlier?,' the ex-Cabinet minister said.
The father-of-three admitted he was 'worried' about the impact that social media was having on youngsters, including the 'addictiveness' of sites.
Sir Jeremy also voiced concerns about the effect of social media on 'people's ability to form relationships with other human beings'.
He said 'progress' had been made on limiting the threat of online harms for children - such as restricting access to pornography - but suggested there was more to do.
'I think it's important to say that we have made progress and it is harder, for example, for kids to access porn than it used to be,' Sir Jeremy said.
'I recognise we're in a better place than we were. But the thing that worries me most -my kids are 10, 13, and 14 - and what worries me is the addictiveness.
'They're not on social media, we don't let them have social media accounts. But they go on to TikTok or YouTube Shorts and we can lose them for two hours.
'They're just tuned out. That worries me.'
He added: 'To anyone young I'm going to sound like a real fuddy-duddy, but I worry about people's ability to form relationships with other human beings.
'Because I think, actually, to form a friendship it needs to be face-to-face. You need to spend time with people. You need to have the patience to hear people out.
'And I do worry that social media is making that much harder. So, to cut to the chase, I would support moves to ban social media for the under-16s.
'I know it's been talked about in other countries, personally I would support that as a dad.'
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