A new poll commissioned by Yorkshire telecoms firm 24 Seven has revealed that six out of seven UK parents do not trust social media companies to keep their children safe.
The results follow a record payout by Meta in the United States to settle a major litigation around the online safety of children.
The UK government recently announced its plans to ban social media for under-16s in a move aimed at addressing some of the concerns around content, but only 53% of parents of children aged 5-16 polled thought thought that would be effective, while the government didn’t fare much better than the tech giants when it came to parent’s trust over online safety, with only 21% having faith here, while 23% tended to distrust the government with their children’s online safety.
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Parents surveyed overwhelmingly backed a complete ban on social media for under 16s, with 73% supportive and just 12% in opposition.
David Samuel, founder and managing director of 24 Seven said: “There is a clear disconnect here. Parents want a total ban yet don’t have faith in the government to deliver it. Therefore, we need to also consider how technology can play its part.
“This distrust of Governments, regulators and big-tech in terms of who should shoulder responsibility is worrying. In fact, our polling showed that the only people parents really trusted with their child’s safety was themselves. While the Government are set to legislate on the matter, and social media companies claim to be able to protect children, what’s missing is a tool that gives parents the control they desire over their child’s online usage.
“When it comes to banning social media for under-16s, we need to view this a mobile-first challenge. Mobile devices introduce the most risk for under 16s because usage can be unsupervised and outside of the home environment.”
24 Seven’s study highlighted the potential worries that parents face. ‘Being targeted by strangers’ came out as the top fear (52%), with ‘Cyber Bullying’ second at (44%) and ‘Inappropriate content’ (37%) being next in order of priority.
The poll also revealed the scale of the challenge, with 60% of parents allowing their children to have over one hour of unsupervised screen time per day.
Samuel added: “While government can count on the support of British parents for this initiative, the bigger challenge is now convincing them that it can be effective. Where we’ve seen social media bans come into force in other countries, notably Australia, the adoption has been a different story, with studies showing that up to 80% of 10-16 year olds are still accessing social media. More needs to be done now by technology experts – outside of the social media giants themselves – who will be able to step in and help parents to ensure that adoption is much higher. Without this, there is a real risk the issue will continue to build.
“There is a contradiction at the heart of parent’s views on online safety. It is clearly a massive worry for parents, with more than a quarter (26%) having lost sleep on the issue, but there is general scepticism about how to manage the problem.
The polling was carried out by British Polling Council accredited pollster Censuswide. Research was undertaken in August via online survey.
