FLOELLA Benjamim has blasted ministers for allowing kids to access porn on social media.
The former children’s TV presenter, now in the House of Lords as Baroness Benjamin, insisted Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat should not be exempt from new restrictions.
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Rules coming into force in July will see porn site users having to prove they are over 18 by giving credit card details or getting a so-called porn pass.
But the laws apply only to sites on which more than a third of content is pornographic. Baroness Benjamin branded this a “glaring omission” that should be fixed “at the earliest opportunity”.
In a hard-hitting speech the ex-Play School host said the internet was still awash with the “worst and most sordid elements of the human condition” that were being “expressed, shared and amplified on a global scale”.
She added: “Tech firms are failing our children, and it seems that they will not take action until they are forced to.
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“They must establish a duty of care for their customers, who want to be empowered to keep themselves and their children as safe online as they are offline.”
Then-Culture Secretary Matt Hancock previously told MPs of a “difference” between porn sites and social media platforms “on which others can upload images”.
But digital minister Margot James has since conceded there are “legislative weaknesses”.
Sites KO kid help
SOCIAL media firms won’t co-operate with research into potential harms they cause to children, it is claimed.
Experts say sites will not handover key data.
Prof Andrew Przybylski, of Oxford University, analysed screen time information on 12,000 British teens in an eight-year survey.
He found social media use generally has a “trivial” impact on teen’s life satisfaction.
But for a comprehensive analysis “social media companies must share user engagement data”.
