iPhones and Tablets: Are children staying safe online?

How can children stay safe online?

Transcript

00:00I am seeing so much of it that I have coined a phrase, a term called the screendemic, which

00:08is an epidemic of mental health illness in children and young people and early development

00:15language communication problems in younger children, secondary to access to screen time

00:20and social media use. So yes, it is a very big problem for children and families.

00:26New research by Ofcom found that 43% of individuals over 16 have seen AI-generated content online

00:32with increasing use causing harm. This includes synthetic content, deepfakes, AI-generated

00:38images, videos, text or audio. Back in May, Ofcom issued a new draft code of practice

00:44to outline how it expects online platforms to protect children, including an expectation

00:49for companies to ensure algorithms do not share potentially harmful content to children.

00:54Yet, child safety advocates have identified loopholes in Ofcom's draft code, claiming

00:59the regulator has identified risks to children but has not required the companies to act on them.

01:0530% of children and young people spend four to five hours each and every day on screens

01:12and social media apps. Now that equates to an addiction and that is very, very serious.

01:17So what are we seeing at different ends of the age spectrum? As a paediatrician, I'm

01:22now seeing non-verbal children coming to my clinic, walking in, toddlers walking with

01:27normal mobility, but they don't see a word, say a word because they're spending most of

01:31their waking hours in front of a screen. They're not hearing language, they're not hearing

01:35vocabulary from parents and family and friends, etc. So they're not learning language. Primary

01:41school teachers are telling me exactly the same thing. This is what they're seeing. Their

01:45development, their motor development is also delayed because they're just stuck in one

01:48position for most of the day. The other end of the spectrum, older children, we're seeing

01:53lots of mental health difficulties, which is why I've called it the screendemic.