An exercise in putting children first in a digital age: Should the law restrict children under a certain age from using social networking sites?
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FULL DISSERTATION
My name is Christy O’Neil. I am a law graduate who currently lives in London and works as a Judgments Clerk for the UK Supreme Court.
My interests are in policy and law in the technology and climate spaces. I selected this topic for my dissertation as social media has very quickly become an all-pervasive phenomenon with many potential harms that legislatures are grappling with around the world. Examining this area, I became aware of how powerful the arguments are in this space and how the debate crosses many areas of law. The debate is particularly sensitive where children are concerned. The area is very much a live and evolving one, with the Online Safety Bill currently being before UK Parliamentarians.
- Christy O’Neil, Author
Introduction
‘Our children are our future … we need to treat them right’.
Lady Hale.
Age verification is the only solution to the use of Social Networking Sites (SNSs) by under thirteens in England and Wales. This concerns the disclosure of personal information to gain admittance to a service or product, and is common practice for anyone seeking to access age restricted goods and services such as alcohol, tobacco and pornography. Yet despite most mainstream SNSs prohibiting users under the age of thirteen, SNS operators do not use age verification mechanisms; nor are they required to under domestic law. Policymakers, academics, and private and non-profit organisations have exerted tremendous energy analysing the impact of SNSs on adolescents. The mixed results have served to dichotomise the wider debate on protecting young SNS users; with some commentators favouring strict regulation over SNSs to protect adolescents from online harms, and others advocating for regulation which empowers young people to use SNSs safely. Despite this divide, there is a general consensus that the use of SNSs by adolescents is an inevitability and for whom age restriction and verification is quixotic. This is not something that can be said, however, for children under thirteen (under thirteens) using SNSs; a group which has been largely neglected in existing discourses. Research in this area is still in its gestation period, although it remains a vitally important topic and one of particular relevance for the current government.
This paper will therefore answer the important question: should the law restrict children under a certain age from using SNSs? In order to do so, the issue will be considered through a constructivist lens to offer a fresh insight into the existing debate. Through this lens, it will be argued that the law should restrict under thirteens from using SNSs, and that age verification should be the means through which this is achieved. Four themes will be considered to demonstrate this. First, the adverse impact of SNSs on under thirteens, and why they are in need of protection, will be deduced. Second, the limitations of the current law in England and Wales relating to SNSs, both international and domestic, will be demonstrated and used to enhance the need for action further. The third chapter will then show how a restrictive approach to under thirteens using SNSs, rather than an enabling one, should shape the regulatory response in this area. Finally, a regulatory framework will be proposed which combines a viable age verification system with educational enhancement and industrial oversight, to protect under thirteens from the dangers that SNSs pose. This paper will therefore conclude that the serious impact of SNSs on under thirteens justifies regulatory intervention via age verification in England and Wales, and that policymakers must act swiftly to introduce a suitable framework.
