Stephen Donnelly compares social media to tobacco industry in child safety fight

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Stephen Donnelly News

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As he launched the establishment of a new Online Safety Taskforce, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said that parents are not fully aware of the “mental and physical injuries” that are being inflicted on children on social media platforms.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said that asking social media companies to protect children online is akin to “asking the tobacco industry to do the right thing”.

The task force will examine the “range of social, mental health, physical health and sexual health harms being caused to young people by certain types of online behaviours and content” on online platforms and recommend responses to these issues. Minister Donnelly stated that social media companies can no longer be trusted to remove harmful content.

“The partnership approach is over. I wouldn't suggest a partnership approach with tobacco companies. I'm not suggesting a partnership approach with online platforms. We tried that. It didn't work. I'm suggesting a public health-led approach that says ‘it is our obligation to keep children safe’.” He suggested that while parents will always want to do right by their kids, they are not always aware that their youngsters are being exposed to “violence against women, sexual violence against women, male supremacy, the extent of the harm, physical harms, mental harms”.

 

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