Britain, just like the European Union and different nations, has been grappling with how one can shield social media customers, and particularly kids, from dangerous content material with out damaging free speech.
On Friday, Reuters reported, Snapchat was kicking dozens of youngsters in Britain off its platform every month, in contrast with tens of 1000’s blocked by rival TikTok.
“Parents are crying out for better protections for children online and especially on social media,” mentioned Lucy Powell, Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in a press release issued in response to Reuters’ report.
“The Government has delayed and now watered down the online safety bill, relying almost entirely on age verification technologies which aren’t fool proof, when we know that many children pass themselves off as older online.”
Powell added that the British authorities must strengthen the Bill to “take on the algorithms and business models of platforms which promote harm and fail to protect children.”
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According to the info shared with media regulator Ofcom and seen by Reuters, between April 2021 and April 2022, TikTok blocked a median of round 180,000 suspected underage accounts in Britain each month, or round 2 million in that 12-month interval. In the identical interval, Snapchat advised the watchdog it had eliminated roughly 60 accounts monthly, or simply over 700 in complete.
A Snap spokesperson advised Reuters the figures misrepresented the size of labor the corporate did to maintain under-13s off its platform. The spokesperson declined to offer extra context or to element particular blocking measures the corporate has taken.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com