“Advertisers do not want to appear next to or near to harmful content, or to inadvertently monetise it.”
Isba director general Simon Michaelides has said in a statement that the UK trade body representing brand owners welcomes the Government’s launch of a public consultation on whether to ban social media for under-16s, and/or take less drastic measures to tackle online harms.
“[Advertisers] want to understand platforms’ policies on what content they disallow, and how those platforms are working to detect, remove, and prevent it,” he explained. “This information allows them to make their own, informed decisions about where they place their advertising.”
Young people and their parents and guardians have been invited to submit comments on whether children should be able to use AI chatbots, how age-verification enforcement should be strengthened, and whether social media platforms should be prohibited from using infinite scroll and autoplay features.
The consultation is expected to last three months and will include pilot bans and restrictions for hundreds of British teens.
Last month, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced “new legal powers” aimed at “lay[ing] the groundwork for immediate action” following the conclusion of the consultation. Starmer has said he is “open-minded” about what specific actions the Government would take, but he has previewed that more stringent regulation is likely.
The launch of the consultation comes one day after the release of the Channel 4 documentary Molly vs the Machines, a film about the suicide of 14-year-old Molly Russell and the subsequent inquest that concluded algorithmically recommended social media content contributed “more than minimally” to her death.
Ian Russell, Molly’s father, has become a leading advocate for tackling online harms through regulatory measures and improved law enforcement, though he has argued that an outright social media ban for under-16s would be wrong and would likely “cause more problems” than it solves.
Government plans new powers to tackle online harms: ‘No platform gets a free pass’
Molly vs the Machines was screened to advertising industry leaders last month, several of whom have subsequently told The Media Leader it made a strong emotional impact on them.
Speaking in reaction to the documentary, Michaelides said Molly vs the Machines “exposes clear failures by the social media platforms to protect their users from harm. In addition, it presents the case that the algorithms used by social media platforms can result in individuals, like Molly, being served a stream of harmful content.”
Isba, Michaelides noted, has supported “proportionate regulation” of tech platforms as far back as 2017, the year of Russell’s suicide. But today, Michaelides said, “With the Online Safety Act coming into force, our hope is that enforcement will mean that more is done to remove the kind of inappropriate and harmful content that children and young people are often exposed to.”
If the Online Safety Act’s enforcement is insufficient, he added, Isba “will continue to work with the industry and Government — as it has always done — to ensure that advertisers’ concerns are reflected in any efforts to revisit the law”.
Michaelides concluded that Isba would “continue to work with and constructively challenge social media platforms” on behalf of its members.
