Smartphones ban may cause more harm than good, says Molly Russell’s father

Ian Russell says children ‘continue to face a wave of inherently preventable online harms on often negligent-by-design social media platforms’. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

Government proposals to ban the sale of smartphones to under-16s and raise the minimum age for accessing social media risk causing more harm than good, the father of Molly Russell has warned.

Ian Russell said it was “no surprise” there is a groundswell of pressure for tougher regulation of social media platforms but said plans for a fresh crackdown were flawed.