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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Daniel Lavelle

UK police chiefs call for ban on social media for under-16s

A teenager using a mobile phone to access social media
Sarah Crew, chief constable of Avon and Somerset, said: ‘It’s like the American west in the 1850s – there was a lot happening, it was expanding quickly, but there was little regulation.’ Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

Senior UK police officers have called for the government to ban children under 16 from social media, amid claims the platforms are “fuelling and enabling” crime.

In the most recent development in the moral panic that has gripped the media since Netflix’s Adolescence was released, four of the most senior policing figures in the country told the Times that further controls on social media platforms were necessary for public safety, national security and young people’s mental health.

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