Baroness Kidron (CB)

My Lords, I thank the Minister, in particular for agreeing to arrange a meeting with the Minister in the other place. I thank all noble Lords, but I am going to use the little bit of time I have to respond on a couple of issues. I hope noble Lords will forgive me for that. I am rather disappointed, because the Minister set out quite a lot of stats that showed the problem and then said, “but we’ve got it covered”. I think that that is not the feeling of the House and it is not what the evidence shows. It cannot be the case that, on the one hand, a large number of children say the guidance is not working and, on the other, the noble Baroness says that we have the guidance and the guidance is enough. I felt that there were a number of things of that ilk, and I shall write to the Minister to point them out precisely and not take everybody’s time right now. However, I wanted to make it very clear that the vast majority of noble Lords in the debate were talking about restrictions and not bans, in school and not in general. I know that there are those who go a little wider, but in general that was the mood of the House. I do not think that any noble Lord who spoke—and certainly I say it on my own behalf—is a tech detractor. There is a better world than this: a better world where technology is designed to take care of our children. The one point of information that I was delighted to hear is that the Minister thinks that the OSA deals with addiction. I have had quite a lot of toing and froing with Ofcom; it does not seem to think so. I would love to interrogate that with her and with Ofcom. I shall leave my final word for a young child who said, “I don’t get why everyone is so upset. We’re not allowed to take pets or frisbees into class. Why are we allowed to take phones?”