Member

Australia’s e-safety commissioner has appointed an advisory group of 11 distinguished experts—led by Stanford University’s Social Media Lab, and including from this country Professor Orben from Cambridge University and Professor Etchells from Bath Spa University —to provide a robust and transparent evaluation of the outcomes of the social media ban in Australia for under-16s. In her reply, will the Minister undertake to report back, within 12 months of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill being passed, with an expert analysis of the impact of the Australian ban on key mental health statistics? I do not believe that we should introduce a ban in this country without some impartial analysis of the data being collected in Australia, even if it is preliminary. Amendment 94A makes no provision for analysis within 12 months of the most relevant evidence that we will have, and I therefore cannot support it.