'Naïve' to think tech giants with 'more money than God' can be trusted - as MPs reject U-16s social media ban again
Tech lawyer Matthew Bergman told LBC the platforms “prey upon the underdeveloped mental and emotional capabilities of young people”
Tech lawyer Matthew Bergman spoke to LBC after the social media ban was voted down for a third time.
Picture:
Getty/LBC
It’s “naïve” to think social media giants can be trusted without regulation as the companies have “more money than God”, a leading tech lawyer has told LBC after MPs rejected the latest attempt to ban the platforms for under-16s. Speaking to Tonight with Andrew Marr, Matthew Bergman, who successfully led a landmark lawsuit against Meta and YouTube earlier this month, said the platforms “prey upon the underdeveloped mental and emotional capabilities of young people”.He said the companies are inflicting “carnage every day on kids in the US and the UK and throughout the world.”It comes as MPs voted 260 to 161 to reject an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which would have raised the age for access to social media deemed harmful to 16 within a 12-month window.This marked the third time Lord Nash’s amendment has been voted down.Mr Bergman said: “It's not my place to advise a British parliamentarian on how to vote. I would simply say that any suggestion that these companies can be trusted to safeguard our kids without regulation is, I believe, naive.”Read more: ‘Our kids are unprotected’: MPs vote against U16 social media ban for third timeRead more: MPs reject social media ban for under-16s for third time following Commons vote
He added: “These companies have proven time and time again that they have rejected common sense safety solutions to make their platform safer and that they prey upon the underdeveloped mental and emotional and neurologic capabilities of young people.“ And the evidence is clear that the older kids are when they first get online, the better they are able to withstand and overcome these pernicious forces.”The Government is consulting on introducing a social media ban for under 16s, which if implemented would see the UK follow in the footsteps of Australia which brought in a ban last year.Ministers want to examine the evidence first as they are wary of bringing in a ban which could see teens pushed into darker corners of the internet.Other measures on the table are curfews, curbs on "addictive" design features such as streaks and infinite scrolling and raising the age of digital consent.
Mr Bergman warned that the fight to change the regulation won’t be easy - both in the US and the UK.“The bad news is these companies have more money than God in our using every dollar and every bit of legislative artifice to try to pull the wool over not just the American people, but legislators in the UK and throughout the world.”However, the tech lawyer has shown the firms that they are not invisible following his landmark trial against Meta and Google’s Youtube.Mr Bergman was able to secure a $6 million pay-out for mental health damages caused to a social media young user after proving the platforms are addictive.A jury in Los Angeles found that Meta and Google, owner of YouTube, had intentionally designed addictive social media platforms that harmed the mental health of a 20-year old woman.Mr Bergman said the victory was just the “first battle of a very long war”.He added: "But it is an inflection point in holding companies accountable for the carnage that they're inflicting every day on kids in the US and the UK and throughout the world.”
