Speeches by Voaden.

“Many people in my constituency are very nervous about how local government reorganisation will impact them, and they worry that it could lead to a top-down style of devolution, which entirely misses the point of making decisions locally. The Government’s backing down on Lords amendment 2 will provide some reassurance t…”

“The hon. Member is being very generous with her time. Dogs have noticeable physiological differences from humans—different enzymes, different gastric pH—which leads to the vast majority of drugs that are tested on them failing to translate to humans. Does she agree, therefore, that the Government should commit to endin…”

“Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?”

“Will the hon. Member give way?”

“I was going to ask you about the benefits of having a legislative ban on phones in schools. The Government moved on that yesterday. Do you think a statutory ban in legislation will have a positive effect on children’s health and wellbeing?”

“I will come back to you on something you said in a minute, but let’s go to Professor Etchells.”

“And Laura?”

“Looking at addiction, Rebecca, Meta was recently found guilty in a Los Angeles court to have deliberately designed addictive products that harmed a young user. We know she is not alone because there are thousands of other court cases now in the pipeline. Research shows that reward schedules are especially potent for yo…”

“But you settled that case out of court, so you did not actually go into the courtroom.”

“What are you doing to reduce addiction?”

“It is about the peer pressure not to have a phone rather than to have one.”

“Would you like to add anything, Professor Goodyear?”

“I will come back to something Professor Goodyear said about children using their phone out of school more when it is banned in school. That is interesting, because I have spoken to lots of schools that have pretty strict phone bans in place and a couple where they are not even allowed to bring their phones into school—…”

“You are confident that a bad actor could not ever contact somebody who was under 16 through your platform?”

“Laura, I would like to turn briefly to Roblox, because I know that you have not been covered by the ban in Australia. There has been criticism that the Australian ban does not go far enough, and that the harms of sites such as Roblox are comparable with social media. I appreciate you say that you are not a social media…”

“If a ban were to be based on features and functionality, rather than a platform, which is the way Australia chose to do it, then it could well include Roblox—for example, banning anything that would allow anyone under 16 to be direct messaged by a bad actor.”

“So there is no incentive to increase the amount of time someone spends on Instagram/Meta?”

“Would you say that TikTok is guilty of messaging children under 16 to get them to age assure, and letting them try repeatedly if they fail?”

“I think the evidence argument is on very shaky ground now. The evidence of most parents in the country, who would say that their children are spending too much time online, suggests that there is a problem. I want to move on to the problems with the Australian ban, which you mentioned, Rebecca. The eSafety Commissioner…”

“May I contribute? You say it is mostly friends and family, but when I go on Facebook—which I do not do very often any more—on my personal Facebook page, all I get is adverts, adverts, adverts. The adverts are designed for a middle-aged woman—beauty products, health products, menopause stuff. It is relentless and I bare…”