Matt Dukes, head of UK Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP), said the UK should pay ‘serious attention’ to Australia’s ban on social media for under-16s
The UK’s top counterterrorism chief has likened the damage young people suffer through social media to “cancer” caused by smoking.
Matt Dukes said a ban on under-16s using platforms like X, Instagram and TikTok “warrants serious attention”. He said MI5 and counterterrorism police have seen a surge in young people coming to their attention after being radicalised online. This was accalerated by the Covid pandemic, he said.
Mr Dukes told The Times Crime and Justice Commission that social media should be restricted for young people in the same way smoking was. He said it took “decades” to regulate tobacco despite it being clear by 1950 that it caused lung cancer – and warned there can be no such delay with online restrictions.
Mr Dukes said: “To go back to the gap between finding smoking was harming people and really acting on it and harming young people and acting on it, this cancer, the content which is driving violence is in our communities and in the lives of young people now.”
It comes after it emerged Southport killer Axel Rudakubana had watched violent material on social media, including footage of a bishop being attacked in Australia. He watched the clip before living home on the day he violently killed three schoolgirls and attempted to murder eight children and two adults last July.
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He warned that social media was providing an “extraordinary projection of hateful material and opportunity to connect in toxic ways” In November the Australian government passed strict laws banning under 16s from using social media.
Asked if he supported Australia’s ban, Mr Dukes – who is head of UK Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) – said: “I think we can look to jurisdictions like Australia and ask questions domestically about whether the steps they’re taking might be positive for us in the UK at the same time as obviously having to address this internationally.”
When pressed he said: “I think those things which are in Australia definitely warrant our attention, should be explored.”
It comes after Home Secretary Yvette Cooper voiced her fury at platforms which failed to remove the clip watched by Rudakubana on the day of the killings. She described it as “frankly disgraceful” and said online giants have a “moral responsibility” to ensure people cannot access dangerous material.
Ms Cooper said: “There been some further content contact with some of those social media companies, but our understanding is that much of that material is still available online. I think, frankly, that is disgraceful because I think they have a moral responsibility to act.”
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