The advocacy group, Fi We Children Foundation (FWCF) Monday urged the government the Jamaica government to pursue evidence-based policies that balance child protection with children’s rights amid plans by the Andrew Holness government to engage Jamaicans in a national discussion on imposing a ban on social media access for children under the age of 16.
‘The digital world should be designed with children in mind. Children have the right not only to protection from harm but also to participation, information, privacy, and development in online spaces,’ FWCF said in a statement. Last week, Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton, speaking at th post-cabinet news conference said study examining the impact of social media on the Jamaican population is nearing completion and will help inform the conversation.
‘In another two weeks, we’ll be unveiling a study which is almost complete on the impact of social media on our population,’ Tufton said, adding that the government intends to gauge public sentiment on the possibility of restricting social media access for children aged 16 and under.
‘We are doing a national survey, both quantitative and qualitative. I do intend to take the results to Cabinet, along with some recommendations, and that’s a conversation that we hope to promote in communities as part of the discussion,’ he said.
In its statement, the FWCF, while it welcomed Tufton’s statement, said limiting access alone will not be enough to protect children in the digital age.
FWCF said that while efforts to shield children from online exploitation, harmful content and predatory behaviour are important, meaningful online protection requires a more comprehensive approach.
It said safeguarding children online demands robust legislation, accountable technology companies as well as child-centred digital environments and is calling for urgent legislative reform, including amendments to the Child Care and Protection Act (CCPA).
The group said that the amendments must address online harms facing children and is proposing age-appropriate design digital platforms with children’s safety and well-being at their core rather than maximising engagement and addictive scrolling as well as stronger default privacy settings with child accounts automatically operating with the highest levels of privacy, including disabled location sharing and restrictions on unsolicited contact.
The FWCF also wants an end to harmful profiling and that the collection and commercial use of children’s data for behavioural profiling should be restricted as well as algorithms prioritising educational, creative and age-appropriate material while actively filtering harmful content, including self-harm, sexually explicit material and eating disorder content;
The group also wants regulatorsto have the authority to conduct audits, enforce compliance and ensure meaningful remedies where harm occurs.
‘Every child deserves a safer internet – one built for children, not merely one that excludes them,’ FWCF said.