Sir,
We are shocked and appalled at the story in The Guardian today, that Childnet, the UK’s leading digital safety charity - responsible for the UK-wide schools ‘Safer Internet Day’ which is due to reach over 7.5 million children tomorrow - censored their own Youth Ambassadors’ speeches in 2024 against their will - removing, not only academic research on the addictive harms of social media, but specific reports of addiction, from their peers, relating to their sponsor Snapchat.
Given the charity’s financial dependency on tech industry sponsorship, there is now an inevitable question as to whether Childnet’s edits to the speeches were motivated not by simple concerns related to brevity, as CEO Will Gardner has asserted, but by a desire to preserve the reputation of the charity’s tech industry sponsors - whose primary interest is to supply products to children, not protect them.
Quite apart from the content changes however, the impression reported by Lewis Swire and Saamya Ghai is that they felt forcefully compelled to read a speech, as theirs, which were not their words but those of Childnet. This aspect alone warrants an independent investigation as it clearly shows as false the charity’s claim that it is “committed to the highest standards of child protection, safeguarding and promoting children’s rights”
Having reviewed the evidence, we find Swire and Ghai’s testimony both credible and compelling. In light of this we immediately call on the Charity Commission to launch an investigation, for BBC Children In Need co-sponsor of Childnet to make a statement, and a suspension of ‘Safer Internet Day’ pending the outcome of a Charity Commission investigation.
Signed jointly
Baroness Spielman, Former Chief Inspector of Education and Children's Services
Baron Young
Baroness Jenkin
Lord Bethell
Baroness Cash
Neil O'Brien MP
Rosie Duffield MP
Dr Suzie Davies, Founder, Papaya
Dr Samuel Rice, Founder of Kids For Now, Regional Leader Smartphone Free Childhood Scotland.
Dr Claire Crothers, GP Scotland
Harry Amies, Co-Founder, Unplug.Scot