I want to pay tribute to Lewis Swire and the other Childnet Youth Ambassadors who stood up to the machine. Today they won, and I hope they continue winning. This Tuesday, Snapchat and other social media companies’ malign - and in some cases lethal - marketing, written by Childnet, will be going into primary schools, under the guise of Safer Internet Day.
For me, the most shocking deletion that Childnet made was the quote from one teen, who was spending 40 hrs a week on social media. When asked how he felt about it he replied: "terrible, I wish I could stop myself but I can't.... I can't remove Snapchat, because I'll lose my streak." How many millions of children are bound by this identical addiction. Losing days of their life every week. Weeks of life a month. Some of the best years of their life. Gone.
On Tuesday, teachers will be telling seven year olds that these platforms are safe, when they are not. We, as parents, doctors and teachers, cannot stand by while this happens.
That’s why we are calling for Safer Internet Day to be suspended pending investigation of Childnet both by the Charities Commission, and appropriate safeguarding authorities responsible for the child ambassadors who were coerced to say things they did not want to say and to stay silent about the harm of their classmates.
Systematic abuse of children on this scale never happens without enablement. That Snapchat was sponsoring primary school resources should have rung alarm bells everywhere - most parents will have had no idea and be shocked to hear that Snapchat is financing Safer Internet Day.
The other organisations perpetuating this harm, through Childnet, have serious questions to answer too about their continued support. Nominet, Tesco, Vodafone... but particularly I want to single out the sponsor with perhaps the best reputation - BBC Children in Need. Sara Cox, our kids’ hero, ran five marathons for Pudsey, and where's the money going? Into these charity executives’ pockets while their staff delete children's pleas for help.
Possibly millions of kids in this country are stuck down this mine with addictions they can't control. They are calling for a rope and we need to get them out. And it's not just the crippling addiction - a staggering 40% of Sexual Communication with a Child offences last year took place on Snapchat.
My appeal is for BBC Children in Need to cut ties with this corrupted charity before Tuesday, before more children are permantly harmed by it.
Harry Amies
Unplug.Scot