“It is completely unacceptable that young people are routinely shown harmful content and feel trapped on social media sites, so we are glad that the Government has published plans to force tech companies to step up their responsibilities to younger users. However we are deeply disappointed that an overarching duty to protect young people from the impact of features like addictive algorithms has not been included. We want young people to feel empowered through their online experiences and to be able use these platforms in a way that works for them.

“We are also concerned that young people’s views have not been given significant enough weight in this process and this must urgently be addressed as the Bill progresses. Young people tell us they want the Government to listen to their experiences online. We need to know more about what young people find distressing, as well as the positive parts of social media that they want to protect.

“It is indisputable that social media impacts young people’s mental health and they want it to be easier to leave these sites, so companies do not need to wait for this legislation to take action now to make these platforms safer. There is no excuse to delay. ”

“It’s social media companies that are causing the problem so if they actually cared, they would do something to actually discourage you from it. They’ve got all of these people like working for them to understand psychology and know what the scrolling experience is like; they are building the sites in such a way to make it something that people want to do, so they could just work at the other way but they choose not to.”