Speeches by Voaden.

“And it incentivises better behaviour by the tech companies, ultimately.”

“We have seen from the experience of an outright ban in Australia that there are positives and negatives, and that the ban there is clearly not working as comprehensively as the lawmakers might have hoped when they came up with it. Do you think that a slightly more nuanced approach, along the lines of what Rani was sayi…”

“The hon. Member is being very generous with her time. Dogs have noticeable physiological differences from humans—different enzymes, different gastric pH—which leads to the vast majority of drugs that are tested on them failing to translate to humans. Does she agree, therefore, that the Government should commit to endin…”

“Many people in my constituency are very nervous about how local government reorganisation will impact them, and they worry that it could lead to a top-down style of devolution, which entirely misses the point of making decisions locally. The Government’s backing down on Lords amendment 2 will provide some reassurance t…”

“Apprenticeships offer young people a great pathway into rewarding careers, so I very much welcome the Government’s ambition to create more of them, but a report published last week by the Social Security Advisory Committee highlighted the so-called apprenticeship penalty, whereby low-income families can lose up to £330…”

“Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?”

“Will the hon. Member give way?”

“But you settled that case out of court, so you did not actually go into the courtroom.”

“Looking at addiction, Rebecca, Meta was recently found guilty in a Los Angeles court to have deliberately designed addictive products that harmed a young user. We know she is not alone because there are thousands of other court cases now in the pipeline. Research shows that reward schedules are especially potent for yo…”

“What are you doing to reduce addiction?”

“And Laura?”

“I will come back to something Professor Goodyear said about children using their phone out of school more when it is banned in school. That is interesting, because I have spoken to lots of schools that have pretty strict phone bans in place and a couple where they are not even allowed to bring their phones into school—…”

“Can you tell the Committee whether any of your engineering or product teams are rewarded, either financially or professionally, for increasing time spent or session length among users, including children?”

“May I contribute? You say it is mostly friends and family, but when I go on Facebook—which I do not do very often any more—on my personal Facebook page, all I get is adverts, adverts, adverts. The adverts are designed for a middle-aged woman—beauty products, health products, menopause stuff. It is relentless and I bare…”

“Would you like to add anything, Professor Goodyear?”

“So there is no incentive to increase the amount of time someone spends on Instagram/Meta?”

“I will come back to you on something you said in a minute, but let’s go to Professor Etchells.”

“I think the evidence argument is on very shaky ground now. The evidence of most parents in the country, who would say that their children are spending too much time online, suggests that there is a problem. I want to move on to the problems with the Australian ban, which you mentioned, Rebecca. The eSafety Commissioner…”

“Would you say that TikTok is guilty of messaging children under 16 to get them to age assure, and letting them try repeatedly if they fail?”

“Do you think ban is the right word? It is an interesting word, isn’t it, because we don’t allow children to go into nightclubs because they would be exposed to alcohol and other harms, and we don’t allow children to drive a car or to smoke, but we do not call it a ban. We do not say that 14-year-olds are banned from go…”