Fulford School head supports Ofcom's social media crackdown and says online harms are reason for phone ban

The regulator published its final children’s codes of practice on Thursday, setting out rules for how websites and apps must protect children from harmful content, including by using age assurance tools and reconfiguring algorithms to prevent young people accessing illegal and harmful material.

Under the codes, any site which hosts pornography or content which encourages self-harm, suicide or eating disorders, must have robust age verification tools in place in order to protect children from accessing that content.

Those tools could be the use of facial age estimation technology, photo ID matching, or credit card checks to verify age more reliably.

In addition, platforms will be required to configure their algorithms to filter out harmful content from children’s feeds and recommendations, ensuring they are not sent down a rabbit hole of harmful content, as well as giving children more control over their online experience through tools to block and filter out content and connection requests.

Mr Harris, headteacher at Fulford, which was named best comprehensive school in the North by the Sunday Times, said online harms were the main reason he had a phone ban up to Year 11.

“The main reason was safeguarding because of social media, and the use of that,” he told The Yorkshire Post.

“I’ve come from a pastoral background before I became head, and that’s where a lot of issues are - be it the WhatsApps or the actual social media of what’s being posted.

“We welcome any support and any help in terms of being able to support young people with social media, in terms of making sure they know the dangers and are aware of the dangers, but also making sure dangers are monitored.”

Fulford head girl Ella Provins said that she felt accessing social media from a young age “was not healthy”.

The 18-year-old said: “People are exposed to a lot things - I think there should be a minimum age because it is dangerous unless you know how to navigate it well.”

Ms Provins was speaking at an event organised by York Outer MP Luke Charters, to get views from youngsters on the curriculum, careers advice and mental health.

He admitted that he had struggled when at sixth form at Huntington School, in York, after a bad set of grades.

“I struggled for quite a few weeks and months, I had a real low point,” the Labour MP said.

“We want to bring in more mental health practitioners, this means a lot to me personally to get mental health right for young people.”

While Ken Merry, York College principal, explained that “our biggest challenge here is the sheer demand for support” with students’ mental health.

“The sheer volume of challenges that students are facing, some related to the fact that exams are quite difficult and courses are quite difficult.

“Most of it actually being external factors, that demand is something that is quite difficult to keep up.”

He explained the college has a 24-hour helpline for students, but even if he doubled its funding it would still struggle to keep up with demand.