A PROPOSAL to ban social media for the under-16s has received support from the Bishop of Oxford, Dr Steven Croft.
On Monday, the Government launched a consultation on the proposal, which mirrors one introduced in Australia late last 12 months. Dr Croft, the Church of England’s lead bishop on AI and technology, told the Church Times that he welcomed the consultation and was in favour of a ban.
An amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill was on account of be debated within the House of Lords on Wednesday. If passed, it might require social-media corporations to forestall under-16s’ using their platforms.
On Tuesday, Dr Croft confirmed that, had he been capable of attend the controversy, he would have spoken and voted in favour of the amendment, but he also welcomed consultation, as it might allow young people’s voices to be heard.
He was speaking on the fringes of a conference organised by the University of Bath’s Centre for Doctoral Training in Accountable, Responsible and Transparent AI and held in Lambeth Palace on Tuesday.
In his address, Dr Croft suggested that “every act of radical human exploration offers latest perspectives on what it means to be human,” and the event of AI was no different.
His interest within the technology was regarded by other bishops as “area of interest, if not eccentric”, he said, but it surely was now widely recognised as a very important issue that posed ethical questions for society.
The recent controversy across the AI tool Grok (News, 16 January) was one example, Dr Croft said. Users within the UK were blocked last week from having the ability to generate deepfake sexualised images on the social-media platform X, after the developed triggered criticism from Sir Keir Starmer and the announcement of an investigation by Ofcom.
Dr Croft said that he had been “very encouraged” by the Government’s “robust” response, but, since the technology was “developing faster than the regulation can develop”, there was a “responsibility” on tech corporations, in addition to on governments to “arise to them”.
Discussion concerning the development and regulation of AI needed to not be restricted to a narrow class of experts, he said. Parish priests should think concerning the pastoral issues at play.
At a recent clergy conference within the diocese of Oxford, 100 young people had been invited to speak about their concerns concerning the world, and AI was “top of their concerns”, Dr Croft said. The conference encompassed questions on whether there can be jobs in the longer term, and young people’s relationship with social media.
Ethical questions thrown up by latest technology were “ubiquitous”, including whether to proceed to have interaction on social media.
In the past week, two dioceses — Southwark and Blackburn — announced that they were mothballing their X accounts, and the bishops of the dioceses were also coming off the platform.
An announcement posted by the Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, on Thursday of last week said that the diocese had reflected “long and hard concerning the merits of maintaining a presence on X within the face of the rise of disinformation and harmful, extremist content on the platform”.
The controversy over Grok crossed a “red line”, the statement said — a position mirrored in a press release posted by the diocese of Blackburn on Monday.
Several dioceses had already left X over concerns concerning the platform’s direction because it had been acquired by Elon Musk in 2022 (News, 17 January 2025).
At Tuesday’s conference, the rabbi and barrister Dr Harris Bor spoke concerning the sabbath as a test case for the right way to manage interaction with latest technologies. As a part of the sabbath, Orthodox Jews abstain from using their phones or computer, and this helped them to foster a more deliberate relationship with technology, with attendant insights into what was distinctive about being human, Dr Bor suggested.
Dr Croft also spoke concerning the notion of human flourishing, suggesting that it was necessary to listen to those things that “stir the spirit”.
Other speakers included the Assistant Professor in Digital Religions on the University of Zurich, Professor Beth Singler (Features, 1 September 2023), who surveyed the ways wherein religious communities had embraced or rejected AI, and the moral questions arising from so-called “God-like” AI.
