I get many hundreds of emails from constituents every single week. I always make sure constituents and I’ve been getting quite a lot recently! One of the things that keeps popping up time and time again is the thorny issue of a potential ban for social media for under-16s. 

It’s clearly an issue that requires careful consideration to ensure that any action taken genuinely improves the lives of young people without creating new problems elsewhere.

I do recognise the very real concerns about the impact social media can have on children and young people, particularly in relation to wellbeing, behaviour and exposure to inappropriate content. 

I also believe that more needs to be done to ensure children are properly protected online and that these challenges should be taken seriously by those in public life.

However, banning social media outright and restricting freedom of speech cannot be the right solution. 

My view is that an outright ban would risk creating unintended consequences and at the same time it would fail to address the underlying issue that it seeks to solve.

I am also of the view that it would limit people’s personal freedoms in ways that would be difficult to reverse.

It’s also the case that most 13-year-olds are more tech savvy than this government so they’ll be able to download VPNs in minutes and get around whatever barriers have been put in place. So I’m not sure how effective a ban would be. 

However, whatever your view on the merits of a potential social media ban, I think we can all agree on one thing.

That being, as I mentioned in my column last week, that getting kids off social media and getting them keeping fit and out doing stuff through sports teams and clubs is a far, far better use of their time. 

With that in mind, I am glad to see that wheels are in motion to improve and add more facilities to Clacton Leisure Centre. 

Also, having just spent a night at the boxing in Jaywick, kids in the local area could do far worse than signing up to one of the local boxing clubs!