Digital rights campaigner Baroness Beeban Kidron has said governments around the world are still falling short when it comes to regulating smartphone and online addiction.
Speaking on the British Council’s Our World, Connected podcast, she noted while issues such as online abuse, fraud, and bullying are devastating, the deeper challenge lies in what she called the “perpetual call of the device.”
“If it was a product like a baby buggy, if it was a product like a radio, if it was a product like a car, there would be rules and regulations that say, ‘You cannot sell that product to people unless it is safe for use’,” she added.
Kidron highlighted the UK’s global leadership in digital wellbeing through the Age-Appropriate Design Code, which sets privacy standards for online services used by children: “Huge things that people have been asking for all happened overnight because of that one thing—and interestingly, they all happened around the globe."
Her comments followed testimony from 17-year-old data engineering and AI student Nicole Valeria Ruiz Valencia, who told the podcast more computer scientists are needed to help mitigate the dangers of the digital world.
Valencia was part of the British Council's Coding Hubs initiative in Colombia, which supports more than 400 schools in setting up classes that teach computer programming and train teachers from neighbouring schools to do the same.
She is one of an estimated 896,000 students expected to benefit from the programme and believes computer programming can help make the digital space safer for young people: “I think there's lots of dangers in the digital world, especially if you're a child, you're really exposed to the world and things you shouldn't see because that's the way the internet works.
“I think that when it comes to coding, it gives you good tools to solve problems and to create solutions."
Valencia added: “It's not like you have to stop using the internet or anything but just be aware in which spaces you are.”
Kidron stressed that meaningful global change to the digital landscape has been neither radical nor fast enough.
“These companies live by tax law, they live by immigration law, they live by IP law—and now we want them to live by safety law too.”
She urged the public to push for political action, saying: “Let them know it’s something you are prepared to vote on.”
Alongside Coding Hubs in Colombia, the British Council runs a range of global programmes aimed at building coding and digital literacy skills among young people.
In the Western Balkans, 21st Century Schools equips students aged 10–15 with programming and problem-solving skills to prepare them for future jobs. Media for Change supports journalists in producing inclusive, fact-checked content using innovative tools. In the Baltics, People to People promotes digital engagement and civic participation across diverse communities. In Central Asia, Accelerating English modernises teaching practices in line with national education reforms and the rising need for digital competencies.
The latest episode of the British Council’s Our World, Connected podcast is available on all streaming platforms.