Rees-Mogg: ‘Folly’ to compare social media to smoking

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has said it is “folly” to compare social media to smoking.

Speaking on GB News, Sir Jacob said: “Some of you may know I have hordes of children, I’ve got six splendid children, and social media is a part of modern life, and to compare it to smoking seems to me to be folly.

“The medical men who bossed us around during Covid lockdowns now want to tell us what to do with our children in relation to social media. They were fanatical then and wrong. I’m feeling they’re being fanatical now and wrong again.

“Why do I say this? Well, smoking is always bad for you. There is not a good number of cigarettes to smoke, but social media is the way young people communicate, and if you take it away from them, they can’t communicate.

“So, Snapchat, which first of all seemed to be something that had problems, is the way teenagers arranged to meet, to talk to each other. When we were at school [we had] pay phones in our boarding houses, where you could ring up your parents. Now, children get in touch with social media.

“My fifth child, Alfred, is currently on a school trip. He got in touch by FaceTime, so that we could actually see him and see what he was getting up to. This is a good thing.

“But it’s not a good thing if they sit doing it until three in the morning and go round the twist, and therefore it’s a question of nuance, of balance, and who does that? The state with its mighty fist or parents who understand the needs and requirements of their children?

“I think we are facing an antediluvian approach to something that is a reality of the modern world. It’s like the Luddites destroying farm machinery because they think it will lose them jobs.

“We have something that exists, is beneficial, is useful, helps children to grow up, and some unduly nervous people are trying to ban it altogether.

“I think it’s fundamentally wrong, and that it’s parents who should have the responsibility for their children.”