Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall, SC, has dismissed suggestions that the Government’s proposed social media regulations for children are an attempt to censor citizens, insisting that the initiative is solely aimed at protecting young people from harmful online content.
Speaking on Tuesday evening’s edition of Issues in the News, Nandlall said children will continue to have access to social media and educational content, but safeguards are needed to limit their exposure to inappropriate material.
“They will continue to have access to educational programmes but they will not have access to pornography, and what they have access to will depend upon their age. The entire world is moving in this direction. The entire world. I don’t understand,” Nandlall stated.
The Attorney General accused the Opposition of attempting to portray the proposed legislation in a negative light, arguing that the Government’s intentions have been deliberately misrepresented.
Referring to a recent media report, Nandlall said his comments about offensive material appearing on Facebook had been taken out of context.
“The reporter writes the government is uncomfortable with what happens on Facebook. I never said the government, I said all of us. You tell me if you are pleased with every single thing that you have seen on Facebook over the past 24 hours. You tell me if you don’t find certain things offensive, but if I say that it becomes the government. That’s what you’ve got to deal with here now.”
Nandlall maintained that the Government has no intention of blocking Facebook or restricting freedom of expression, noting that such a move would be impossible given the global nature of social media platforms.
Instead, he said Guyana is moving towards the same type of child online safety framework already adopted or being considered in several countries around the world.
He disclosed that the Government has written to Meta, Facebook’s parent company, seeking to establish a formal institutional relationship to facilitate discussions on online safety and regulation.
“How are you going to regulate this global platform if you don’t have a relationship with the global platform? I said in my remarks that the Government of Guyana has written to Facebook; to Meta seeking to establish a formal institutional relationship with Meta, and that is being spun negatively that the government is seeking to censor the government,” he lamented.
According to Nandlall, the United Nations has already developed model legislation on the issue that has been adopted by 177 countries, while jurisdictions across Europe, Australia, parts of Asia and Brazil have already enacted laws to better protect children online.
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