It is 9.30 in the morning when the news of Keir Starmer’s decision to resign filters through to a coachload of excitable P7 pupils from Glasgow.
On the way to their end of year trip to M&D’s theme park in Motherwell, a cheer erupts when their class teachers pass on the news.
“Yaaaaaassss” yells one jubilant 12-year-old boy. “Now can I keep my TikTok?”
It was the focus group that no one had been expecting, but the UK Government’s decision to press on with a social media ban for under-16s has cut through to the minds of these children like no other political issue.
My own daughter, now 12, was horrified at the idea that the government wanted to restrict her life online. She got her first smartphone at Christmas, one of the last in her class to join the digital playground, and it has rapidly become an extension of her physical body.
Even with tightly controlled screen time and access only to WhatsApp, she still manages to lose hours to the phone.
“It means I can stay in touch with my friends, I can follow accounts I like,” she tells me, defending her portal to the online world.
But while these young people, the cohort of primary pupils who spent their formative years on screens during lockdown, wax lyrical about the joys of connectivity, the warnings from the front line of online safety have never been louder or more urgent.
Shortly before Starmer made his bold call on a social media ban, the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the National Crime Agency issued a joint call for restrictions on under-16s accessing online platforms, saying they were “unequivocal in their view that the online environment, as it currently exists, is not safe for children under 16.”
But what are the dangers, and how can parents and trusted adults keep children and teenagers safe online?
“Fundamentally, social media was not set up with safety in mind, especially the safety of young people,” says one of Scotland’s most senior officers in cyber-crime, Detective Chief Inspector Alasdair Penny.
“You think because you see your child on the sofa, they are safe. But just because you can see them, it doesn’t mean they are safe”
DCI Alasdair Penny
He works within Police Scotland’s cyber-crime and fraud unit (CAFU), created last year to respond to the rapidly evolving threats to safety online.
“Offline safety is hammered home. We all know about stranger danger,” he says.
“But essentially, what you have is a situation where you have a stranger knocking at your door and coming into your home. You think because you see your child on the sofa, they are safe.
“But just because you can see them, it doesn’t mean they are safe. People can contact them, and they don’t know if they are who they say they are.”
That leaves children open to dangers, from grooming and sexploitation, to seeing harmful content, and fraud.
That is something echoed by Brian*, a senior investigator in Police Scotland’s Internet Investigation Unit.
He warned that the advent of mobile phones had sped up and ‘industrialised’ child grooming.
“It’s not like in the 90s, when you could say: ‘Stay away from that creepy guy at the end of the street’,” he says.
“Now that creepy guy has met other creepy guys, and they are sharing how to target vulnerable children.
“In my role, I am seeing the absolute worst of it. Sexploitation is a growing issue, and teenage boys are the most likely to be the victims. It has led to suicides. For a 15-year-old, someone threatening them with images they sent them is the end of the world.”
For Brian, it is the scale and organisation of criminal activity enabled by social media that is worrying.
“You get groups of people adding hundreds of young people through these applications.
“One example was a girls’ football team WhatsApp. They add one person, and everyone else thinks it is someone they know.
“They specifically target vulnerable chatrooms, things like eating disorders. It is organised. They know what they are doing.
“There are around 100,000 people in the UK who might pose a sexual danger to children, and we are seeing hundreds of referrals every month.”
It is the scale, and rapidly changing landscape, that throws up challenges for police.
“Criminals will exploit any opportunity,” Penny says. “Cyber-crime is borderless.
“People overseas can send hundreds of thousands of messages at the touch of a button. It is really challenging.
“AI wasn’t a challenge ten years ago, but it is now. We need to understand deepfakes and AI generated images.”
The unit’s response is to strengthen international collaboration and use dedicated officers to respond to emerging threats.
“It’s not like in the 90s, when you could say: ‘Stay away from that creepy guy at the end of the street’ ”
Senior Police Scotland investigator
While it is clear that real people have suffered real harm online, it is not to say that every teenager with a smartphone will fall victim to online exploitation.
But even without the danger of sexual exploitation, there are other worries for parents.
I noticed how quickly my own daughter lost interest in reading, or drawing, or just messing around, once she had a phone in her hand.
And one thing that has been consistently pointed out by both opponents and proponents of the ban is the lack of meaningful research into the long-term impact of mobile phones, social media and screen time on young people.
However, one Scottish charity has rich insights into the attitudes and experiences of the country’s teenagers.
Planet Youth in Scotland uses an Icelandic model to reshape the environments that young people live and grow up in, rather than looking at individual behaviours in isolation.
It is informed by biennial surveys and results mapping to understand the environment that children grow up in, and to identify and then change the things that make it more likely they will drink, smoke, take drugs, or experience poor mental health.
The last survey, in September last year, saw nearly 8,000 people aged between 13 and 15 answer questions.
The charity is clear that it is currently impossible to directly link mobile phones to mental health issues, or say whether a ban means young people’s health and wellbeing will dramatically improve.
But the data shows that screens are becoming an important part of young people’s lives, with 56 per cent saying they spend an average of three or more hours a day on social media.
And it does point to one very important issue – that time spent on screens is often time spent not doing other things: sleeping, spending meaningful time with families, or getting stuck into activities in their community.
Penny says while the addictive nature of social media is not strictly a police matter, the nature of the online world means things are more closely related than ever before.
“One really important thing that parents can do is speak to children,” he says. “It is really important to talk to them about what they are doing and watching online, in the same way that you do about other parts of their lives.
“If we don’t, we don’t know what they are looking at and the effect it has on them.”
He adds: “I look at Australia, where the ban is in place, and from what I can see, the ban has reduced, rather than prevented access.
“Tech companies and social media platforms need to do more. But technology can’t solve it on its own.
“Police need to raise awareness too. We have challenges of algorithms and inappropriate content – it is a slippery slope once it locks in. Screen addiction isn’t a police matter, but it all comes together.”
Screen time, mobile phones and social media are set to dominate the debate for the next year, as we grapple with whether a ban is the right thing, or if it can even be enforced.
But out on the tarmac of the M8, moving away from Glasgow towards the rollercoasters of Motherwell, the reality remains far more innocent, noisy, and vulnerable.
As the coach hurtles toward M&D’s, those P7 pupils forget about political resignations, returning instead to a handful of screens smuggled on board the bus under jumpers.
They are taking selfies, sharing videos and making their way through a digital landscape that seems like a playground, but is shaping up to be a battlefield.
*Name has been changed to protect identity