LONDON — British teenagers, like their peers abroad, have a conflicted relationship with social media.

They know it can feed them a diet of “brain rot” content that keeps them glued to their phones while making money for big tech. Yet it is central to their lives, and many do not think it is the government’s job to ban it. Britain, like other countries in Europe and beyond, is considering ways to restrict social media after becoming increasingly aware of the risks to children. It could follow Australia in imposing a ban for under-16s.

The government has asked “everyone with a view” to contribute to a public consultation, which closes in May.

Young people aged 16 to 18 at one south London school said Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok helped them socialize, make new connections and learn about the world.

But there were downsides: the platforms sometimes left them unhappy or exhausted, vulnerable to bullying and harmful content, and they knew the apps were designed to keep them scrolling.

GLUED TO PHONES FOR HOURS A DAY
“During the summer, I’d spend around eight hours a day on just TikTok,” said Awand Khdir, 17, who added there was little else to do on that platform besides scrolling. “But now it’s more like three or four hours. It’s still not good.”

“Doom scrolling is an issue on its own, but… the content that you see sometimes, especially on TikTok, there’s a lot of dodgy stuff.”

TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat pointed to the safety, privacy and security features they have for teenage users.

Snapchat has age-specific protections for 13 to 17-year-olds, including making the account private by default and no access to public profiles for younger teens.

Instagram Teen Accounts offers a sensitive content control setting and the platform offers supervision tools for parents and guardians.

TikTok’s teen accounts set an automatic screen time limit of 60 minutes and users are prompted to switch off after 10 p.m., according to a spokesperson. TikTok also age-restricts content that may not be suitable for teens.

But the young people Reuters interviewed said they were able to get round controls.

While many parents and politicians back a ban, some psychologists and researchers say there is no proof that it would work.

Research Professor Amy Orben from the University of Cambridge said the impact of social media was far from uniform, stressing that while some teens face significant risks, for many others, the platforms serve as a valuable means of connection.

“The online world, like the offline world, is very complex and its impacts will be very dynamic,” she said.

Sumiksha Senthuran, 16, said “mindlessly scrolling” was a good contrast to the stress of revision for exams.

Elizabeth Alayande, 17, said social media could help build confidence and identity. “You can express yourself by posting videos or just relating with other people… and I don’t think it’s the biggest waste of time if you spread it out evenly with other priorities,” she said. But the teenagers had been exposed to distressing content and online abuse.”Sometimes it’s quite negative because all you see is bad stuff… it’s quite tiring,” said Teyanna Charley, 17. Vish Ragutharan, 16, who has created his own blog about film, agreed. He said his posts could attract negative as well as positive responses, which was a “real disadvantage.”

Some of the students were fed content about body image.”When you see other girls on TikTok, you kind of want to look like them. And that’s really crushing people’s self-esteem,” said Joelle Azebaze Ayangma, 18.

DIFFICULTY OF ENFORCING A BAN
Despite knowing of the risks of social media, the pupils were mostly opposed to a ban.

Ali Raza, 16, uses apps to communicate with family abroad. Dua Arshia, 16, said restrictions could push young people towards platforms “where there’s more dangerous things,” and Leah Osando, 17, said enforcement would be difficult.

“Even if children get banned… they’ll go onto the dark web or use a VPN (virtual private network),” said Ms. Osando. Some teenagers also described the risk of not recognizing ever more sophisticated artificial intelligence-generated content. Three experts, all of whom have advised lawmakers on children’s internet safety, said there was no clear evidence that bans work.

One-fifth of Australian teenagers under 16 were still using social media two months after the ban, industry data showed, raising questions about the effectiveness of platforms’ age-gating methods.

The experts said pressure should be placed on social media companies to build safer platforms, as algorithm-driven feeds become increasingly addictive and, in some cases, direct children towards pro-anorexia or self-harm videos.

“These are commercial platforms,” Ms. Orben said. “They are designed to harness attention, and… young people are increasingly saying that they struggle to get off.”

Professor Julia Davidson, an expert in child online safety from the University of East London, said for children over 13, it may already be too late. British regulator Ofcom in 2022 said six in 10 children aged eight to 12 had social media profiles, despite many platforms requiring users to be at least 13.

“How are we going to enforce a ban with 14 and 15-year-olds who have grown up with it and built extensive networks?” she said.

Professor Sonia Livingstone, leader of the Digital Futures for Children center at the London School of Economics, said policymakers risked reaching for the wrong solution, with a ban seen as “a very blunt hammer to crack a nut.”

She said politicians should demand “safety by design… without eliminating children’s access to the digital world, which is what they want and have a right to.”

She said the government’s focus should be on how it tackles big tech, suggesting they take a “divide and conquer” approach. “Why don’t we say: Snapchat is the one where the randomers can get in touch with you. Instagram is the one where you can see the self-harm content. And TikTok is the one that wants you on so long that you can never get to sleep or do your homework,” she said. — Reuters

HANOI — Vietnamese authorities have warned the country’s aviation industry to prepare for potential flight reductions from April after China and Thailand halted exports of jet fuel due to the Iran war, increasing the likelihood of shortages.

Vietnam imports more than two-thirds of its jet fuel needs, with 60% coming from China and Thailand, according to documents from the aviation regulator and importers seen by Reuters.

“There are risks of jet fuel shortages for Vietnamese airlines from the beginning of April and the following months,” the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said in a March 9 document sent to the ministry in charge of transport.

It said airlines should review their plans, especially for domestic routes, and instructed airport operators to prepare additional parking space for Vietnamese carriers.

Vietnam has also seen reduced supplies from Singapore, the document showed.

In separate documents viewed by Reuters, major importers Petrolimex and Skypec said they could only guarantee jet fuel supplies for March. Skypec urged the regulator to restrict air transport to essential domestic routes if the conflict drags on.

All documents were issued after China urged its refiners not to agree to new exports early this month but preceded a hard ban on refined fuel exports from March 11. Thailand banned exports of refined oil products, including jet fuel on March 6 to all countries except Myanmar and Laos.

The regulator, the ministry and the two importers did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. Vietnam’s top airlines Vietnam Airlines  and VietJet declined to comment.

DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS MADE
Vietnam was the third-largest buyer of aviation kerosene from China last year after Australia and Japan, according to Chinese customs data.

The Southeast Asian country has taken up the issue with both China, its main supplier, and Thailand.

On Sunday, Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung asked his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi for close coordination “to ensure energy security,” in a meeting in Hanoi that had been long planned, according to the Vietnamese government’s news portal.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters on Monday that Beijing stood ready to boost cooperation with Vietnam and other countries to jointly tackle energy security issues.

On Friday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh asked Thailand to help address the shortage during a meeting with the Thai ambassador in Vietnam, state media reported.

The foreign ministries for Vietnam and Thailand did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Vietnam’s aviation authority recommended that Hanoi should seek to import from other places, citing South Korea, Japan, Brunei and India as potential sources, but it also said that “in the current context it is difficult to find new suppliers.”

It added that Vietnam’s two refineries are under pressure to expand production of other oil products, making it hard for them to increase jet fuel output.

Even if supply stabilizes, soaring fuel prices are disrupting the industry, it also warned, noting many routes would become unprofitable.

Petrolimex and Skypec also flagged that the spike in jet fuel prices has meant they are quickly reaching limits on credit lines and urged banks to offer more flexible financing until market conditions normalise, the documents showed.

Front-month jet fuel paper swaps in Singapore on a cost and freight basis are trading at around $157 a barrel, more than one-and-a-half times higher than pre-conflict levels, LSEG pricing data shows. — Reuters

PARIS — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is due to appear in court on Monday to appeal a conviction for criminal conspiracy over attempts to procure campaign funds from Libya, for which he received a five-year jail sentence last year.

It made Mr. Sarkozy the first post-war president of France to be imprisoned – a stunning downfall for a man who led the country from 2007 to 2012. He was incarcerated in October at La Sante prison in Paris and was freed three weeks later, after a court agreed to release him under judicial supervision, which included a ban on leaving France.

Mr. Sarkozy’s conviction capped years of legal battles over allegations that his successful 2007 election campaign took millions in cash from Libya during the rule of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Mr. Sarkozy, who has always denied the charges, was accused of making a deal with Mr. Gaddafi in 2005, when he was France’s interior minister, to obtain campaign financing in exchange for supporting the then-isolated Libyan government on the international stage.

Judges said there was no proof that Mr. Sarkozy made such a deal with Mr. Gaddafi, nor that money that was sent from Libya reached Mr. Sarkozy’s campaign coffers, even if the timing was “compatible” and the paths the money went through were “very opaque”.

But they said Mr. Sarkozy was guilty of criminal conspiracy between 2005 and 2007 for having let close aides get in touch with people in Libya to try and obtain campaign financing.

“The fight against corruption is not just a matter of integrity: it is a prerequisite for protecting the rule of law and maintaining effective democracy,” said rights groups Sherpa, Anticor and Transparency International France in a statement on Friday.

Mr. Sarkozy’s lawyer Christophe Ingrain said he had no comment ahead of the appeal trial opening. — Reuters

LONDON — War in the Middle East is disrupting the flow of critical medicines to the Gulf, imperilling supply routes for cancer drugs and other treatments that require refrigeration and forcing companies to reroute flights and find overland access into the region, industry executives said.

The conflict, sparked by US and Israeli attacks on Iran two weeks ago and broadened by Iranian strikes around the region, has knocked out key air transit hubs and closed shipping routes, snarling the movement of goods for many products from medicines to food and oil.

While there are few signs yet of major shortages, that could change if the conflict drags on, some executives said. The Gulf relies heavily on imports and some medicines have short shelf lives and need strict cold-chain storage, making lengthy overland shipping less practical.

Executives at Western drugmakers said they were seeking alternative routes into the Gulf and trucking some drugs overland from airports like Jeddah and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Other options were Istanbul and Oman.

Major airports in the region including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha have been closed due to strikes by Iran in response to US and Israeli attacks. Dubai and Doha are major cargo hubs linking Europe with Asia and Africa, with airlines Emirates and Etihad and logistics firms such as DHL handling temperature-sensitive drugs that must be kept within a narrow range to remain safe and effective.

Wouter Dewulf, a professor at the Antwerp Management School, cited industry data showing over a fifth of global air cargo — the main route for critical or life-saving drugs and vaccines — are exposed to Middle East disruption.

One executive cautioned that alternative “cold-chain corridors”, or temperature-controlled routes used for sensitive medicines, could not be set up overnight and were not always available.

Another pharmaceutical company executive said it had set up internal teams to prioritize patient-critical shipments, including of cancer treatments, and warned some temperature-controlled shipments could miss connections unless proper storage and handling were secured.

A medical device company executive said the first step was to map shipments already in transit or ready to depart, then decide which pallets needed to be diverted and whether new shipments had to be planned.

The executive, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal operations, said some Europe-Asia cargo that typically move through Dubai or Doha airports was being rerouted via China or Singapore. Sea routes were not practical due to longer journey times, as well as closure of the critical Strait of Hormuz by Iran.

“If you have an urgent surgery with a patient waiting for treatment, you have to choose the faster mode of transport,” the executive said.

HOSPITALS COULD RUN LOW WITHIN WEEKS
Prashant Yadav, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said stocks of short shelf-life, temperature-sensitive and more expensive medicines were usually around three months, with cancer drugs, particularly monoclonal antibodies, among those at highest risk.

Delays in delivery of oncology medicines can have dire consequences for patients, who might be forced to restart a course of therapy, or see their cancer worsen.

The disruption was already a problem for some companies, Mr. Yadav said, with some customers warning they could run low on supplies within four to six weeks if things did not improve.

Over 100 pharma and logistics industry participants joined a webinar last week hosted by Pharma.Aero, a life sciences logistics group, to discuss the Gulf crisis and its supply-chain and transport implications.

INDUSTRY IS COPING FOR NOW
Some logistics providers say the industry is coping for now. Dorothee Becher, in charge of air logistics for healthcare at freight company Kuehne+Nagel, said carriers were flying into Jeddah, Riyadh and Oman and using land routes to reach final markets.

“I do not see any risk yet that the inventory would go dramatically down,” she said, adding that healthcare cargo was being prioritized.

But keeping shipments moving was a constant battle.

Doaa Fathallah, chief operating officer at biopharma logistics company Marken, said cold-chain cargo was getting through, but only with round-the-clock re-routing as airspace restrictions shifted rapidly.

The re-routing means longer transit times and higher fuel costs, driving up transportation fees, she said, as well as use of dry ice to keep medicines cold.

The risks rise for the industry if the disruptions persist, executives said, as supplies in the Gulf and Asia run low.

Shipping snags could also affect products that pose indirect risks to drug supplies including shortages of vial stoppers, IV bag plastics, and items needed for packaging.

“It’s not always a shortage of the medicine itself,” said David Weeks, who follows the supply chain industry for ratings agency Moody’s. “In some cases, it’s the little stopper on the vial where the dosage is extracted.” — Reuters