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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology

Tender minds and media influence

A table of high school students all holding multiple digital devices such as phones and tablets.
Australia is restricting children’s access to social media. Photograph: Alamy

In all the agonising over whether we should follow Australia in restricting children’s access to social media (Australian-style social media ban for under-16s ‘a retrograde step’, say UK charities, 29 November) there seems to be no recognition that supposedly tender minds will still be exposed to the influence of traditional media. Readers who may recall the image of a 12-year-old Jacob Rees-Mogg reading the Financial Times should need no reminding of how pernicious this influence can be, now that the results are in.
John Kelly
Little Raveley, Cambridgeshire

• What is the purpose of rehabilitation and “spent convictions” if Louise Haigh was forced to resign and forfeit a promising political future over a minor offence committed 10 years ago (Louise Haigh ‘told to quit by No 10 over possible breach of ministerial code’, 29 November)?
Dominic Shelmerdine
London

• Apparently we can tolerate a convicted criminal as president of the US but not the excellent Louise Haigh as transport secretary.
Keith Richards
London

• I read that “transport in English towns could be integrated by apps” (Report, theguardian.com, 28 November). It would be nice to have some transport to integrate.
Helen Ryan
Blandford Forum, Dorset

• I greatly enjoyed Ian Barrett’s observation about “unwoke research” (Letters, 27 November). How appropriate that it was written in Woking.
Tony Coghan
London

• Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.

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