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Order. Order.

Hello, I'm Susan Hume and this is the Today in Parliament podcast for Friday the 7th of March.

Coming up, as proposals to protect children from social media harms run into the sand,

a minister insists pressure from tech firms and the US had nothing to do

with it. I haven't taken into consideration anything in relation to what Donald Trump might or might

think in this field. Also, why is the official opposition backing Sir Keir Stommer in the current

international turmoil? The role of the opposition is to serve the country.

Obviously, in opposition, you believe your party would be a better government,

but it is His Majesty's loyal opposition.

And the importance of new rights to paid leave for the parents of newborn babies in special care.

We've heard from fathers who've had to go back to work on building sites,

who've said they felt very unsafe because their brain wasn't on the job.

But first, there was anger from some MPs who argued that a bill

expected to protect children from the harms of smartphones

had been watered down and now effectively shelved. The original proposal back

in October had been to ban smartphones in schools and outlaw the algorithms that make social media

addictive. But now the bill does not go that far. Instead, it calls for chief medical officers

across the UK to issue guidance on the use of smartphones

for more research into the impact of social media on children

and ask the government to say within a year if it will raise the digital age of consent

from 13 to 16. Campaigners for a ban on smartphone use in schools were in the public gallery

...