YouSaid · the spoken record

Beeban Kidron

lines on the record: 51
first: 2026-02-20
most recent: 2026-02-20
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“And I think that Bridget Jones, I love Bridget Jones. You know, she is the woman who says everything that you think in your interior brain that you should never say in public. And it makes me laugh. And I was asked to do it. And I had an absolute ball doing it. But I did make a lot of comedies in my career and I just do hope that people always laugh and they always fight.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's funny because you know, I made a couple of films in America. One was about falling in love, you know, in your 80s and one was called Two Wung Fu and it was about Wesley Snights as a drag queen and Patrick Swayze, you know. And then I made, I think there are two things. One is, you know, you've got to have a sense of human, Nick. You know, life is tough for a lot of people. And, you know, I am very graced in that a lot of people write to me in Parliament and say, thank you for what you're doing. You know, it really means a lot. We don't hear ourselves reflected and you're doing it for us. But actually, I also get a lot of sadness. There's a lot of tragedy. Parents, kids, you know, all sorts of people who are suffering because we have let a global set of companies take over our values and our way of life.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Patronage doesn't matter, and we have what we jokingly call the Lord's tech team, and we are everybody and from all sides, and we're very powerful because we don't take no for an answer.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the House of Lords has been stuffed to the gills with political favours and political interests and I think that a lot of people in the House of Lords are very saddened by that. But I will say these two things. It's indefensible on a democratic basis to have an unelected house that is so easy to curry political favor. But there is something magical about having people in a place committed to public service who can't be fired. So suddenly when you get an issue like this, as I say, we work across the house.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm not. I think it's a matter of survival. I mean, we are really in a space where we are letting machines go ahead, you know, that may or may not obey their masters. And I sit here and I say to you, you know, 13 years ago, I put up the white flag about kids, and now we're all discussing it. Five years ago, I went, whoops, AI, and we're beginning to look at it. And I'm really saying that politically we've got to stop managing our opposition. We've got to start acting in our own self-interest.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I actually think that's so wrong, and I know you're putting a position rather than saying what you think, but I mean, our creativity is second to none. What we don't have is a risk appetite in our markets, and what we don't have is, and it's not that regulation that is pulling them back But I also will say watch this space the maga the maga you know group is not unified on this issue and I have a lot of friends in America and you said at the beginning I'm a crossbencher I work with the right with the left Anybody who wants to work on this issue and I have some friends within the Republican Party who do not like this tech bro business that's going on”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. And I think this is, we've already touched upon this, but this idea that we can't see it coming, that we don't know it's coming. I have been laying amendments about AI for at least three or four years. And the government, successive governments have been pushing them back right down to this government pushing back things that would stop the groku creating child sexual abuse or stripping women. And I think we have to say, is our special relationship worth it? And they think it's going to kill them on the tariffs. But actually, if we really look at it, and I know you look at it day in, day out, that actually the tariffs come and go and come and go as and when they wish, and the people who push back do not necessarily come out”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We are appeasing. We are definitely appeasing. We can see it. We can feel it. And I think that we need to build British. And I cannot believe that I'm saying that as an internationalist, but I think we need to look and say, what could we have in the tech space? What could we be really good at? What are our choke points? And what can we then negotiate? And I'm fed up of seeing the government not negotiate. You know, they're not scrappers this lot. And I think this is a fight.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think, and I'm not one to normally quote Churchill, but, you know, he did say something, and I have to paraphrase, you know, the appeaser thinks that, you know, they feed the crocodile in the hope they'll be eaten last, you know. I don't think rubbing up against, you know, kindly against the tech bros.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, first of all, there's plenty of allies, and you talked about Australia, and I have to say you're right, they didn't know what they were doing, but do you know what they had? They had a prime minister who said, we have sovereignty. These are our kids, and we'll treat them how we like, and you can go and whatever, yeah. And the political will behind that then got translated into political will to look at actually newspapers, and then it became political will to look at creative industries. And suddenly you had a prime minister who was going, hang on a minute, this deal is a bad deal. They are taking our kids, they're taking our news, they're taking our democracy, and they're taking our art, and they're making money over there.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, they definitely do, and that definitely goes on. And in fact, the lobbying is much, much more pervasive and worrying than anything that bold. But I think that if you look at I think there's a couple of different things here. First of all, We have to look at the economic reality of what they are offering. And I think if you look from the high street to childhood to our own democracy, it is all being fractured. So we have to just really look at those perceived benefits.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Told that we have to accept the downside to have the upside. So, you know, I'm sure we'll get there. But in AI, how many ministers, Nick, have you interviewed where they go, well, it's going to help us cure cancer? Oh, so it has to actually make young women naked into a bikini to cure cancer, it has to steal, you know, the creative copyright of artists to cure cancer. Of course it doesn't. This idea of a free-for-all is a lobbyist paradigm and it is their manna from heaven that our ministers keep on repeating it.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think we've got to go. I think there's two really important things you've raised there. I mean, first of all, it's not free speech, it's managed speech. And I think that we have so much evidence now that outrage goes faster than kindness. And when Grock changes, when X changes owners, it changes its political outlook. And when TikTok got handed over to its new owners, suddenly it discovered all sorts of right-wing sympathies that it didn't have before. So it's not free speech. Somebody, you know, Wizard of Oz behind the thing is actually determining the speech. And so I think we have to really kill that baby. I think the other thing is I'm really interested in this idea of benefit and cost. There is no other situation where we are constantly”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would start on the very basic premise that each product is working in its own environment. So what I mean by that is actually if you are publishing, that means you are editorializing your feed, whether it's algorithmically, whether it's via an editor, whether it's by, you know, changing the nuance that you should be responsible for what you publish.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, absolutely, you know, I mean, I have said this a few times, but you know, if it was a fridge, it would be recalled by now, you know, I think there are some very simple ideas. Now, it's a complex system, but I think there's something else that has now developed and we're beginning to see some of the fractures, which is, you know, you mentioned Australia, but it's not just Australia, it's Malaysia, it's Indonesia, it's Brazil, it's France, it's everywhere. And in fact, even in America, which we think of as being out of bounds currently, it's not. It's in California, it's in Texas, it's in Nevada. You know, the truth of the matter is that actually companies and governments do ultimately, you know, engage with us via our consent and consent is...”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Media for 16 year olds until they're 16 is not a silver bullet. Should we make some things out of the purview? Should we take under 16s away from some of those companies unless they behave themselves? Absolutely. But there's no silver bullet. We have to go absolutely from the beginning and we have to say product liability, duty of care, mandatory standards, you know, director liability. You name it. Everything that everybody else suffers, so too must text.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, and this is where we get back to the issue of we've got a technology, it's being designed deliberately in certain ways, it's optimized for certain outcomes, and it has certain values. And I mean, values both in terms of what it extracts and how much money it makes and so on, but also values in terms of what it leaves behind. And we have all kinds of levers in society, whether it is polluter pays, whether it is consumer rights, whether it is product safety, whether it is a competition. And one by one by one by one, all of these levers have been knocked aside by the tech industry. And I think that when people want a silver bullet, I'm going to tell you today, banning social media.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, it wasn't. And you started this interview by quoting my husband. And in fact, that's what happened. I went, I started to show the film and I rather stupidly said I would show it to any school that wanted. So I ended up going to dozens and dozens of schools and then it spread to Europe and I even ended up in Brazil showing it in schools in Brazil. But what I learned was that I was ahead of the game, but so were the teachers. The teachers who were seeing, you know, hundreds of kids, scores of kids rather than their own children were seeing a shift in behavior. And they were worried and I was worried. And at the time, I thought if I just tell someone, they'll sort it out.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, no, it absolutely is. And just to be really clear, I told the parents what I was doing. I had support. And in fact, the final film is a little bit of a bumpy film because at the last minute I decided two of the characters were too vulnerable to be in it. And I cut them in the final edit, literally at the last moment. It wasn't the most extraordinary film, but it was the most extraordinary experience.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“tapping away and I thought that is interesting I had a thought it was literally this it was I wonder what it's like to grow up here and also there I wonder where there is”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So it was 2012 and it was the Exact point where a smartphone became a price that an adult might give one to a child. I walked into my own kitchen, and there were five young people, I think they were fifteen, on a sofa, and they weren't talking. And I thought, wow, that's funny. But they were, you know.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Also, don't turn it into work. Don't turn it into work. Have a shared experience. And we did have a phenomenal success. By the time we dinner, 25 pilots, there were a thousand people waiting and I won't tell you the whole story. We don't have time. But it was picked up by the then government. It was supported by Gordon Brown. And it was then available in all schools. And it was somewhere in there. They thought, oh, maybe she'd be good in the Lords because she seems to be creative and...”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, exactly. And we raised a bit of money, we opened 25 clubs, and I went forward and I said, I am telling you, this will make children excited to be at school. There's only one condition, I said. Don't ask them to write anything. Don't ask them to speak about anything. Just make sure that they watch it together. And I think that's a really important point here as to where we're going.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I can't remember. Yeah, I guess I was. Yes, so, I mean, I had, you know, in between that, I'd been to Hollywood and back and so on. And in fact, I was one day invited as a guest to a very smart dinner that took place in Downing Street and I happened to sit next to someone and the conversation got to why boys wouldn't read books. And there was a lot of conversation about it. And I woke up in the morning and I thought, well, I bet they watch films though. And that was it. Once I'd had the thought, I was unstoppable and I was at the time involved with the UK Film Council, precursor of the BFI.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He did. And I have to say, I'm in the Yentobentob crowd. And knew him very well later in life. But at the time, I'd never met him and he was, you know, he was the power. He came in, he watched it, he stood up, and he went, well, that's not very BBC, is it? And he walked out, and that was it.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Idea that you can love who you need to love, but that actually you can get out you can come of age in whatever way you need to come of age was really powerful. And it's amazing. I think that I have had a bit of luck getting to see ministers every now and again because they're resistant came out because of oranges are not the only fruit. There is not a week in my life that people and it's 30 years or 35 years. I mean, you know, since we made it, there's not been a week where I haven't either had someone whisper in my ear bring a photograph from the film and ask me to sign it. Send me a note.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think my interest is in the voiceless, if that's not true ironic. But, you know, so I felt, I mean, first of all, it was a wonderful tale and I had read Jeanette's other books and I just thought, you know, this was just a story that needed to be told. And rather than concentrating on whether two young people”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Don't be binary because it is a constant. And the one thing I'd love to tell you is that when we first showed that film, It was in Berlin, and the entire audience, and the Berlin before the war came down, and the entire audience stood up in tears and someone took off their shirt and got money from the audience. We went back to Greenham with two thousand pounds from one screening. They were like you're speaking for us girls.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think that that's where my politics and coming from a more sort of investigative place really comes to play because it's more nuanced than that. And I can tell in your face it's more nuanced than that. You know that actually they brought together a peace movement. They brought together something about protest and about, you know, these things that were happening to communities without their consent. And actually for a long time, indeed, they were not there, but we're in a time where we're all remilitarizing again. And a lot of things that we may feel. Had been one of going in a different direction. So I think one has to be just a little bit more.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I think I thought I was watching them. If you're somewhere like that for seven months, day in, day out, you know, there is a point in the film where there's a bit of a row and I start joining in and the camera goes blank. And I think that's my admission. At that point, I had something to say about what was going on. But in fact, the real moment of change for me was when I saw how the press started behaving towards the women. And you probably remember there was a summer at which their sexuality, their smelliness, their clothes were everything. And I remember thinking, hang on a minute, I have something much richer, much more nuanced and much more important to say about these women than we're seeing in the press.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did. I mean, it's sort of. I think my life, if you really want to put a sort of a crude thing on it, I always start walking before I think. And that was one of those occasions. I had arrived at film school. I was going to be a cinematographer. I was the only woman in the department. And all the boys appeared to have come out of the womb with a camera in their hand because they knew what they were doing and I did not. And I went to Greenham for the weekend and I stayed seven months because I thought, hang on a minute, this is important. And in fact, the thing that always makes me laugh is that Colin Young, who was the head of the film school at the time, said, okay, you can do it. I did it with a woman called Manda Richardson. She did the sound. I did the camera. He said, so long as the camera is behind a locked door at night. And so we took the mini that I had.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“that it was something about looking at the world as a pattern of power, and so for me as an adult and quite getting on in my years now, I look back at it and go, wow, wasn't I lucky?”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, it's interesting because I'm not going to deny it was huge and it was. Why overwhelming But and there is a big but here which is that I also wasn't allowed to run I couldn't do sport and a friend of my parents gave me a camera and I started to take photographs and on Wednesday afternoons when everyone else went to sport I was allowed to go to the art room and do my photography and so on and that began the rest of my life and and one of the things I feel so passionately about was that during that period I saw power play out Who was talking, who was moving towards who, who controlled the space and the place, and I think it was a lesson not only in how to frame something and how to record something and how to occupy yourself when you couldn't be in a community”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Then pick up your pad and write and write things. And I'm still excruciated. I'm actually a bit dyslexic and I cannot. But I'm still excruciated when I remember being asked by very kind teachers who wanted to include me to go up to the board to write the answer on. It was always an absolute disaster.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, no, months. I mean, nine months. And it fell sort of really cruelly because it fell between primary school and secondary school. And so I arrived at the first day of secondary school with a little pad around my waist and a pen tied to my belt and a horn-like harp marks to get attention”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, that's right. I was born actually with a cleft palate, and then when I was about 10, I had a voice that sounded like this. And in fact, my vocal cords had a lot of notes on them, and they had to be stripped. And because I was so young and they were worried about it, I actually had to go on a diet of no-talking before my operation. And then indeed after my operation.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, it's a funny thing because as soon as you said tell me about the dinner party, the thing that I thought of was that there was a man whose name I still don't know, and we used to call him shush. And every time shush was coming for dinner, the water would be put on and the telephones would be taken off the hook. And the idea was, as I understood it, as I was very young, was that Shush was in some sort of danger in coming to talk, but at the table was always everybody talked about their day, and so we talked about our school day, we talked about what we'd seen on telly, and they talked about the world that they were going to build.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He absolutely did, and he was a very sophisticated thinker and economist. And what he was interested in was how structures and levers in society could change the lived experience of people. And I think that's what I got from him. And I have to say, you know, I was one of three and I'm the only one in politics. So it wasn't a given. But I found it very compelling. And I think because of my childhood, you know, I was surrounded not just by him, but, you know, through our kitchen came people from the apartheid movement, people coming out of China, people from Europe and so on. And they were at the dinner table and they were planning a better world. And so it was a time of great political optimism. And I think that's what I take rather than the politics of that particular kind of left.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's what there's a generation of people whose parents were very radical, who grew up both in America and here. And we are called the Red Diaper Babies, literally. It wasn't that easy, but I think I want to really hold on to the one thing that was a sort of a mantra between me and my father. And he used to say, you have to live in the world as if it is the world you want it to be, not the one it is, and you have to walk towards that. You have to believe that it can be different and it can be the one you want it to be.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I feel my father turning in his grave, so I have to say that he split at the point at which it became the SWP he left. I feel I must say that, otherwise he will spin. However, I think the most important inheritance that I have, and I'm really proud of my inheritance, it wasn't easy, Nick. You know, a lot of parents at school didn't like having the red diaper baby round for tea. I can tell you. The red diaper baby.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think we need a digital world that actually reflects our values, reflects our laws and actually looks after the people who use it. And it's not some fantasy, you know, of a perfect world. It's actually just really normal. It's like taking a technological advance. This is what always happens the robber barons go in first, they make a lot of money, they tell you why they are different this time, and then gradually and surely. Massive people, whether it is a democracy or some other system, says, oh, actually you're hurting us. I think we'll stop you doing this, we'll stop you doing that. We'd like you to do this and actually you can't take all the money we'd like a bit for ourselves. And that is where we have to go. So it's a concerted effort to demand that we, the people, have a say on the technology development and deployed in our world.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's almost like ban the company, not the kid. You know, if you really want it down to basics. But I think that my colleagues in the Lords are actually very keen on that. And sometimes you have to have a public campaign that says enough in order to get exactly where you need to be.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it's really important to be nuanced. So, can I just start by commending all the parents and all the activists who have brought this forward? Because they're desperate and they don't want their kids to have this stuff. And I think that that is something that we all need to listen to very carefully. Now, my own personal view is that we are in a digital world. We have an AI future and we can't uninvite the next generation. We have to let them. But I do think that access to children should be conditional, and it should be conditional on respecting their rights, on keeping them safe, on actually not addicting them and not extracting economic value out of their behavior.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Every eight seconds we send you a dopamine rush. That helps you stay addicted. And then you've got all the harmful, actual harmful things, and they go into a different sets of things from radicalization to gaming to self-harm to all sorts of content things. And then finally, and I think maybe most importantly, ultimately, we're looking at a sort of a destruction of democracy and an interruption of economic life at scale, at scale that is really extracting money out of the UK and landing it quite happily in Silicon Valley.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“referred and I think that people need to understand that this is deliberately designed to be compulsive I doubt if there's anyone listening to this who hasn't had the call of the phone feeling that they must just touch it actually pick it up and realise you just touched it a second ago of course you haven't got another message actually why you did it you don't know why you did it that unconscious attraction to your phone is deliberately pushed in and I was recently in Berlin and someone from one of the big tech companies said oh yes we're working on dopamine loops eight seconds now”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I think if you start in early years, we are literally addicting babies and toddlers to very fast cut, very deliberately addictive products that actually inhibits their ability to access language, to move, to socialize and so on. So we have a development sort of almost like a pandemic awaiting us. And if you talk about early years, you go, government, where are you on that piece of the conversation? So busy thinking about teenagers now. So that's the first thing we are putting tech into the hands of very young children. We're putting tech into our schools that is untried and untested. And we are taking away the places and spaces that children need to grow up. Then we move on to the actual harms. There are the addictions to which you've already”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I haven't had that conversation with him. I've had other conversations with him, but I don't think that anybody is an expert because they have their own children. And I think it's one of the big mistakes we make is we have to look at it at population level. We have to look at all children and see what's happening to all children as a generation, as a group. And I think his children are very particularly sheltered. He is the prime minister. He has two working parents with education and access to all the information in the world. And nothing that untoward might happen to his individual children. That's not the experience of children at large. And I think he's careless in putting it through the lens of his own children because that shows a lack of imagination. and a lack of political understanding of the realities of many people's lives.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is, and I do think in politics we really have to be careful, just because you're late to the party and just because we wish it had happened before, yes, yes, we welcome it. But now get on with it because this is a government that has 81 open consultations. And if you look at the small print, it was a consultation he was announcing, not real powers. And he could do that. He could do that next week when we get back.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, but I think this is the point. You said it in your introduction. We're 13 years too late to this. And so we're not rushing. And what's really difficult is that again and again we hear ministers saying, oh, it moves so fast, it's so difficult. We can't do it. And yet they're rejecting things that would have stopped Grock, that would have stopped AICA child sexual abuse, that would have stopped things that people out there want stopped”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, you know, I mean fantastic, great, put his shoulder to the wheel. Why not? We need everybody, but a bit late to the party and I have to say a lot of the things they announced on Monday are sitting in legislation in the Lord's and they could accept next Monday.”
2026-02-20 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'We're appeasing the tech bros': Beeban Kidron, from film-maker to lawmaker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source