Storytime With Mother Murphy
Last week, Keir Starmer announced a social media ban for under-16s. What does that mean? One girl who has apparently gone viral on social media platforms she will now be banned from was interviewed, and when asked what she would do with her free time now, she replied, “Look at a blank wall.”
Her point was that she uses social media to stay in touch with her friends and family. We have created that society for our children. We did it. Now they are being punished. They have grown up with access to social media, including YouTube. What did they do wrong?
It’s always with hindsight that things created by incredibly clever humans are later banned. Smoking. Drugs. Diesel. Petrol. Open fires. Heck, my beloved Cadbury Dairy Milk would be banned if the sugar police had their way.
Now, I’m not saying that I agree with children, or adults for that matter, spending their lives on social media. I know that it can be a dark and dangerous place. But what can we do about it? How do we change the status quo?
For the last few months, I’ve been creating a new YouTube channel called Storytime With Mother Murphy. Who is this channel aimed at? Primary school children. The very people who are now banned from accessing social media, including YouTube.
When I heard Keir Starmer’s announcement, I had a bit of a panic and wondered if I should scrap this new project, which is due to go live on 5th July this year. But I took a step back and thought about why I was doing the channel.
In each episode, I will be reading from one of the books from The Magical Adventures of Florence the Border Collie. Me. Not an AI-generated image. Not a cartoon caricature with an automated voice. Just me. Well, sometimes with the real Border Collie sitting next to me. She likes to hear about herself.
So, in my defence, Storytime with Mother Murphy is not social media in the traditional sense. It’s a grandparent reading a gentle story – the equivalent of sitting on the sofa with a book. Or in my case, very often in Evie the Adria Campervan, because the acoustics are great in there.
On my channel, there will be no algorithms, no harmful content, no likes or comparisons – just Florence the Border Collie, a fairy, and stories about being brave.
The goal is not to replace books – the channel aims to be a gateway to them. Even a fairy telling a fib is a lesson, not harmful content. And with a magical Arctic Unicorn, a gentle dragon called Laura, and a magical bunny called Rhona, my aim is to light up children’s imagination so that they want to read more, write more, and who knows, maybe I will inspire one or two of them to be authors themselves.
So I have an announcement to make.
On 5th July, just in time for the school holidays, my new YouTube channel, Storytime with Mother Murphy will go live.
There is no content to watch at the moment, but at 9 am on 5th July, the first three episodes of The Tale of Florence and the King will go live. Each Sunday morning, at 9 am, there will be a new episode to watch.
Here's the link. If you do visit the channel, you could subscribe (free, and always free) so you and the little ones don't miss the first episode and all the others to come.
https://www.youtube.com/@StorytimewithMotherMurphys