Beeban Kidron: why big tech needs its ‘tobacco moment’

Through the open windows behind Beeban Kidron drifts the unmistakable sound of children playing. The film director turned crossbench peer and campaigner says she has seen “a lot of things I’d rather not see,” but the moment that stays with her is watching a child realise that the person she thought was her friend wasn’t, and that what she’d been doing wasn’t for a friend.

“I am angry that we are willing to know this, and ignore this,” she says, and admits she finds it hard to moderate that anger. Her book, Users, mixes outrage with gossip and wit as Kidron’s past life directing films such as Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason collides with her political mission.

The seed of her campaign work dates back to a 2012 documentary about how smartphones were changing childhood, which led to the founding of the 5Rights Foundation and a search for solutions from Silicon Valley to the Vatican. Kidron’s grievance runs equally to platforms and politicians.

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