Teenagers risk online mistakes haunting them forever, warns Justin Welby
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The Archbishop of Canterbury has criticised cancel culture, warning that if people post “something stupid” online as a teenager, they “pay for it forever”.
The Most Rev Justin Welby also criticised society’s “absolutely appalling” attitude towards forgiveness and referenced his own experiences of being “trolled” online.
He made the comments in an address at the Church of England’s national education conference at St John at Hackney church in east London.
The Archbishop told delegates: “The absence of forgiveness in our world and our country is absolutely appalling. You post something stupid when you’re 19 and you pay for it when you’re 35, and you pay for it forever.”
Mr Welby also spoke about his personal experiences in being trolled online in an apparent reference to his speaking out over the Government’s proposed Rwanda asylum Bill.
‘Evermore intertwined’
The Archbishop said: “Our societies are evermore complex, evermore intertwined through social media, and evermore struggling to grapple the differences and division in such a way that everyone can flourish.
“Social media connects us in a way that we’ve never imagined possible but also works to drive us ever further apart. All of us know – and I know especially at the moment, I’m not going to go into that.
“I’m not going to go into debates in Parliament – but we know at the moment what it is to be trolled. It happens in school communities, it happens in local communities, it happens on a national and a global level.”
The Archbishop, who is a member of the House of Lords, gave an impassioned speech earlier this week on the Rwanda Bill, which he warned was “leading the nation down a damaging path”.
In a rebuke to the scheme to send asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats on a one-way flight to the country’s capital, Kigali, Mr Welby accused the Government of outsourcing the UK’s “legal and moral responsibilities”.
Criticised for speaking out
The Archbishop has made repeated interventions regarding the Bill. In 2022, he used his Easter sermon to criticise Downing Street over the policy, saying it raises “serious ethical questions” and cannot “stand the judgment of God” or “carry the weight of our national responsibility as a country formed by Christian values”. He has been repeatedly criticised for speaking out on matters of state.
The Archbishop has also previously criticised cancel culture saying that people have the right to make mistakes and learn from them, as well as defending the right to freedom of speech.
Later in his speech, the Archbishop also referred to advancements in technology, saying that artificial intelligence was something that could be of huge benefit, but warned it would not work if society continued to be so divided.
“Artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly and is a reality in our daily lives,” he said. “It’s not a threat, it is potentially a massive beneficial change, but it can’t work in a society that hates each other.
“It can’t work because it will then only be used to deepen hatred. In a society that looks out for each other, it can be utterly transformative.”
