Deco invited to speak to MPs about online safety

The band have been invited to speak to MPs

A band which has built its reputation on making political statements through its music has been invited to Parliament.

Pop outfit Deco, who are from the Midlands, have been invited to talk to MPs by the shadow minister for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Alex Davies-Jones.

The band said they were keen to speak to MPs about the Online Safety Bill.

The government has been contacted for a comment.

Lead singer Max Kendall said: "The Online Safety Bill is making excellent and essential progress in protecting young people online, but we want to ask MPs to not only consider harm from negative content on social media, but also the harm of positive content.

"Being both consumers and creators of online content, we're all too aware and concerned that painting a falsely perfect picture of our lives may be damaging to the mental health of other social media users."

'Falsely perfect'

The band's parody Party Like Boris Johnson has received thousands of views on social media and their latest song, Everybody Wants To Be Somebody Else, is about the dangers of social media.

The band will meet the shadow culture secretary on Wednesday, who plans to introduce them to other MPs and set up a more formal meeting in January.

John Steele, from the band, said: "As far as we can see, the key to tackling this is awareness.

"Children need to be taught and adults need to be reminded that online personas are inherently glamourised, carefully polished versions of reality.

"We hope to highlight to MPs that this is something that can affect everyone."

The band have appeared on BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend and one of their songs has been played on ITV's Love Island.