So a politician just tried to ban sexting for anyone under the age of 18. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt was speaking to a committee on youth mental health when he proposed that social media companies stop the exchange of explicit images and texts between teenagers. They should use their magical technology, he thinks, to identify naughty images and stop them from being sent.

If you think that sounds a little odd and maybe even technologically impossible, that’s because it is. Mr Hunt is rolling out this public policy idea with the authority of a middle-aged dad who’s just found out what an emoji is.

Here it is straight from him: “There is a lot of evidence that the technology industry, if they put their mind to it, can do really smart things. For example, I just ask myself the simple question as to why it is that you can’t prevent the texting of sexually explicit images by people under the age of 18, if that’s a lock that parents choose to put on a mobile phone contract. Because there is technology that can identify sexually explicit pictures and prevent it being transmitted.

“I ask myself why we can’t identify cyberbullying when it happens on social media platforms by word pattern recognition, and then prevent it happening? I think there are a lot of things where social media companies could put options in their software that could reduce the risks associated with social media, and I do think that is something which they should actively pursue in a way that hasn’t happened to date.”

Perhaps, for a start, Mr Hunt could have asked these questions of an expert. Then he may have found out that his plan is not only morally fallible, but technologically unsound. Alas, Mr Hunt and his fellow politicians do not make a habit of listening to experts. They recently assembled a group of academics and teachers for an enquiry into Sex and Relationships Education (SRE). The panel’s strong recommendation was to implement compulsory SRE in schools, but politicians have declined to do that and refused funding for the program. That is to say, rather than making ill-considered suggestions about social media, the government could be empowering young people with information so they could safely make their own sexual decisions.