Thank you to everyone who contacting me about keeping young people safe on social media.
I want to hear more from constituents – particularly parents and young people themselves – about their views and experiences of using social media, and what action they believe the government should take. I have launched a residents’ survey, so please do take five minutes to fill it out as I would love to hear from you and represent your views in parliament. You can do so by clicking here.
This is a hugely important issue to me, and I have been horrified by the recent revelations that an AI tool was being used on Elon Musk’s X platform to generate publicly available sexualised images of children and ‘nudified’ images of women without their consent.
Such content is quite clear abusive and unlawful, so I am glad that the internet regulator Ofcom immediately launched an investigation, with the possibility of enforcement action up to and including a full ban of X in the UK. Following a strong response by the Prime Minister, X has now finally acted to prevent such content being generated, but it is appalling that this feature was ever allowed on their platform and even worse that Elon Musk and X resisted deactivating it when it was brought to their attention. As a result of these recent events, I have taken the decision to delete my X account and will no longer be using the platform.
We all know, however, that this recent event is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the harm being done by social media. While I know that social media has a positive role to play in connecting likeminded people and allowing completely legitimate online discussion, the right to free speech must never be used as a smokescreen to enable illegal and harmful content to damage our health and wellbeing, propagate abusive or harmful content, or undermine our communities.
I know that some have called for a blanket ban on social media for under‑16s, something I know the government is actively considering. It something that I am considering supporting because I recognise the harm social media can cause to teenagers – from worsening body image pressures to exposing them to pornography and other harmful content. I am also concerned about the impact of excessive social media use on young people’s cognitive development. Australia recently introduced such a ban, so I am keen to see the evidence of their experience about whether this was effective in reducing harm.
While the government considers a possible ban for under-16s, I strongly welcome that the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Liz Kendall, has made it clear that creating a safer internet for young people is a top priority. The Online Safety Act 2023 already makes it a criminal offence to share or threaten to share intimate images without consent, and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 goes further by criminalising the creation or request of non‑consensual intimate images.
I would like to see parts of the Online Safety Act strengthened, and I am deeply concerned that Reform UK have committed to completely repealing this important law if they were to enter government, without having any plan for how to keep us all safe online – particularly women and young people. That is something I will continue to strongly oppose as the MP for East Thanet.
Ensuring the internet is a safe place for all of us is hugely important to me. So please rest assured that I will continue engaging closely with the government on how we can safeguard young people online.