In an age where technology permeates every corner of our lives, ensuring online safety—especially for children—has become one of the most pressing issues of our time. The recent comments made by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage regarding the Online Safety Act have sparked heated debate, and rightly so.
Appearing on BBC Breakfast, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle directly addressed Farage’s proposal to scrap the Online Safety Act, calling out the dangers of rolling back progress. “I say to people like Nigel Farage who want to turn the clock back and want to overturn these regulations—he makes children more exposed, more susceptible to dangerous content,” Kyle stated.
The Online Safety Act was introduced with a simple but critical mission: to make the digital world safer, particularly for younger and vulnerable users. It holds social media platforms and tech companies accountable for harmful content, including cyberbullying, self-harm promotion, child sexual exploitation, and more. Removing or weakening this legislation could have devastating consequences.
Farage and Reform UK argue that the act limits free speech and creates unnecessary red tape for online platforms. However, critics of this stance point out that safety and freedom of speech can—and must—coexist. The goal is not to silence opinion but to protect users from deliberate harm and predatory behavior.
Peter Kyle's warning comes at a time when children’s screen time is at an all-time high and exposure to harmful content is only a few clicks away. A rollback of online safety protections would leave children without a safety net in one of the most influential spaces of their lives.
With the next election looming, debates around digital regulation and personal freedom are likely to grow more intense. But at the heart of the issue is a simple question: do we value the safety of our youngest citizens enough to keep fighting for a more responsible internet?
As lawmakers, parents, educators, and citizens, the responsibility is collective. Whether one agrees with every detail of the act or not, abandoning it entirely would send the wrong message—that our children’s safety in the digital world is negotiable.
