UK committee urges stronger online safety protections
The committee called for stronger online safety enforcement and action on harmful algorithms in the new parliamentary session.
The UK Parliament’s Science, Innovation and Technology Committee has urged the government to strengthen online safety protections for young people, following evidence on proposals to restrict social media access for under-16s.
Committee Chair Dame Chi Onwurah wrote to Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall and AI and Online Safety Minister Kanishka Narayan after an evidence session on age-based restrictions.
The committee said there is strong and consistent evidence of significant individual harms linked to social media use, alongside a growing body of evidence showing wider negative impacts. It said there is a clear need to protect people, especially young users, from those harms.
The letter argues that responsibility for preventing harm should not rest solely on young people or parents. It says government inaction on online safety is not an option and calls for stronger enforcement of existing age restrictions
The committee also urged the government to revisit its July 2025 report on social media misinformation. Although the government accepted almost all of the report’s conclusions, the committee said it rejected almost all recommendations for change. It is now calling for action on misinformation, harmful algorithms, and online harms in the new parliamentary session.
Dame Chi Onwurah said: ‘The status quo, where social media companies are neither accountable nor responsible for preventing harms, isn’t acceptable. It’s clear social media can cause real harm and more must be done to protect people, especially young users. If any other consumer product caused these harms, it would’ve been recalled or changed. Shouldn’t the same be true for social media services and design features?’
She added: ‘The government must urgently address gaps in the regulation, legislation and enforcement of online safety. It should revisit and adopt my committee’s previous recommendations on tackling misinformation and harmful algorithms and bring forward legislation to effectively tackle online harms in the new parliamentary session.’
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