Nigel Farage has come under fire after vowing to rip up the Online Safety Act, which was brought in to protect children online and prevent more tragedies like the death of Molly Russell
Nigel Farage faces a huge backlash after vowing to rip up protections to stop kids viewing dangerous material and porn.
The Reform leader confirmed his party would abolish the Online Safety Act – but admitted he has idea how to stop children accessing harmful content. A Labour source told The Mirror : ” Nigel Farage has inexplicably chosen to side with those who peddle extreme pornography to children as young as five.
“He’s unfussed with rape, incest and torture videos flooding back into Britain. And doesn’t care if young people are exploited by horrific suicide forums.”
The Reform chief was dismissed as “not serious” after the remarks, which also saw fellow Reform heavyweight Zia Yusuf brand the legislation “dystopian”.
Mr Farage was unable to say how he would prevent tragedies like that of Molly Russell, who took her life after accessing sick content promoting suicide aged just 14. Andy Burrows, chief executive of Molly Rose Foundation, set up in her memory, said scrapping the Act would be “retrograde”.
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And he said the public wants more protections, not less. Mr Burrows said: “Scrapping the Online Safety Act would be a retrograde move that would not only put children at greater risk but is out of step with the mood of the public.
“In fact, our polling shows that voters across the political spectrum want stronger online safety laws not weaker ones, and politicians on all sides would do well to listen to them.”
He described the legislation as an “important building block” and said parents and grandparents support decisive action. Asked how he would protect youngsters like Molly, Mr Farage told journalists yesterday(MON): “Can I stand here and say that we have a perfect answer for you right now? No.”
Earlier former Reform chairman Mr Yusuf had suggested that safety steps could be used by social media firms to “censor anti-government speech”. Under changes that came into effect last week, age verification checks and changes to algorithms have been brought in.
But critics have warned young people have easily-accessible ways to work around it. The Government has pledged to keep measures under review to prevent kids accessing material on suicide, self-harm, eating disorders and pornography.
A Labour spokesperson said: “Nigel Farage would scrap vital protections for young people online, and recklessly open the floodgates to kids being exposed to extreme digital content.
“Reform offers anger but no answers. They won’t say what they would do instead to keep people safe.”
Apple’s app store shows more people are turning to virtual private networks (VPNs) to get around the new rules. These allow users to hide their real location.
Mr Yusuf said: “Sending all of these kids onto VPNs is a far worse situation, and sends them much closer to the dark web, where the real dangers lie.”
And Mr Farage said he would have “more access to some of the best tech brains, not just in the country but in the world ” and would “make a much better job of it”.
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