Lisa Nandy has admitted there is “a problem” with Ofcom’s ability to enforce online safety rules as she signalled further regulation of tech firms beyond the government’s under-16 social media ban.
“Laws are only as good as the ability to enforce them”, the culture secretary said, as she called for a more active role for the state in regulating the online world.
Her comments come days after she confirmed under-16s will be barred from high-risk social media platforms including Tiktok, Snapchat, YouTube and Instagram from March.
The new regime will also restrict features including infinite scrolling and algorithmic content for 16 and 17-year-olds and introduce tighter age checks.
But Nandy said the measures should not mark the end of the government’s intervention.
“We shouldn’t accept that this is the end”, she said. “This is a staging post to what must be a very active interventionist state, policing and regulating the online space so that people are safe”.
A consultation on the ban received more than 116,000 responses, with 85 per cent of parents saying the risks of social media outweighed its benefits
‘This ends now’
Nandy questioned whether banning children from social media should be considered a long-term solution to online harms.
“If we were in a situation where we were saying our town centres are now so unsafe that we’ve decided that every child is going to have to stay in their bedrooms, people would rightly be up in arms”, she said.
“How have we got to a point where we’re saying these social media sites are so harmful and dangerous that we cannot conceive of any way of protecting our children except to remove them altogether? This ends now”.
Nandy also said she had called tech firms into her office after taking responsibility for online safety and was “not surprised, but appalled” when representatives from X failed to attend.
She argued the internet had been “entirely outsourced to the private sector”, adding that it was “not acceptable to outsource this to Musk or anybody else”
Her comments come as Australia’s under-16 social media ban faces a High Court challenge from Reddit, providing an early test of both the legal and practical difficulties surrounding such restrictions.
The Australian government acknowledged in court submissions that there is no scientific consensus over whether social media causes particular mental health harms, but argued there were “credible risks” sufficient to justify precautionary action.
Canberra said almost five million accounts were removed after its ban came into force last December. Reddit suspended 43,962 accounts between December and March, although reports that some children have retained or opened accounts have raised questions over enforcement.
The UK is expected to build its restrictions around age-assurance systems already required under the Online Safety Act, with Ofcom tasked with overseeing the regime.
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