Online Safety

Ashley Fox Excerpts

Tuesday 8th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Lisa Nandy]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend’s constituents, and thank him for being such an outstanding advocate for them. He will have heard what I said about ongoing discussions with tech companies. We ought to be moving quickly on this, and it ought not to require primary legislation, but given the lack of progress, I think it only right for the Government to step up. We do, however, want to see faster progress, and I think that many of the tech companies will have noted the strength of feeling throughout the House about their own responsibilities in this regard.

[Sir Ashley Fox (Bridgwater) (Con)]

Children are facing unacceptable levels of sexual harm online, and they need protection. When the Government do the right thing, I will say so, although it has taken them rather a long time to get to the right place.

Many children use older phones handed down by family members. How will the Secretary of State ensure that children using devices with older operating systems are fully protected?

[Lisa Nandy]

We have been discussing that as a Department, and it is something that officials are currently exploring. I am very familiar with what the hon. Gentleman says: many children will be using older devices. We think there may be some solutions to this, but I am very keen to work with colleagues from across the House to address some of these issues.

Although we will not hesitate to take the action that we need to take or to take action where it is needed, as I said to the Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, the hon. Member for Gosport (Dame Caroline Dinenage), we are trying to come at this issue from lots of different angles to ensure we close loopholes one by one, and close as many as we can at the same time. Part of that is about the action that we are taking not just on the taking of nude images—as my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips) said, that is the most central part—but on the sharing of nude images. Even if a child has an older device, the protections that we are bringing in around the sharing of nude images will take effect immediately.