Online Safety

Iqbal Mohamed Excerpts

Tuesday 8th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Lisa Nandy]

We are coming at that from a number of angles. As well as the measures I have been outlining to colleagues today, we are looking at how we can develop gov.uk. We are pioneers when it comes to gov.uk, but we believe we could do even more to make it more relevant and to provide better avenues to trusted sources of news. My hon. Friend will also know that, along with the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, my right hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South (Ian Murray), we produced the first ever local news strategy to support the incredible local news outlets that did such amazing work during the riots a few summers ago to tackle misinformation and disinformation and to do myth-busting on the ground. Colleagues will also know that we are about to embark on the BBC charter review, which is our opportunity to take what is perhaps our best weapon against misinformation and disinformation, and make sure we put it on a firm and secure footing for the foreseeable future.

[Iqbal Mohamed (Dewsbury and Batley) (Ind)]

I join the House in welcoming the statement and thank the Government for the steps they are taking to keep our children safe. Earlier this year, I met campaigners from SafeToNet who had invented hardware-level protection that they had installed on HTC-only devices and were trying to persuade other mobile manufacturers to include it. As well as software controls, hardware-level controls are out there, so I urge the Secretary of State to look at those. We know that Meta has just agreed to pay $18 billion in a legal settlement in the US, so will the Government pursue similar robust enforcement against such companies?

[Lisa Nandy]

The hon. Gentleman is right to raise the issue of enforcement. As has already been mentioned, any legislation that we introduce is only as good as our ability to enforce it, so we take that extremely seriously.