Is Online Safety back on the table?

This blog looks at the UK government’s discussions and actions around online safety over the past year, sketching out the main factors influencing its policy direction. 

With Jess Phillips MP (Labour) resigning in May from her role in Keir Starmer’s cabinet as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, citing the PM’s failure to act against online child exploitation, online safety is having another moment in the spotlight. In her resignation letter, Phillips lamented the government’s stalling and delaying on the matter even while being presented with solutions to combat online child sex abuse by ending children’s ability in the UK to take nude images of themselves.

Around this time last year, MPs and NGOs alike similarly complained about what they perceived as the government watering down the Online Safety Act (OSA) over the course of its implementation, accusing Starmer of bowing to pressures from tech companies. Yet, by the start of 2026, the UK government appeared ready to revert to online safety by announcing it would consult on new legislative proposals to regulate internet access for children. In February, new legal powers were also introduced allowing the government to act swiftly following the consultation response without waiting for new primary legislation. 

What the government is consulting on 

The consultation “Growing up in the online world” was published in March, seeking views on children’s social media use broadly and on a number of proposed interventions.

Measures considered in the consultation include the following: 

• A legal requirement that social media services have a minimum age of access
• Setting an age of digital consent
• Restricting by age certain functionalities (e.g., livestreaming, location sharing, disappearing content, connecting with strangers, etc.)
• Restricting by age certain persuasive features (e.g., infinite scrolling, autoplay, alerts and push notifications, content recommendation algorithms, etc.)
• Restricting by age the use of AI chatbots
• Introducing age checks for all internet users
• Restricting by age VPN use

The consultation also aimed at collecting views more broadly on the benefits and risks of being online for children; on the impact of children using specific services; and on the burdens each measure might create for parents, industry, schools and other stakeholders.

Public response has been mixed. While many activists welcomed the government’s announcement, some NGOs raised concerns about privacy impacts for all internet users. The proposed ban on social media has been particularly controversial, with even advocates for government intervention questioning its effectiveness. Others have called, alternatively, for age-appropriate restrictions to be extended beyond social media, bringing gaming and other tech services into scope.

How geopolitics comes into the picture 

International pressures are pulling UK online safety policy in conflicting directions. On the one hand, concerns about social media’s impact on children have become a global topic of conversation, with many governments considering stricter options such as banning children from accessing platforms. Australia, last December, became the first country to introduce a social media ban for young people, barring under-16s from creating accounts on age-restricted platforms. Spain is moving in a similar direction, while around the world individuals are taking social media platforms to court.

On the other side of the debate, the current US administration has strongly pushed back against attempts to regulate platforms like X. US politicians and tech company CEOs alike have criticised British authorities for cracking down on online hate speech and other offences, calling online safety laws an infringement of free speech. Against a backdrop of significant geopolitical tension, the UK government must take into account potential fallout from international actors when considering new online safety legislation.

What’s next

The consultation closed at the end of May, and the government announced it would publish its response later this summer.

In her resignation letter, former Minister Phillips expressed scepticism over the announced summer 2026 timeline, arguing the consultation’s momentum was driven by the government’s legitimacy crisis following Lord Mandelson being forced out as ambassador to the US. Yet, MPs continue to push for further regulation of children’s online activity. Last month, the House of Commons’ Education Committee questioned representatives from TikTok, Meta, Roblox and Snapchat on children’s screentime and social media use, with a focus on safety and addictive algorithms in order to inform discussion around banning under-16s from social media. Last week, the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee published its own response to the consultation, concluding that there is strong and consistent evidence of significant harms to individuals from social media use and calling for government intervention.

The new Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Natalie Fleet MP (Labour), a long-standing advocate for women’s rights, has already said that the government will be “relentless” in protecting young girls from grooming on the internet, but has yet to set out her vision for any further social media regulation. With Labour leadership under challenge, a further change of direction for online safety cannot be ruled out.

For companies providing social media platforms, age-assurance services or VPNs, now is the time to join the policy debate. Inline will be tracking government’s legislative proposals for tackling online safety, as well as Ofcom’s ongoing OSA implementation. Please get in touch to find out more.