We have allowed British children to be groomed by social media predators. It ends now | Peter Kyle

ONE A few weeks ago, when I visited the NSPCC, I met young people who were talking openly about their online lives – the good and the bad. Several of them told me they were afraid: afraid of cyberbullying; afraid of care; and afraid of what they might roll to see next.

Many of these children had been left distraught by the horrific images and videos they had seen online. Some of them felt powerless in the face of an anonymous algorithm feeding them more and more of this disturbing content. It was difficult to report. Although they managed to get one disturbing post taken down, they knew it wouldn’t be long before they saw another.

I also spoke to volunteers, many of whom had spent their nights in the call center helping children who had fallen victim to a growing epidemic of online crime. Some of these children had been swept up in a tidal wave of content that promoted suicide and self-harm. Others struggled to stay afloat after their photos were stolen by online predators or shared by their classmates.

The stories I heard were heartbreaking. They were also annoying. In the last decade, we have seen thousands of cases like these – and we have done nothing. Faced with such damning evidence of our collective failure to keep people safe, we must ask ourselves how we got here. How we allowed children to be groomed by social media predators who promised their parents they would be safe. How we stood by while women’s abusive partners posted intimate photos of them online, forcing them to live forever with the knowledge that thousands had seen them at their most vulnerable. How we failed to stop fraudsters from conning older people out of the savings they had spent their lives working hard for.

A decade lost to indecision and delay has come at a terrible human cost. For many families, it is already too late. Nothing we do now will bring their loved ones back. But we owe it to them to ensure that no more lives are needlessly lost to this epidemic.

The draft illegal codes as Ofcom has published today is the biggest change ever to online security policy. Internet terrorists and child abusers will no longer be able to act with impunity. Because for the first time, tech companies will be forced to proactively remove illegal content that plagues our internet. If they don’t, they will face huge fines and, if necessary, Ofcom can ask the courts to block access to their platforms in the UK.

The codes will make it easier for police and regulators to report fraud and scams to the websites where they take place. At the same time, they will make it more difficult for strangers to contact children online and also expand the use of automated tools that can reveal material about sexual abuse of children.

Today I have also set out criteria for the sites that will face additional duties under Online Security Act. This summer we saw how far and quickly false rumors – often deliberately started by racist aggressors – were spread on major online services, spilling over into simmering hatred on streets up and down the country.

My decision means that the most popular platforms (known as category 1) will be forced to uphold their terms of service by removing harmful content that, while legal for adults, contradicts the promises they made to the people who uses them.

The online world we’ve built is a vast, unpredictable experiment. As a society, we have taken a big leap into the unknown. Young people today must contend with challenges that no other generation in history has faced. But uncertainty cannot excuse inaction. If there is no plan to tackle this epidemic, then we must make our own.

The illegal codes set by Ofcom today are truly world-leading. They will make the UK one of the safest places in the world to be online. But I hope that they will also give citizens the confidence to seize the extraordinary opportunities that an analogue world just cannot offer.

Some people compare social media to cigarettes; the parallels are striking. Today we have put an end to years of denial and willful ignorance. Just like we did back then we addressed indoor smokingwe have faced our mistakes and found the courage to come up with our own answers. But there’s a crucial difference: Even if you can’t smoke safely, I think you can be safe online.

The children I met also talked about the reasons why, despite the dangers they face, they still log on. Today, the Internet helps them learn new things and keep in touch with family far away. Soon it can help them find a good job or meet their future partner. If they come back to the NSPCC as volunteers, they will find that the internet is a vital lifeline for vulnerable children reaching out for the help they can’t find at home.

However, whatever they choose to do, I want them to be able to look back and recognize that this was the moment when everything changed. Because the work to build a better online world for everyone has finally begun.

• Peter Kyle is Minister of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

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