Safeguarding minister accuses tech platforms of failing to protect children online

Safeguarding minister Satvir Kaur has said tech platforms are not doing enough to protect children online, after she watched an investigation into a network targeting children across Roblox, TikTok, Discord and Telegram. She described the material as beyond her worst nightmares. She said she cried and did not sleep after viewing it.

The investigation was broadcast a month ago. It exposed harmful content on social and gaming platforms used by children. The material flagged at the time was removed. But fresh checks found more problems. A reporter found self-harm avatars available for five-year-olds to buy on Roblox. On TikTok, harmful content was still being served to a 13-year-old account, including so-called blood walls. Publicly operating com groups were still found on Discord and Telegram. There was less content on Roblox than in the first investigation, which the minister said showed things were changing.

Kaur said the platforms were not looking hard enough. She said tech companies could give lip service to the issue, but actions speak louder than words. She said the government had promised to act, but it felt like something was not happening quickly enough. She also questioned Ofcom's position that it could not force platforms to take material down. She said she was happy to ask what more could be done.

She stopped short of backing changes to the Online Safety Act. Instead, she said Ofcom should use the powers it already has. She pointed to new laws already announced, such as controls on devices to stop children sending nude images. She said she would back anything that keeps children safe.

The exchange came as Labour MP Jess Asato said the Online Safety Act may need to be strengthened. Asato said the companies were not taking the action required to keep children safe. She asked why they were not using AI to find and remove content before children saw it. She called for the conversation on the Online Safety Act to be reopened and suggested a digital product regulation regime. She said companies were not designing out obvious harms.

Regulator and platform responses

Ofcom said it had investigations into more than 100 sites and apps and had issued over £7 million in fines so far. It said tech firms needed to go much further and faster.

• Roblox said com groups had no place on its platform and that dedicated teams worked proactively to remove content.
• TikTok said the content had no place on its platform and that it continued to strengthen its systems.
• Telegram said it explicitly forbids com-related activity and had been consistently removing groups.
• Discord said it had been aggressively disrupting com networks and had removed thousands of servers.

All the platforms removed content that was flagged and said they were working with other agencies.

A panel discussion on online safety heard warnings about the scale of the threat. A child psychotherapist, a bereaved mother and the chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation took part. Ruth said her daughter Sophie died in 2014 after being exposed to really harmful material online. Andy said the Molly Rose Foundation was founded after the death of Molly Russell when she was 14. The panel said online sadistic groups were targeting vulnerable children and that the number of potential victims was astounding. They said parents needed to be aware of what can happen on these sites.