‘If you want to overturn the Online Safety Act you are on the side of predators.’
Nigel Farage has declared that Reform UK would repeal legislation designed to regulate online content that is “illegal” or “deemed harmful to children”.
Farage’s comments about the Online Safety Act did not go down well with the Science Secretary, Peter Kyle, who has strongly criticised the Reform leader’s stance.
In a Sky News interview, Kyle said that Farage was effectively siding with pornographers and pedophiles like Jimmy Savile by vowing to scrap the law.
The Science Secretary said: “I see that Nigel Farage is already saying that he’s going to overturn these laws. So we have people out there who are extreme pornographers, peddling hate, peddling violence. Nigel Farage is on their side.”
He added: “If people like Jimmy Savile were alive today, he’d be perpetrating his crimes online. And Nigel Farage is saying that he’s on their side, not the side of children.”
Sky presenter, Wilfred Frost, challenged Kyle’s comments, asking “do you honestly think Nigel Farage is on Jimmy Savile’s side?”.
Kyle explained that implementing verification on social media stops “strange adults” from contacting children.
Since Friday, thousands of sites offering adult content, including social media apps such as X, Reddit and TikTok have introduced new age checks on users to comply with the Online Safety Act.
He added: “Nigel Farage is on the side of turning the clock back to the time when strange adults, strangers, can get in touch via messaging apps with children.”
Frost described Kyle’s comments that Farage is on the side of predators as an “interesting extrapolation”.
Yesterday, Reform UK criticised the Online Safety Act for altering people’s social media feeds and said it was an example of governmental over-reach.
Farage told the FT: “It begins to look as though state suppression of genuine free speech may be upon us already.”
Reform also claimed that the legislation won’t protect children because some people are using VPN services to bypass age verification requirements.
Kyle acknowledged that VPN use is on the rise, and said the government will monitor how they’re being used but won’t ban them.
Asked how Reform would protect children, Farage admitted he did not know, but claimed his party had expertise not available to the current government.
Farage described Kyle’s comments on Sky News as “disgusting” and called on him to apologise.
Kyle responded on X, stating: “If you want to overturn the Online Safety Act you are on the side of predators. It is as simple as that.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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