Member

Desperate parents and teachers are losing faith that the institutions of government can act. That is dangerous for not only child safety but society as a whole. That begs the question: how am I going to vote? When I first entered the House, a debate raged just like this one between those who wanted to reform sex and relationship education in schools and those who wanted a wider PHSE settlement. Both sides had compelling arguments but, because we failed to come together, neither succeeded and children waited another 10 years before anything happened. Yesterday, the Secretary of State cited our differences as the reason for the government consultation, but that is false accounting. The desire for a ban is a direct result of the failure to do the better thing—to implement the Online Safety Act in its full scope. If children were protected by the OSA, there would be no outcry, no campaign and no need to get them offline.