Kanishka Narayan MP: speeches 2026

Speeches

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  With respect to the hon. Member, there are a range of questions, not least about how we make sure that we do not allow harms on gaming and messaging platforms. We need to look at the precise way in which age assurance can be robust enough, so that we do not get young people escaping any changes. There are a range of implementation questions. We want to get this right for our young people and families, not give in to political back and forth.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Gentleman is totally right. Social media companies are already required to enforce the age assurance thresholds that they face under existing legislation. Where that is not happening, we continue to back Ofcom to ensure that it acts robustly and uses every single power it has. We will continue to review whether more is needed to ensure that that is robust action.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  One of the big lessons of the Australian experience and beyond is that policy in this context is about not just short-term impact, but long-term norms. We will achieve that impact only if we bring parents and families with us. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend, who has been a remarkable champion, particularly for bereaved families in his constituency who have experienced the utmost tragedy and, through it, have shown the most remarkable resilience.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes a really important point. One of the things that we have been clear about is that regulated health advice should be provided only by regulated individuals in appropriate ways. The platforms need to ensure that they comply with that, and we will work with the regulator to ensure that any such responsibilities are carried out.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right to say that the issue of concern is not whether there are some incremental changes but whether our children are safe online, and that is at the forefront of my mind. We are looking at the quickest way of achieving such an outcome. We are preparing legislative options alongside the engagement that we are already carrying out, and if we are not able to secure substantive change to deliver that outcome, we will not hesitate to legislate.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend has been extremely thoughtful before in relation to these issues, and I agree with what she has said. In my experience with young people and families, parental controls have not been easy to engage with, and nor have they been completely effective in driving down the harm in question. As for the effectiveness of what we have announced today, there is clear evidence that age assurance at device level has already been effective in some instances. The technology also appears to be pretty effective in understanding nudity and therefore blocking it. We are looking at that precisely, because we think it is radically more effective than age assurance just at the level of the application. I will continue to bear my hon. Friend’s lessons in mind.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend, who has been a remarkable champion for young people and families on this question, and I have deeply valued her input and expertise. On her question about definition, I will not pre-empt the decisions that will result from the consultation, but her representations on harmful functionalities are very much top of mind for me. I assure her that it will not be parents who will bear the burden of enforcement; we will ensure that it is very much the platforms who are responsible for enforcement and for acting.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member raises an important point, and I will ensure that it is fully considered in the evidence that we include when making decisions on that question.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for her question. Let me give a very clear sense of that outcome and how we will measure it. Currently, 91% of the images used in child sexual abuse interactions are self-generated. To me, that is the central focus for what this Government are doing. We have already made a significant difference, as I have said, in ensuring that our robust engagement delivered a pioneering change to a major operating system. If this change is not delivered within weeks, we will ensure that the full force of the law delivers such an outcome. [ Official Report , 15 July 2026; Vol. 789, c. 14WC.] (Correction)

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her depth of engagement with young people and families in her constituency, which she has shown in her representations to me. I have heard consistently from young people, both here and abroad, that in the way that we have engaged on this question, we have made sure that we are doing politics differently: we are listening to the voices of young people and families and putting them at the heart of our decisions. She has done that in her community and we will do that across the country.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  In characteristic fashion, the Father of the House has given wise counsel, and I will very much take it to heart in the way that the Government act.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  The Government are already committed to a conversation as well as a vote in the House on the substantive question of the consultation. I will ensure that there is even fuller scope for engagement in the Chamber on the full set of questions that the right hon. Member has raised.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  I share my hon. Friend’s starting position of scepticism. Robust action will be achieved by ensuring that the outcome is a significant reduction in child sexual abuse material propagated through the mechanisms described. In the absence of that happening within weeks, we are preparing law in parallel to ensure that such action is not deferred.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  I have been very conscious of my hon. Friend’s expertise in this domain, but I am glad to hear of her pioneering experience on the question of age verification, too. We have taken this action because, through our engagement, we have made sure that the technology is now in a good place to robustly verify the age threshold of 18. That is why we want to see it extended, to make sure young people are secure online.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  Safety by design is an incredibly important principle. I valued its mention in the online safety legislation and in our engagement with companies. It is an attractive and tractable way of driving change, too. My hon. Friend has done extensive work on this issue, and I look forward to engaging with him in depth to make sure that his ideas feed into our decisions.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  It is valuable that the hon. Member has raised those particular harms. I assure her that extreme violence and self-harm content of the sort she has described are already significant and priority offences under the Online Safety Act. Platforms have liability for making sure that that sort of content is proactively rooted out, and where that is not happening, the regulator has the powers it needs to act against it and will continue to do so. The particular change we are considering is about a very specific classifier of nudity—it is much harder to build classifiers for particular types of violence. However, I will of course continue to work with the hon. Member, and any other Members who are interested, on what more we can do.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for a point well made. We have been consistently robust with tech companies on this question. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips) for her leadership on this question. It is, to me, not a technology problem; we have the technology to act on this, and we will now deliver that in the real world.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  The right hon. and learned Member, with all his expertise and experience on this theme, makes an incredibly thoughtful point. He has made that point to me before, and I assure him it is on my mind to ensure that whatever we do, there is no levelling down of the force of the child safety duties under the Online Safety Act on the platforms—if anything, there is a levelling up.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  One of the firm lessons that I learned from my hon. Friend’s engagement—and such depth of engagement—with young people in Staffordshire was the need to ensure that the changes we make online also reflect better opportunities offline. I know that she provides extensive opportunities for young people in her constituency. We will make sure that when we are acting on this issue, we are looking at the full range of their experiences.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  I understand that Home Office Ministers made a statement at oral questions. I am happy to answer any further questions from Members of the House.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  One of the things that I value most in this role is the ability to engage directly with whistleblowers from a range of companies, and to hear about their understanding of what is happening internally but, more than that, the strength of their prescription. I am not relying on any internal, privileged understanding; I am relying on action, not words. The fact that we have already been able to secure a world-leading change in respect of age assurance at device level, protecting millions of young people in this country, is the action on which I am relying, not false promises or privileged information.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I heard the Home Secretary deliver a statement at the start of topicals. It may not have been the fullest format, but it was a clear statement of the policy. I am of course happy to keep answering questions for as long as the House likes.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Member makes an incredibly thoughtful point about something that I have heard in anecdote when engaging with young families. I am conscious that we are running a large-scale media literacy campaign to support parents in their understanding of social media and its impact on them and their relationships with their kids. I will take his comments and ensure that they are fed into the guidance that is prepared.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  I first point out that in government, the Conservatives took seven years to pass a Bill and then found that law to be inadequate. That is why they are proposing all the things they are trying to do. This Government are listening to the people of Britain. I have been around listening to thousands of young people and families, and they say that they have a Government who are listening with humility and getting the action right on this central question. They say, on age assurance for adult content, that this Government have listened and acted robustly. They said so on Grok when the Opposition were missing in action. On the shadow Minister’s point about existing devices, I point out to him that a major provider has already applied age assurance at the device level for existing devices as well. We will learn the lessons and ensure that we are acting robustly in protecting young people.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend, who has been another remarkable champion: she has engaged with people in her community and represented those voices to me. We will ensure that those voices result in quick as well as deeply robust action.