Keir Starmer urged to do more as online child sexual abuse hits record high

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is under pressure to fix “gaping loopholes” in the Online Safety Act (OSA) as new data shows online child sexual abuse material hit a record high in 2024.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a charity that takes down online child abuse content, has urged Starmer to intervene amid concerns that the OSA could allow a “safe harbour” for abuse to continue.

The charity called for a review of Ofcom’s codes, arguing they currently have a “get out” clause whereby platforms could “hide from” their responsibility to take down harmful material.

Last month, the communications watchdog kickstarted its set of measures to implement the OSA, which it said would make 2025 “a pivotal year” for online safety.

However, IWF chair Catherine Brown said the codes are flawed, claiming they would allow tech companies to avoid “effectively and proactively” addressing the harms identified in their risk assessments while still following their duties.

In a letter to Starmer, she said: “We are deeply concerned that the codes allow services to remove illegal content only when it is ‘technically feasible’, which will incentivise platforms to avoid finding ways to remove illegal content in order to evade compliance. This undermines the act’s effectiveness in combatting online child sexual abuse. We urge you to instruct Ofcom to urgently review and mitigate this blatant get-out clause.

“The publication of the codes also highlighted the weaknesses within the legislation itself. For example, the act does not mandate companies to moderate content uploaded in private communications. As a result, illegal content that is blocked elsewhere on the internet can still be freely shared in private online spaces.”

She added: “Additional legislation should be introduced to ensure there are no safe havens for criminals in private communications.”

New data revealed last year the charity acted to remove content of children suffering sexual abuse or links to it in more than 290,000 websites – making 2024 the worst year on record for online child abuse material.

The new statistics mark an 830 per cent increase since IWF began removing content a decade ago.

And pressure has been mounting over the past year for the government to strengthen regulations under the OSA. Last year, the Molly Rose Foundation urged ministers to “finish the job” after finding tech companies were significantly underperforming in their responsibility to remove harmful content from their sites.

In 2014, while director of public prosecutions in England, Starmer gave the IWF the power to start proactively hunting down child sexual abuse imagery.

“Now, we need him to act decisively again. The new regulations we’ve all worked so hard to bring in threaten to leave gaping loopholes for criminals to exploit”, Derek Ray-Hill, interim chief executive of the IWF said.

“The Online Safety Act can be revolutionary in protecting our children if the political and regulatory will is there. Or it can be a monument to ineffectiveness in the face of a solvable problem. The solutions are here, now. They aren’t pie-in-the-sky solutions for the future. They exist, and they are trusted. Big tech just needs to be instructed to switch them on.

“Sir Keir has it in his gift to take the wheel and make a real difference that children in the UK, and all around the world, will benefit from. It’s their safety that is at stake.”

A UK Government spokesperson told Holyrood the government will use "all available levers" to protect children online, and will "not hesitate to go further if necessary".

They added: “Child sexual exploitation and abuse is despicable and has a devastating impact on victims. UK law is clear – child sexual abuse is illegal and social media is no exception. Companies must ensure criminal activity cannot proliferate on their sites.

“From March, under the Online Safety Act, companies will need to take robust action to tackle this material when they become aware of it, training moderating teams to spot child exploitation, and testing whether their algorithms are promoting this material – putting safety by design into their products from the outset. If companies fail to act Ofcom has robust enforcement powers including the ability to issue significant fines."