Joint letter to the PM: prioritising online safety in UK-US trade deal

As Netflix’s Adolescence grips the nation with its harrowing depiction of a boy’s descent into online-fuelled violence, child safety campaigners have issued a stark warning to the Prime Minister.

On Friday, 5Rights Foundation and more than 20 organisations — including the NSPCC, Internet Watch Foundation, and bereaved parents who have lost children to online harms — have written to the Prime Minister, calling on him to make children’s safety a red line in upcoming UK–US trade negotiations.

The letter follows reports that the Government is considering weakening enforcement of the Online Safety Act — a move campaigners say would directly endanger children and undermine the Prime Minister’s efforts to tackle the dangers brought to public attention by the writers of Adolescence.