'The government must step in to protect children - as online giants have failed'

Safety from online peril

Protecting our children online must be a national priority when so many young lives are ruined, and even taken, by abuse.

Internet giants dominated by American corporations have failed to shield impressionable and vulnerable minds, so the UK government must step in and do the right thing. Labour MP Josh MacAlister’s bill, to be introduced in Parliament this week, raises the age of internet adulthood from 13 to 16 among other things, but stands little chance of becoming law without ministers’ support.

So we implore the Prime Minister, and his Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Peter Kyle to make time available for it to be debated and passed in Parliament. Global online companies are publishers, not platforms, and they must stop wriggling out of responsibility for offensive and reckless content. The buck stops with the Facebooks and Googles of this world. Our children are too precious to be left at the mercy of the worst of the internet.

Behave, Beeb

Having to temporarily suspend rehearsals for the Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas special over an offensive racist remark by star Brendan O’Carroll is another crisis the BBC could do without. The inquiry into the Irish comedian for what he, apologising, called “a clumsy attempt at a joke” could not come at a worse time.

When the BBC is rocked by claims of bullying on Strictly, then by news anchor Huw Edwards’ resignation ahead of his prosecution for possessing indecent images of children, a race slur completes the unholy trinity. The BBC as our national broadcaster must prove it is against all racism and will not tolerate bigotry, and O’Carroll must remember everybody deserves to be treated with respect.

The tide turns

Keir Starmer’s investment summit was plain sailing after the P&O Ferries row. The £63billion of international funding will make much bigger waves across the economy.