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Channel 4 News Interview: "Online Safety Act Not as Powerful as It Could Be"

Mar 2025 🇬🇧 Channel 4 News

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In a March 2025 Channel 4 News interview with correspondent Ciaran Jenkins, Ian Russell — founder of the Molly Rose Foundation — assessed the UK's Online Safety Act roughly two years after it passed. Russell said the law, which took five years to negotiate, 'is not as powerful as it could have been,' and argued that content similar to what his daughter Molly viewed before her 2017 death remains easily accessible to children. He said regulator Ofcom was 'not doing enough' within its existing powers and predicted further legislative change would be needed within a year, despite public opposition to stricter rules from figures including Elon Musk and JD Vance. He cited polling in which only 8% of parents felt authorities were adequately protecting children online. TechKids Foundation includes this interview as a documented, dated public assessment of the Act's early implementation by a leading bereaved-parent campaigner.

8% of parents

Russell cited polling in the interview showing only 8% of parents believe the authorities are doing enough to protect children online.

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CITATION

Jenkins, Ciaran (correspondent). "Online safety act 'not as powerful' as it could be, says Molly Russell's father." Channel 4 News, 5 March 2025. https://www.channel4.com/news/online-safety-act-not-as-powerful-as-it-could-be-says-molly-russells-father

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