© Tom Blewitt & Zack Griffiths – Predator Awareness

The UK’s Online Safety Act was sold to the public as a shield for children. A way to clean up the internet, protect young minds, and hold tech giants accountable. But open up apps like X on any given day, and you’ll see how empty that promise really is.

Instead of shielding children, the law seems to have created a smokescreen—one that allows explicit content to flourish while cracking down on dissent. Pornographic videos and nude images from OnlyFans creators are posted openly on social Media, without age restrictions, and they’re not hard to find. You don’t have to search for them. They find you. And yet, the platforms hosting this content—are not facing meaningful consequences.

Why?

Because the Online Safety Act isn’t about protecting children. It’s about protecting authority.

Since the law came into force, we’ve seen arrests in the UK for social media posts that challenge power. People have been jailed not for inciting violence or spreading hate, but for exposing corruption, questioning institutions, or simply telling the truth.

Nearly 400,000 people signed a petition to repeal it within days of its enforcement, it’s clear something’s gone wrong. The act gives regulators sweeping powers to demand content removal, impose fines, and pressure platforms into compliance. But compliance with what? Not with child safety. Not with transparency. But with restricting free speech.

This isn’t just a policy failure—it’s a moral one. Children are still exposed to harmful content and people are being punished for speaking out.

The UK has fallen into a trap of censorship disguised as protection. But there’s still time to change course. We need a law that truly protects children—by enforcing age verification, limiting exposure to explicit content, and holding platforms to real standards. And we need a law that protects our right to speak freely, challenge authority, and demand better.

Scrap the Online Safety Act. Start again. Build something that works—for children, for truth, and for the future.

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