Countering Russian influence in the UK
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the UK has applied sanctions and changed rules around visas and corporate transparency to counter Russian influence.

There will be a Westminster Hall debate on online safety for children and young people on 26 November 2024. The debate will be opened by Lola McEvoy MP.
Children and young people may be exposed to many types of harmful content and activity online. As the NSPPCC has noted, some of this content is illegal, like child sexual abuse images or content promoting terrorism. Other material might not be illegal but can still harm children (eg content promoting eating disorders). Other content can be harmful because it isn’t age appropriate.
The Online Safety Act received Royal Assent in October 2023. The protection of children is one of the key aims of the act. To protect children, online platforms will have to:
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the government department with responsibility for online safety, has published an “explainer” giving an overview of what the act will do (May 2024), including how it will give children “age-appropriate experiences”.
Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, is also the online safety regulator under the 2023 act. Ofcom intends to implement the act in three phases, with the entirety coming into force in 2026. For further detail, see Ofcom’s progress update on implementing the act (PDF)(October 2024).
DSIT published a draft statement of strategic priorities for Ofcom on 20 November 2024. This sets out the following priorities that Ofcom must have regard to when exercising its functions as the online safety regulator:
In May 2024, Ofcom published forty proposals that social media (and other) online services would have to take to improve children’s online safety. These included:
According to Ofcom, the proposals would mean that:
A consultation on the proposals closed on 17 July 2024. Ofcom expects to finalise its proposals and publish a final statement in spring 2025.
Further information on Ofcom’s work is available in the following:
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) oversees and enforces UK data protection law. An ICO statutory code of practice (the “Children’s code”) sets out how online services should protect children’s information rights online (October 2022). The code includes details of how the ICO expects online services to apply age assurance measures that are appropriate for their use of children’s data. In January 2024, the ICO published an updated opinion on age assurance for the children’s code. This now explains how organisations can meet their data protection obligations whilst also complying with the Online Safety Act 2023.
Hansard material on children and online safety is available from this link to the parliamentary database.
The following websites provide further information on the harms that children and young people can encounter online and what can be done to keep them safe.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the UK has applied sanctions and changed rules around visas and corporate transparency to counter Russian influence.
There will be a debate on e-petition 700086 relating to a minimum age for social media on 24 February 2025 in Westminster Hall, led by Tony Vaughan MP.
The Data (Use and Access) Bill [HL] is scheduled to have its second reading in the House of Commons on 12 February 2025.