OB
HIGHUKAdded 2025-03-11
Olivia Bailey
MP / Digital Safety Advocate
UK Parliament (Labour)
Freedom Threat Index70%
SIGNIFICANT RESTRICTIONS
Profile
Labour MP behind an alternative legislative proposal to the Online Safety Act's children's provisions, granting Science Secretary Liz Kendall sweeping executive powers over children's access to digital services. Bailey's bill would allow ministers to ban children of specified ages from entire social media platforms and chatbots, restrict addictive or harmful features, limit children's VPN use to circumvent blocks, and raise the age of digital consent — all by ministerial order rather than primary legislation, concentrating significant censorship-adjacent powers in the executive.
Key Actions & Positions
Proposed legislation granting the Science Secretary powers to ban children from specific social media platforms and chatbots by age
Bill enables ministers to restrict or limit children's VPN use — targeting tools commonly used to evade content blocks
Provisions allow executive restriction of "harmful or addictive" platform features without further parliamentary vote
Would give ministers power to unilaterally raise the age of digital consent in the UK
Framed as a child safety measure; critics warn the VPN restriction and ministerial order model creates a template for broader internet access controls
Tags
children-onlinesocial-media-banage-verificationVPN-restrictiondigital-consent
Linked Incidents (1)
← Back to Censorship AdvocatesSource: Public Records