Prime Minister Comes to Putney to Announce Online Safety Plans
Sir Keir Starmer chats with local children at St. Mary's Church
The Prime Minister with the Putney MP chats with young people at the church. Picture: Fleur Anderson
February 16, 2026
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer visited St Mary’s Church in Putney this Monday (16 February) to announce a series of new government measures aimed at improving online safety for children.
He was joined by Putney MP Fleur Anderson, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall and Schools Minister Georgia Gould for the visit to the historic riverside church, where he met local schoolchildren, answered their questions and spoke with parents about the growing challenges families face in the digital world.
The Prime Minister set out plans for immediate action to strengthen protections for young people online, including closing loopholes in the Online Safety Act, tightening rules on AI chatbots and giving the government new powers to act quickly as technology evolves. He said the government would move fast to ensure that no platform “gets a free pass”, following recent action taken against the AI platform Grok for hosting illegal content. He also emphasised the need for laws to keep pace with rapid technological change, describing the online world as “a minefield” for parents and children.
Putney MP Fleur Anderson, who has long campaigned for stronger online protections, said she was pleased to welcome the Prime Minister to her constituency for the announcement. She said parents across the country had been calling for urgent action and that the new measures would make a real difference. She highlighted the importance of ensuring that social media companies, rather than parents, take responsibility for keeping children safe. Anderson also welcomed the government’s commitment to cracking down on harmful AI chatbots and to supporting families who face emotional and financial pressures linked to their children’s online experiences.
The Mayor of London (centre) was also present at the Putney event. Picture: Fleur Anderson
The government’s plans include new powers to regulate AI chatbot providers, ensuring they must comply with illegal-content rules, and the ability to act quickly on recommendations from an upcoming consultation on children’s digital wellbeing. Ministers will consider measures such as minimum age limits for social media, restrictions on features like infinite scrolling, and ways to prevent children from sending or receiving nude images. The consultation will also look at limiting children’s use of VPNs that bypass safety protections and at strengthening protections for families following the death of a child by ensuring relevant social-media data is preserved.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the government would not wait to take the action families need, adding that the aim was to give children the childhood they deserve at a time of rapid technological change. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has also launched a new public-information campaign, “You Won’t Know Until You Ask”, offering practical guidance for parents on safety settings and conversations with their children.
The Prime Minister with local families
Children’s charities including the NSPCC and the Molly Rose Foundation welcomed the announcement, saying it marked an important step towards holding tech companies to account and reducing preventable harm. They urged the government to move quickly and to ensure that children’s voices are central to the process.
The government’s consultation on children’s digital wellbeing will launch next month.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |