Jess Phillips, the Home Office minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, appeared to accuse Nigel Farage of being more concerned about “clicks for his monetised social media accounts” than children’s safety online.

She backed her colleague Peter Kyle after his row with the Reform UK leader last week.

The Technology Secretary said Mr Farage was putting himself on the side of “extreme pornographers” and people like Savile by opposing the law.

Under rules that came into effect on July 25 as part of the act, online platforms such as social media sites and search engines must take steps to prevent children from accessing harmful content such as pornography or material that encourages suicide.

Mr Farage has said the legislation threatens freedom of speech and open debate.

Writing in The Times, Ms Phillips said: “Farage said it’s the biggest threat to freedom of speech in our lifetimes.

“My colleague Peter Kyle said he was siding with modern-day Jimmy Saviles preying on children online.”

She said she would like to speak to Mr Farage about “one of those modern-day Saviles, Alexander McCartney”.

McCartney, who posed as a teenage girl to befriend young females from across the globe on Snapchat and other platforms before blackmailing them, “just needed a computer” to reach his targets, Ms Phillips wrote.

Believed to be one of the world’s most prolific online offenders, McCartney abused at least 70 children online and drove one girl to suicide.

Ms Phillips said the Online Safety Act exists to try to provide a “basic minimum of protection, and make it harder for paedophiles to prey on children at will”.

She said police have told her that paedophile networks use “normal websites where their parents assume they’re safe” to coerce and blackmail young people.

“Perhaps Nigel Farage doesn’t worry about that — there’s no political advantage in it, and no clicks for his monetised social media accounts. But I do.

“I worry about what it means now and what it will mean when boys reared on a diet of ultraviolent online child abuse are adult men having children of their own. I can’t ignore that, neither can Peter Kyle, and, most importantly, nor can millions of parents across the country.

“I defy Nigel Farage to tell me what any of that has to do with free speech.

“I defy him to meet even one parent who has lost a daughter to suicide because she was being blackmailed online and tell them that is just the price of civil liberties. Maybe he’d feel differently after that kind of meeting, or maybe he wouldn’t care.”

Her comments echo those of Mr Kyle, who said last week: “Make no mistake about it, if people like Jimmy Savile were alive today, he’d be perpetrating his crimes online. And Nigel Farage is saying that he’s on their side.”

Mr Farage demanded an apology from the Technology Secretary, who refused to withdraw the remarks.

The row erupted after a debate on Sky News, when the secretary of state for science, Innovation and Technology Mr Kyle issued a statement regarding the bill.

On Sky News Mr Kyle said: “Children under 18 should not be viewing involuntarily dangerous, hateful, violent, misogynistic and pornographic material.

“People have to understand the wild west [lasted on the internet] for too long.

“That ended on my watch.

“It ended on the watch of this government.

“[The implementation of the Online Safety Act is] a big step forward. Believe me, anyone that thinks it’s a step back needs to come and answer now.

“I see that Nigel Farage is already saying that he’s going to overturn these laws.

“So we have people out there who are extreme pornographers, peddling hate, peddling violence. Nigel Farage is on their side.

“Make no mistake about it.

“If people like Jimmy Savile were alive today, he’d be perpetrating his crimes online. And Nigel Farage is saying that he’s on their side, not the side of children.”

Nigel Farage said: “Peter Kyle’s comments on @SkyNews are disgusting. 

“He should do the right thing and apologise.”

Mr Kyle responded via social media: “If you want to overturn the Online Safety Act you are on the side of predators.

“It is as simple as that.”





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