Online Safety Act 'not up for negotiation' in US trade deal, Tech Secretary tells LBC

9 April 2025, 11:22

Online safety is "not for negotiation" in a possible US trade deal, the Technology Secretary has told LBC.

Peter Kyle insisted that "there's been no material conversations about online safety" in discussions with America about an agreement.

Britain and America are working to thrash out an economic deal, which experts hope will be able to negotiate away some of the tariffs which have been slapped on goods exported to the US this week

Mr Kyle insisted that it hadn't come up in a meeting of energy and tech bosses to discuss AI yesterday.

But he didn't say that a digital services tax on tech bosses would not be on the cards as part of some form of deal.

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Mr Kyle told LBC: "Let me be really clear, the safety of Britons online and offline is not for negotiation.

"The Online Safety act is a bedrock of our framework for keeping people safe, in particular children.

"And there's new powers that's coming online to make sure that content that is created and distributed via platforms is age appropriate. And that's coming on later this year and it will continue to come on later this year.

"We are working incredibly hard to find those areas where America and Britain working together can add up to more than the sum of our parts, so that we can reorientate both of our economies to face the future.

"Because we are in a global race when it comes to quantum fusion, AI, automation, health technology, climate technology. Britain is so, so well placed to benefit from all of these technologies."

He added: "There's been no material conversations about online safety in all of the negotiations that we've had. We are focusing on opportunities in the future. So online safety and the safety of children has never been up for discussion here. It is the law of our land and it's never been a material part of the conversations that we had with the US."

He also said the Prime Minister is "driven" by keeping kids as safe as they can be online.

The landmark Online Safety Act - parts of which came into force last month - is one of the first laws around the world which attempts to make illegal crimes which take place online, as well as offline.

But already campaigners are saying it doesn't go far enough.

Ministers including Mr Kyle have admitted that it could have to be updated and looked at again.

Mr Kyle told LBC: "I don't have to make the case to the Prime Minister that keeping children safe online is an important thing to do. He is driven by this. We're not moving backwards when it comes to keeping children safe online. We're moving forwards.

"We want to move forward in keeping children safe online. And also when you look at the voices of the tech sector. So even when Mark Zuckerberg made a statement around the time of the inauguration of President Trump and he spoke about freedom of speech with relation to the United States, not Britain, he also said in the same statement that they need to do better at keeping children safe online and they need to do better at taking illegal content off of their platform.

"So don't make out that actually we're moving against the tide when it comes to keeping children safe. We work with countries right around the world when it comes to keeping children safe online, and that's not going to change anytime soon."

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It came after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer suggested to MPs for the first time yesterday that the digital services tax was forming a part of discussions.

He told the liaison committee on Wednesday: "In relation to trade talks, obviously there are questions about the appropriate way to tax digital services, etc. There are questions about how technology impacts free speech.

"I’ve been very clear in my view that we need to have arrangements for a digital tax of some sort, and equally we need to be pioneers of free speech which we have been for very many years in this country.

"But at the same time, we rightly protect under the Online Safety Act – further provisions of which are coming into force pretty quickly – and when it comes to paedophiles and protecting children, I take a pretty strong line that we take the necessary measures in order to do so."

But Mr Kyle refused to say whether this tax had formed part of talks.

He said: "What we're trying to do is give space for these discussions to explore all of the potential that we have as two countries. The priorities the US have, the priorities the UK have and to let this process unfold.

"What we are striving to do, what the Prime Minister is demanding that all of us who are involved in this package and these discussions does, is bring back a deal that benefits Britain.

"And that's what we're really, really focused on."

On Thursday, the regulator, Ofcom, opened its first investigation into a website under the Online Safety Act, to see if it might have broken the new laws.

They will be looking into whether the provider of an online suicide forum failed to comply with their rules and duties.

Ofcom didn't name the provider in question.