DAILY MAIL COMMENT: With reports of child abuse on social media increasing fourfold...it's time to protect our young from the tech threat, PM

Published: 00:59, 24 August 2026 | Updated: 01:03, 24 August 2026 NO ONE could fail to be shocked by the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) statistics about child abuse on social media. With a fourfold increase in reports involving British children over the past seven years, the figure now stands at around 400 cases per day – although the real total is likely to be much higher. The sickening range of offences includes pornography, sex trafficking and predators enticing minors to carry out explicit acts. Nor, of course, does the threat end there. Only last week, the family of 13-year-old Blake Gallier – a Kent schoolgirl who did not appear to have mental health problems – told how she took her own life after being fed a stream of ‘disturbing’ social media videos about suicide. Bosses at TikTok have agreed a $400million (£293million) settlement with the US Department of Justice over a privacy case about collecting data from users under the age of 13. For its part, Meta – the parent company of Facebook and Instagram – is being sued by 29 American states for allegedly targeting young people with deliberately addictive product features. Yet as NCA chief Graeme Biggar warns that Facebook encryption protocols are putting young British lives in danger, Labour’s apparent drive to cosy up to Big Tech firms is causing concern. Analysis shows that ministers had more than 200 meetings with Silicon Valley giants, including Meta, in less than two years. Little wonder that the chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation – named after the 14-year-old who committed suicide after being bombarded with harmful content – says Andy Burnham must now show that he has ‘a credible plan for children’s online safety’. It goes without saying that the Government has a duty to maintain relationships that may prove beneficial to Britain’s business interests. But it has a far greater responsibility to protect our young people from the poisonous and deeply sinister elements of the online world. The chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation – named after the 14-year-old who committed suicide after being bombarded with harmful content – says Andy Burnham must now show that he has ‘a credible plan for children’s online safety’ EVEN by the Left’s standards, introducing a so-called ‘mansion tax’ was a spiteful act of class warfare. Yet, adding insult to injury, it now emerges that HMRC valuers will have the power to carry out door-to-door inspections before deciding whether to levy thousands of pounds in extra charges on homeowners. No one in authority appears to have thought through obvious pitfalls such as disputed valuations and legal challenges. Nor does there seem to have been much reflection in the first place on the potential impact of the new tax on the property market. No doubt, those considerations were of minimal importance in Downing Street when measured against Labour’s ravenous appetite for money to fund the bloated benefits bill. That the new tax involves punishing people for having the cheek to live in a nice house - almost certainly the result of aspiration and hard graft - is presumably just an added bonus. THE tragic deaths of PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough illustrate the reality of life on the thin blue line in desperately bleak terms. For all the criticisms levelled at Britain’s police forces, no one should underestimate the debt of gratitude owed to the brave men and women who keep society safe. It is a grim coincidence that this latest carnage comes during the controversy over proposed early release for the killers of PC Andrew Harper. And it should serve as a reminder that every time a police officer pulls on a uniform, there is no guarantee they’ll be going home at the end of their shift.