Farage calls for ‘tech answer' to protecting children online
The Reform UK leader was this week accused by a Cabinet minister of being on the side of 'people like Jimmy Savile' over the party's pledge to scrap the Online Safety Act.
Speaking on LBC, Mr Farage described the comments, made by Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, as 'absolutely appalling'.
During the phone-in, the Clacton MP took questions about his opposition to the Online Safety Act and new Government demands that social media companies tackle illegal content and activity online, along with content that is harmful to children.
George Nicolaou, from Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, said his 15-year-old son Christoforos was 'murdered by predators to an attack propagated through social medias three years ago'.
He described the law as a 'matter of life and death' for some families.
Mr Farage replied: 'If age verification of itself was able to prevent incidents and tragedies like this, I would, George, 100% support it.
'But the problem is it doesn't, because of the VPN route.'
VPNs or virtual private networks can enable internet users to circumvent the new rules, by masking a user's digital identity.
'There has to be a tech answer around this,' Mr Farage added.
'I don't know what it is, certainly the Government doesn't know what it is, but there has to be a tech answer of some kind, and we need to try and find it.'
Mr Farage also said: 'We're talking about, how do we protect young people?
'How do we stop them accessing dangerous, violent content, or worse?
'I'll tell you what, George, here's the real danger – that if you go through a VPN, you can then access content on what's called the dark web, which is even worse than what you can find online now.'
Mr Kyle told Sky News earlier this week: 'I see that Nigel Farage is already saying that he's going to overturn these laws.
'So you know, 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.'
Mr Farage said: 'Most 13-year-olds are more tech savvy than Peter Kyle and the people that drew up this legislation didn't know what they were doing.
'We have to have a fresh look.'
The Reform UK leader alleged the Government was 'setting up an elite police force to monitor what people say about illegal immigration and migrant hotels'.
He added: 'This legislation is the biggest threat to free, open debate and speech we've ever seen.'
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