Rachel de Souza

So she said legislation could be reassessed if firms deliver technical solutions first, uh, and claimed that, uh, the package of legislation w- would make Britain a leader in online safety.

So just in time to justify Nandy's claims that more needs to be done, England's, uh, Children's Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, uh, was giving evidence to the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee's, uh, inquiry into the Online Safety Act's implementation and impact.

And she said that children have told her that the, that the UK's Online Safety Act has made absolutely no difference to their ability to access harmful content online.

She said, "If Ofcom is gonna be the vehicle to protect our children, we need them to be getting ahead of the harms, and I don't think they have.

It's really, it's just nonsense.

So anyway, she pops up, Dame Rachel de Souza, um, pops up and says, "Must read testimony from care leavers in the Sunday Times.

I know from many conversations that a lack of support and housing creates a dangerous," wait for it, "cliff edge." Carers are not asking for the world.

The right support can be life-changing.

Yeah.

And they're all continuing to do very nicely, thank you, in their Westminster bubble on their Pol Roger and their Bellinis.

So let's not forget here that Dame Rachel de Souza isn't simply the Children's Commissioner sitting in an office somewhere.

She is, of course, in that tight-knit children's policy ecosystem, that Children's Care Cabal, shall we call it? And of course, Josh MacAlister is the leader.

Prevent is the government program which is designed to protect vulnerable people from being drawn into extremism, but it is failing to help those most at risk.

That's according to a new report by Children's Commissioner Rachel de Souza, which found that the program has failed to move with the times and is unable to cope with cases which show signs of a fixation with violence but no ideological element.

Southport killer Axel Rudakubana, who was clearly troubled, was referred to Prevent three times, but because he didn't demonstrate any clear ideology, his case was closed.

While referrals continue to rise, the commissioner has called for the Home Office and the Department of Education to issue new statutory guidance on children who pose a risk to others.

The Children's Commissioner for England has urged the communications watchdog Ofcom to show more teeth in its dealings with tech companies that expose children to graphic content online.

Dame Rachel de Souza is warning that young people are becoming intoxicated by extremism and drawn into radicalization and violence.

She says these obsessions aren't backed by any clear ideology, leaving the government's counter-extremism program Prevent unable to cope.

Here's our UK correspondent, Daniel Sanford.

Rachel de Souza's concerns that she says keep her awake at night arise from the number of children now being referred to Prevent, the program originally designed to tackle ideologies like extreme Islamism and neo-Nazism.

Her report found that many of these children are obsessed with violence such as school massacres and mass casualty attacks, but have no clear ideology.

70% of the children referred to Prevent have got non-specific ideologies, and they're often violence fixated, involved in the most awful online communities, obsessed with killers and really, really serious stuff, and everyone I'm speaking to on the front line is deeply concerned.