Tech firms face fines up to £60,000 for failing to remove knife crime content
Social media companies will be fined up to £60,000 each time a post relating to knife crime is not removed from their sites in a bid to stop children viewing “sickening” content.
The new sanction expands on previously announced plans to fine individual tech executives up to £10,000 if their platforms fail to remove material advertising or glorifying knives following 48 hours of a police warning.
It means tech platforms and their executives could collectively face up to £70,000 in penalties for every post relating to knife crime they fail to remove, with the new laws applying to online search engines as well as social media platforms and marketplaces.
Crime and policing minister Dame Diana Johnson said the content that young people scroll through every day online “is sickening” adding: “That is why we are now going further than ever to hold to account the tech companies who are not doing enough to safeguard young people from content which incites violence, particularly in young boys.”
The sanctions for tech platforms will be introduced via an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill.
It is separate to the Online Safety Bill, which aims to protect children from online harm, which some campaigners and parents have criticised for not going far enough.
The Home Office said today’s announcement follows “significant consultation” with the Coalition to Tackle Knife Crime, launched by Sir Keir Starmer in September as part of his bid to half knife offences in a decade.
Patrick Green, chief executive of The Ben Kinsella Trust, a knife prevention charity which is part of the coalition, welcomed the measure, telling Sky News social media companies have “proved themselves to be incapable of self-regulation”.
“There’s been a real reluctance of social media companies to take action sufficiently quickly. It’s shameful, we shouldn’t need legislation,” he said.
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Why are young men carrying knives?
The Ben Kinsella Trust is named after teenager Ben Kinsella who was fatally stabbed in 2008 on the way home from the pub after celebrating his GCSEs.
Months earlier, Ben had written to then prime minister Gordon Brown to urge his government to tackle knife crime.
Knife crime rates soar
However, the problem has soared since then.
In the year to March 2024, there were 53 teenage victims aged 13-19 in England and Wales, according to the Office for National Statistics. That is a 140% increase on the 22 teenage victims a decade earlier.
Ben Kinsella was just 16 when he was fatally stabbed in June 2008
Overall, police recorded 54,587 knife-related offences in 2024, up 2% on the previous year and more than double the 26,000 offences recorded in 2014.
Mr Green told Sky News that while knife crime has been happening “long before social media took hold”, online content glamorising the possession of a knife is hindering efforts to reduce it.
“There will be pictures of these knives [on social media] with ‘follow me’ luring young people onto places where these knives are sold. It’s never been easier for a child to buy a knife.”
‘One part of a larger problem’
However, while welcoming today’s announcement he said social media was “one part of a larger problem”, adding that “provisions of youth services have been decimated” and “much more needs to be done”.
The government’s plan to halve knife crime in a decade includes banning zombie-style knives and ninja swords, with a nationwide surrender scheme launching in July, and stronger laws for online retailers selling knives.
Ministers also want to increase prison sentences for selling weapons to under-18s and introduce a new offence for possessing a weapon with intent for violence, with a prison sentence of up to four years.
Read more:
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What are the UK’s knife crime laws – and how could they be tightened?
Ben Obese-Jecty. Pic: Parliament
Government ‘can’t police the internet’
Last month, Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty suggested violent videos viewed online should be used as evidence to prosecute under the new law. He was speaking during a debate he secured on knife crime, in which he criticised a wider culture which “valorises” criminality and gangs in music and the media.
On the measures announced today, the Huntingdon MP told Sky News that while “any measures to help reduce instances of knife crime are hugely welcome”, he was doubtful that the sanctions could be effectively enforced.
“The sheer scale of content on social media that glorifies or incites violence is staggering, let alone content returned by search engines,” he said.
“The government can’t possibly hope to realistically police the internet.
“The government must tackle the culture that promotes and encourages the use of knives and ensure that there are robust consequences to doing so, not simply pretend they will have online content removed.”
Three men have been jailed for a combined total of 99 years for plotting to murder a member of a gang that carried out Britain’s biggest-ever cash robbery.
Paul Allen, 46, was shot twice as he stood in his kitchen in Woodford, east London, on 11 July 2019.
He was a member of the Securitas heist gang that stole £54m from a cash depot in Tonbridge, Kent, in 2006.
The former cage fighter was living in a large detached rented house with his partner and three young children after being released from an 18-year prison sentence over the raid.
The attack at his home has left him paralysed from the chest down.
Louis Ahearne, 36, Stewart Ahearne, 46, and Daniel Kelly, 46, denied conspiring to murder Allen but were found guilty last month following a trial at the Old Bailey.
The trio were sentenced at the Old Bailey in central London on Friday.
Kelly was sentenced to 36 years in prison and an extra five years on licence, Louis Ahearne was jailed for 33 years, and his sibling Stewart Ahearne – 30 years.
Damage to the kitchen door. Pic: Met Police/PA
A bullet casing found in the back garden. Pic: Met Police
Prosecutors did not give a motive for the murder plot, though they described the victim as a “sophisticated” career criminal.
Detectives said the shooting could seem like “the plot [of] a Hollywood blockbuster” but added it was actually “horrific criminality” from “hardened organised criminals”.
In her sentencing remarks, the judge said she believed the trio “were motivated by a promise of financial gain”.
Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC said: “I have no doubt that this agreement to murder Paul Allen involved other people apart from the three of you and that you three were motivated by a promise of financial gain.
“The culpability of each one of you is very high.
“The harm caused to the victim was very serious – indeed, short of killing him it could hardly be more serious. He is currently paralysed and relies on others for every single need.”
The shooting was just the latest act in a long list of criminal deeds. The day before, Kelly and Louise Ahearne used a rented car to carry out a burglary in Kent, accessing the gated community by pretending to be police officers.
A month before that, the trio had stolen more than $3.5m (£2.78m) worth of Ming dynasty antiques from the Museum of Far Eastern Arts in Geneva, for which the Ahearne brothers had been jailed in Switzerland.
Kelly is also wanted in Japan over the robbery of a Tokyo jewellery store in 2015 in which a security guard was punched in the face.
A man has been jailed for life for the murder of university lecturer Claire Chick.
Paul Butler was sentenced to a minimum term of 27 years for killing his estranged wife after a six-month campaign of stalking and harassment when he refused to accept their relationship was over.
Ms Chick, 48, was found seriously injured on West Hoe Road in Plymouth just before 9pm on 22 January. She was taken to hospital, but died the next day.
Previously known as Claire Butler, Ms Chick worked at the University of Plymouth.
Paul Butler has been jailed for murder. Pic: Devon & Cornwall Police
She died after a frenzied attack outside her home – the attack a culmination of months of harassment, stalking and violence at the hands of Butler.
Following her death, Devon and Cornwall Police made a referral to the police watchdog due to previous contact prior to her death.
Jo Martin KC, prosecuting, said Ms Chick had made six statements to the police about Butler and he had been arrested three times.
In her final statement to police the day before he killed her outside her own home, she said: “I only feel that Butler will kill me if further action is not taken. I am in fear of leaving my house.”
Butler was arrested around 20 miles away in the Liskeard area on 24 January.
He was sentenced on Friday at Plymouth Crown Court, having previously pleaded guilty to murder, and to one charge of possession of a bladed article.
‘I loved Claire’
The family of Ms Chick told the court how her murder left a “huge void” in their lives.
Her eldest daughter, Bethany Hancock-Baxter, described Butler as “evil”.
She said: “I want this evil man to listen to me. I want you to know what you have done to us as a family.
“Despite all the hate I have for you, I cannot bring myself to do what you did to my mum – that’s because I am not evil like you.”
Her sister, Lydia Peers, said Butler was a “parasite”.
After her short-lived marriage to Butler, Ms Chick began a relationship with another man, Paul Maxwell.
Mr Maxwell spoke from the witness box and repeatedly stared at the defendant as he spoke. Butler stared back at him.
“I loved Claire. She was beautiful, funny and kind,” Mr Maxwell said.
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