Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan criticised social media companies during a speech at the Conservative Party conference. 

Ms Donelan, who is the MP for Chippenham, told Conservative members at the ICC in Birmingham that “for too long” the UK has “enabled social media giants to chip away at the innocence of children by feeding them dangerous content”.

She said: “Last week there was the inquest into Molly Russell. It further highlighted the horrific failure of social media companies in terms of their ability to put children and young people, and their welfare, first.

“I think we owe it to Molly Russell and all of Molly’s family to ensure that we do everything in our power to stop this from happening again.”

She added: “Our Online Safety Bill must be the answer and I will make sure the Bill’s key objective really is ensuring that social media companies protect children online.

“I can confirm here today that the Bill will be returning to Parliament and my dedicated team of ministers and I are working flat out to ensure that the Bill is delivered.”

Ms Donelan also announced the Government “will be replacing GDPR with our own business and consumer friendly British data protection”.