UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has put important legal regulations on artificial intelligence-based chat bots on the agenda in order to increase child safety in his country. Starmer aims to close the gaps in existing regulations, especially with new measures prepared to prevent the production of illegal and inappropriate content.
AI chatbots and changes under the Online Safety Act
The regulation announced by the Prime Minister stipulates that artificial intelligence chat bots will be subject to inspection within the scope of the Online Safety Act, which is currently in force. With the new article to be added to the Criminal Crimes and Policing Act, it will be mandatory for chatbot providers to implement stricter measures against illegal content. Starmer announced the planned changes to the public, especially to protect young people in the digital environment.
Closing the controversy and legal gaps caused by Grok
Recently, regulatory authorities in the UK took action after it was revealed that xAI company’s chat bot called Grok produced inappropriate images containing children. Starmer shared his opinion with the public that the safety of children in the digital environment is a priority for state policy. In this context, it is planned to change the regulations that have previously exempted chat bots in cases where the user does not make a call or there is no direct sharing between two users.
Under the new regulations, providers of chatGPT, Gemini and similar chat bots may be fined up to 10 percent of their global revenues or their services may be completely blocked in the country. Providers will need to implement security measures that will detect and block illegal content in advance, especially child abuse material and unauthorized private images.
Steps forward in social media and digital wellbeing
Beyond AI chatbots, the British government is also working on broader digital security strategies. The public consultation on digital wellbeing, which will start in March 2026, is considering a ban on social media use for children under 16, similar to Australia’s, and limiting addictive digital designs such as endless scrolling.
The Prime Minister also referred to a new regulation called the “Jools Law”, which stipulates that social media companies are obliged to protect children’s data in the event of the death of young users. This regulation is intended to help families in the mourning process better understand the events.
On the other hand, England has taken an important step to benefit from digital technologies in the financial field. HSBC, one of the country’s leading banks, was assigned to launch the Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT) pilot application, which will enable the digitalization of government bonds. Using HSBC’s blockchain infrastructure called Orion, it is aimed to digitally issue government bonds quickly and at low cost.
Prime Minister Starmer stated that these new regulations and projects aim to strengthen the United Kingdom’s leading position in terms of both security and innovation in the digital age.
