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A social media ban for under-16s is not about protecting children from online harms. The Government’s plans, due to come into effect in March 2027, are part of a broader effort to gain greater control over what we see online — and, ultimately, what we think. The same Government plans to ban a 15-year-old from Spotify, YouTube Kids and Lego Play, yet expects them to make an informed decision at the ballot box the day they turn 16, under the Representation of the People Bill. It is insane.

🚨 A MESSAGE FROM LORD YOUNG ON THE CONVERSION PRACTICES BILL AND HOW TO SUBMIT EVIDENCE TO THE COMMITTEE The Conversion Practices act is one of the worst pieces of legislation Parliament has ever seen. The bill has been introduced under the guise of banning conversion practices, which are already illegal. So what will this bill ban? It will criminalise the well intentioned, good faith conversations between parents and their children and therapists and children. The bill will see parents and healthcare professionals go behind bars if they attempt to persuade gender confused children to either pause or not undertake irreversible, life changing and dangerous medical pathways before the age of 18. It could not be more sinister or illiberal if they tried. If you share our concerns about the impact that this will have on free speech and parental rights, use the FSU’s tool to create a bespoke and personalised response to the Joint Committee of MPs and peers scrutinising the bill. Every response helps and it is the only way to stop this bill. Use our tool in the link below and watch General Secretary of the Free Speech Union 👇

Free speech on campus continues to come under attack, with Cambridge once again showing itself to be a bastion for those seeking to cancel people they disagree with. The university must hold its nerve over Professor James Orr. Students have repeatedly targeted his lectures in Cambridge, and did so again on Friday. Elizabeth Spring, a theology student at Cambridge, writes that “a mob of protesters shouted and banged on the windows of the associate professor of religion’s lesson in an apparent effort to dissuade undergraduates from taking his paper. A week earlier, two student activists members of the Fire James Orr Campaign disrupted a lecture he was delivering”. She also reports that some students have expressed an alarming desire to see Professor Orr physically attacked. Much of the anger behind this campaign is a reaction to the media storm over the summer about Professor Jason Arday. But James Orr is not responsible for Arday’s death. As Elizabeth writes: “It doesn’t matter that there is no substantial link between Orr and Arday, it only matters that Orr is a known conservative.” She adds: “One of their incoherent arguments for his guilt is that he is a member of the Free Speech Union”. Additional measures have been taken to protect Orr and his students. These included having two protectors present at Friday’s lecture, arranging for lectures to be recorded for students who were too frightened to attend, and checking students’ IDs, as many of the protesters are not actually Cambridge students. Protesters brandished signs bearing James Orr’s face and filmed the building on their phones, accusing the former head of policy at @reformparty_uk of being “bought by Palantir”. Cambridge has not covered itself in glory in recent years with its approach to free speech. Writing about the level of cancel culture at the university, Elizabeth says: “I wish I could say that political intimidation is unusual at my university, but this instance of campaigning with the intent to silence dissenters from Cambridge’s political monoculture is unfortunately normal. Instances abound of events being cancelled, or kept under the radar due to the risk of counter protests”. Members of the Cambridge University Society of Women, supported by the Free Speech Union through the Ian Mactaggart Programme, have faced a relentless campaign of abuse for their lawful gender-critical beliefs. They continue to advertise the locations of their events only on the day itself to avoid confrontation from other students. Read more below in @spectator 👇

“The headmaster folded like a badly made deckchair and threw him under the bus.” A teacher from Batley has been in hiding for five years after showing his religious studies class a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson about the Charlie Hebdo massacre. On this week’s episode of the FSU Podcast, FSU Director of Policy and Research @DavidRoseUK speaks to the teacher’s friend, local activist Paul Halloran. Paul describes how the school’s leadership responded when protesters gathered at the gates: no public statement, no defence of a lesson the school itself had approved, and a suspension for the teacher who delivered it. Watch the full episode on the FSU YouTube channel 👇