Britain’s interior minister on Wednesday warned tech giant Meta that rolling out end-to-end encryption on its platforms must “not to come at a cost to our children’s safety”.

Suella Braverman and security minister Tom Tugendhat have called on the company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, to “work with us” and ensure police can access data.

“The use of strong encryption for online users remains a vital part of our digital world and I support it, so does the government, but it cannot come at a cost to our children’s safety,” she said.

“Meta has failed to provide assurances that they will keep their platforms safe from sickening abusers,” she added.