Online Advertising Taskforce: Action Plan

Thursday 30th November 2023 Written Statements

[The Minister for Media, Tourism and Creative Industries (Sir John Whittingdale)]

I am pleased to inform the House that today we are publishing the Online Advertising Taskforce’s action plan.

The Online Advertising Taskforce brings together representatives from Government and the online advertising sector to work in collaboration to address illegal harms and the protection of children in relation to online advertising. Its creation was announced in the Government’s response to the online advertising programme consultation, published in July, and the taskforce held its first meeting later that month. It committed to agreeing upon and delivering a programme of work to help address illegal advertising and minimise children being served advertising for products and services illegal to sell to them (“in-scope harms”), in anticipation of regulation being introduced in due course.

The action plan we are publishing today brings together commitments from Government and industry that seek to drive progress against two objectives: improving the evidence about the in-scope harms, and expanding voluntary industry initiatives that seek or have the capacity to address them. This has been a collaborative and ambitious piece of work and we are grateful for the invaluable contribution of taskforce members since the summer.

The Government have also been working with technology companies as part of their online fraud charter, which will further drive action against fraud, including that which is perpetuated through online advertising, and which is also being published today. Through both programmes of work, the Government and online advertising companies will implement significant protections from fraud for everyone engaging in business and recreation online.

The action plan will be published on the Online Advertising Taskforce gov.uk page: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/online-advertising-taskforce.

[HCWS81]