Online Safety Act 2023: Platform Categorisation

Debate between Baroness Parminter and Baroness Lloyd of Effra

Thursday 29th October 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The implementation of the Online Safety Act is something the Government are highly focused on. We have asked Ofcom to look at capabilities; the chair of Ofcom is looking at capabilities around supervision and enforcement. We are taking further measures to protect children, with the restricting of social media companies providing services to under-16s. We are very live to the effectiveness of the Online Safety Act. As the Secretary of State and others have said, where we find evidence that more action is needed, we will take it.

[Baroness Parminter (LD)]

My Lords, pro-anorexia online forums promote extremely dangerous content, exacerbating eating disorders, yet Ofcom has chosen not to take powers to tackle these pernicious sites, despite knowing that anorexia has the highest mortality rate of all eating disorders. Are the Government reviewing how Ofcom is using the powers that this Parliament gave it to tackle small, high-harm eating disorder forums, and if it is not, will it commit to doing so?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

As I mentioned, the Government share the significant concerns about small but risky services. The Ofcom taskforce is working to ensure compliance with the Online Safety Act, focusing on platforms hosting priority harm content such as CSAM; hate and terror content; suicide, self-harm and eating disorder forums; and violence against women and girls. That is a very important focus of activity. As I also mentioned, this is something that we expect Ofcom to enforce robustly. Ofcom has the Government’s full backing to use its enforcement powers, and the chair of Ofcom is undertaking a review of Ofcom’s enforcement capabilities and powers. The Government are in discussion about what more needs to be done here.