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Written Question
Disinformation
Tuesday 12th July 2022

Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reach those who are (1) less engaged in current affairs, (2) vulnerable, or (3) have accessibility considerations, to help them tackle misinformation and disinformation; and how they will ensure that such groups have the necessary media literacy skills to identify misinformation or disinformation.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Her Majesty’s Government published its Online Media Literacy Strategy in July 2021, setting out plans to support the education and empowerment of people to make safe and informed choices online. The strategy has a particular focus on vulnerable users.

Through our Year 1 Online Media Literacy Strategy we established the pilot ‘Train the Trainer’ grant scheme. We administered £250,000 in funding to five media literacy organisations working with schools to adapt their resources for teachers of children with special educational needs. Three of the grantees specialise in news literacy programmes which help build resilience to misinformation and disinformation through information literacy.

Our Year 2 Action Plan announced plans to establish the Media Literacy Programme Fund which will further support media literacy organisations which are undertaking work to support vulnerable users. We have also established the expert Media Literacy Taskforce which has been charged with exploring how to extend the reach of media literacy initiatives to those who are disengaged or lack access to support.


Written Question
Internet: Safety
Monday 11th July 2022

Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Online Safety Bill's ability to ensure companies in scope are (1) supporting, and (2) improving, the media literacy skills of their users.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Online Safety Bill includes measures to encourage regulated service providers to promote media literacy to their users. Following a recommendation from the Joint Committee which conducted the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Online Safety Bill, media literacy is now included in the risk assessment duties. This requires in-scope companies to consider how the promotion of users’ media literacy can be used to mitigate harms on their platforms.

Media literacy is also expressly referred to in Ofcom’s new transparency reporting and information gathering powers, giving Ofcom enhanced visibility of industry spending and activity related to media literacy. Social media platforms currently play a significant role in boosting media literacy, in particular with regards to the funding of programmes. This greater visibility of spending and activity in this area will therefore strengthen Ofcom’s ability to undertake its statutory duty to promote media literacy.


Written Question
Internet: Safety
Monday 11th July 2022

Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what research they have undertaken on the effectiveness of different types of media literacy initiatives in tackling (1) misinformation, and (2) disinformation.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

On 16 April 2022, DCMS published the Year 2 Online Media Literacy Action Plan, setting out our media literacy work programme for the financial year 2022/23. The Action Plan announced that DCMS is establishing a media literacy research programme to bridge evidence gaps about the effectiveness of media literacy interventions, which includes initiatives tackling misinformation and disinformation. We will report on the progress of the Action Plan in due course.


Written Question
Streaming
Wednesday 8th June 2022

Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what information gathering powers they intend to give to Ofcom to assess streaming services’ audience protection arrangements; and whether they will ask Ofcom to assess whether platforms are basing age ratings on UK standards to prevent children seeing inappropriate programmes.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Ofcom will be given the necessary information-gathering and enforcement powers to fulfil a new ongoing duty to assess Ofcom-regulated video-on-demand providers’ audience protection measures and ensure that the systems put in place are effective and fit for purpose. As the independent regulator, it will be for Ofcom to determine how that assessment is carried out.


Written Question
Pornography: Internet
Wednesday 8th June 2022

Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Online Safety Bill will contain provisions to enable Ofcom (1) to proactively investigate pornography websites' compliance with the law, and (2) to take swift enforcement action where necessary.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Ofcom will have a range of robust powers at its disposal to help it assess compliance with the Bill. Ofcom will have the power to require information from regulated companies and relevant third parties, to interview employees, to require a company to undertake, and pay for, a skilled person’s report, to enter and inspect companies’ premises, and to carry out audits on services to assess compliance. Ofcom will need to take a proportionate approach in exercising these powers, and will be able to use information from a wide range of sources to help prioritise its investigation and enforcement activity.

Ofcom will also have robust enforcement powers to take action against companies which fail to comply. Those powers will include being able to require companies to take action to come into compliance or remedy any breach, impose fines and, in exceptional circumstances, to apply to the Court for business disruption measures to block or restrict access to non-compliant services. The Bill also provides for interim business disruption measures, which will provide a fast track, where appropriate, to blocking measures.


Written Question
Pornography: Internet
Wednesday 8th June 2022

Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Online Safety Bill will address the widespread availability of (1) sexually violent, or (2) abusive pornography, online that would not be approved for sale on DVD.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Online Safety Bill principally applies to services that allow users to post content online or to interact with each other, and to search engines. Where commercial pornography websites facilitate user-generated content, they will have to deliver the illegal content duties under the Bill and, where the service is likely to be accessed by children, to protect them from harmful content. These will ensure that all platforms in scope of the Bill tackle illegal user-generated content on their services, including extreme pornography and prohibited images of children.

Where the illegal content is not user-generated but rather is created and published by the relevant company on its own site, then that website service is likely to be committing an offence so will potentially be liable for prosecution. Part 5 of the Bill creates a new duty on providers of published pornography, which includes some dedicated commercial pornography websites, to protect children from accessing pornographic content.


Written Question
Pornography: Internet
Wednesday 8th June 2022

Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Online Safety Bill will ensure that commercial pornography websites do not carry any illegal content, such as (1) extreme pornography, or (2) prohibited images of children.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Online Safety Bill principally applies to services that allow users to post content online or to interact with each other, and to search engines. Where commercial pornography websites facilitate user-generated content, they will have to deliver the illegal content duties under the Bill and, where the service is likely to be accessed by children, to protect them from harmful content. These will ensure that all platforms in scope of the Bill tackle illegal user-generated content on their services, including extreme pornography and prohibited images of children.

Where the illegal content is not user-generated but rather is created and published by the relevant company on its own site, then that website service is likely to be committing an offence so will potentially be liable for prosecution. Part 5 of the Bill creates a new duty on providers of published pornography, which includes some dedicated commercial pornography websites, to protect children from accessing pornographic content.


Written Question
Gambling: Advertising
Tuesday 12th April 2022

Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to introduce restrictions on gambling advertising following the completion of their review of gambling regulation.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Her Majesty’s Government is reviewing the Gambling Act to make sure it is fit for the digital age. We have been clear, however, that work to raise standards and tackle gambling-related harm should continue alongside the review, and does not need to wait for it to be concluded. We are determined to protect those at risk of gambling related-harm and welcome the new measures announced by the Advertising Standards Authority further to reduce the appeal of gambling adverts to children and to ensure that the content of gambling adverts is appropriate for the age-restricted nature of the products.

As part of the broad scope of the review, we called for evidence on the potential benefits or harms of allowing licensed gambling operators to advertise, engage in sponsorship arrangements, and make promotional offers. We are currently considering the evidence carefully and will publish a White Paper outlining our conclusions and any proposals for reform in the coming weeks.


Written Question
Gambling: Advertising
Tuesday 12th April 2022

Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the decision by the Advertising Standards Authority to ban gambling adverts featuring footballers and other sports personalities.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Her Majesty’s Government is reviewing the Gambling Act to make sure it is fit for the digital age. We have been clear, however, that work to raise standards and tackle gambling-related harm should continue alongside the review, and does not need to wait for it to be concluded. We are determined to protect those at risk of gambling related-harm and welcome the new measures announced by the Advertising Standards Authority further to reduce the appeal of gambling adverts to children and to ensure that the content of gambling adverts is appropriate for the age-restricted nature of the products.

As part of the broad scope of the review, we called for evidence on the potential benefits or harms of allowing licensed gambling operators to advertise, engage in sponsorship arrangements, and make promotional offers. We are currently considering the evidence carefully and will publish a White Paper outlining our conclusions and any proposals for reform in the coming weeks.


Written Question
Gambling
Thursday 7th April 2022

Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the cumulative cost to the Exchequer of gambling-related harm since May 2010.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Public Health England’s (PHE) evidence review of gambling-related harms reported that 0.5% of the adult population reached the threshold to be considered ‘problem gamblers’ (defined as those gambling with negative consequences and a possible loss of control), and that this proportion has remained relatively consistent since 2012. PHE’s review also included estimates on the costs associated with gambling-related harm. On costs to the Exchequer, the report estimated the annual direct costs associated with people who are problem gamblers to be approximately £647 million, but was unable to make a direct assessment of the costs caused by gambling-related harm.

Additional data on problem gambling prevalence comes from the Gambling Commission’s quarterly participation and prevalence survey, the latest results of which were published in February. The survey found that in the year to December 2021, the overall problem gambling rate was statistically stable at 0.3%, compared to the year to December 2020. In the year to December 2019, the rate was 0.6%.

Our Review of the Gambling Act aims to ensure that the protections in place to prevent harm are appropriate and effective for the digital age. It is looking at issues regarding research as part of its broad scope.