Asked by: Lord Gilbert of Panteg (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to facilitate the sharing of information on child abuse between social media companies; and whether such plans will include reforming data protection law.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
We are working across Government and engaging industry to prevent all forms of online child sexual exploitation and abuse.
The Government is continuing to engage with technology companies around the Voluntary Principles to Counter Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, a framework of principles launched by the Five Country Ministerial partners in March 2020. These are a set of 11 actions tech firms should take to ensure children are not sexually exploited on their platforms, Principle 10 includes how companies should support opportunities to share relevant expertise, helpful practices, data and tools where appropriate and feasible.
The Technology Coalition brings together companies across the technology industry, including social media companies, and have announced their work on Project Protect. Project Protect sets out their plans for technological innovation and sharing best practices across industry to prevent and eradicate child sexual exploitation and abuse. Government officials are engaging with the Technology Coalition on their priorities and upcoming work on this project.
Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport has recently published a £2.4m Invitation to Tender for a new project to address barriers to data sharing and support innovation and competition in the detection of online harm, as part of the National Data Strategy. As part of the project, the provider will analyse the current data landscape and the economic and social benefits of opening up online harms data, and then test a number of potential practical solutions.
The Government and the Information Commissioner’s Office keep legislation under constant review to ensure it keeps pace with technical and societal changes. There are powers in the Data Protection Act 2018, overseen by Parliament, to make changes using secondary legislation where appropriate.