Online Safety

Lord Winston Excerpts

Thursday 16th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I hope the noble Lord does not get caught out from his search terms. Of course, he is absolutely right that part of this is about education and making people aware of what is there. I suspect that, as this gets introduced over the course of this year and enforcement starts, awareness will rise, and it will be incredibly important to include education as well.

[Lord Winston (Lab)]

My Lords, will my noble friend the Minister kindly tell the House how the Government can ensure that the people who are putting their dates of birth online are actually the people who are putting their dates of birth online? How do we ensure that accuracy?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for his question. I am not able to give him a technical answer on exactly how that is done. There are verification systems in place to ensure that, and indeed there are more detailed verification systems coming online in terms of children’s ages. That is something that Ofcom is pursuing, but I will find a more detailed answer for him.