Asked by: Alison Hume (Labour - Scarborough and Whitby)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to ensure that people in rural areas remain connected during the digital switch over.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The digital switchover is an industry led programme, but we do not want anyone to be excluded by virtue of the programme. That is why customers, including in rural communities, will not have their landlines migrated to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) without an available stable internet connection (VoIP only requires a minimum speed of 0.5mbps) and communication providers agreed a checklist of steps to protect vulnerable customers during the migration in November 2024. This includes landline dependent customers in rural communities.
Asked by: Alison Hume (Labour - Scarborough and Whitby)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure the safety of young people on social media.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Our priority is the effective implementation of the Online Safety Act so that users benefit from its wide-reaching protections.
The Act requires all services in scope to take steps to protect users, including children, from illegal content and criminal behaviour. In addition, those likely to be accessed by children will also need to provide additional safety measures to protect them from harmful and age-inappropriate content.
Ofcom also has duty to promote media literacy to help the public understand the nature and impact of harmful content and online behaviour.