Oral Answers to Questions

Anna McMorrin Excerpts

Thursday 17th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

If this long-awaited consultation is to have impact and be of good use, it should consult on a wide range of issues, some of which should be the non-binary issues.

[Anna McMorrin (Cardiff North) (Lab)]

9. What discussions she has had with social media companies on tackling gendered online abuse on their platforms.

[The Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries (Margot James)]

The Government are committed to making the UK the safest place to be online. Ministers and officials at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport have had meetings with a range of social media companies to discuss abuse, including misogynistic abuse, on online platforms as part of our consultation on internet safety, to which we will respond imminently.

[Anna McMorrin]

I thank the Minister for her answer. Half of all girls in the UK suffer online abuse and are bullied on social media. Girls are being told what to wear. They are being told to shut up about their opinions. They are being told about how they look. Is it not about time this Government take a serious look at this awful sexism and seek to regulate social media platforms?

[Margot James]

I very much share the hon. Lady’s strong opinions, which are based on the facts: girls are intimidated and bullied disproportionately online, for all the reasons she sets out. I urge her to wait a very short time for our response to the internet safety consultation, which I trust will be robust.