Online Safety Legislation: Abuse on Social Media

Baroness Hussein-Ece Excerpts

Thursday 5th September 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, I think that we are in danger of downplaying the significance of the Online Safety Act. It is a trail-blazing Act; the noble Baroness was very much involved in it. Our priority has to be to get that Act implemented. Under it, all user-to-user services and search providers, regardless of size, will have to take swift and effective action against illegal content, including criminal online abuse and posts of a sexual nature. We should get behind Ofcom and the Online Safety Act, and we will then obviously have to keep that Act under review, but we have the tools to do that.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

My Lords—

[Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, we will hear from the Lib Dem Benches and then from the Conservative Benches.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

I thank the noble Lord. Does the Minister agree—

[Noble Lords]

This side.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

I am getting used to being heckled.

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, we will hear from the Lib Dem Benches now and then from the Conservative Benches.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

Does the Minister agree that digital literacy is crucial, so that people are better able to identify often damaging misinformation and fake news? What is the Government’s strategy in that respect?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

The noble Baroness makes an important point. Part of Ofcom’s responsibility is to heighten the role of media literacy. We are talking to the Department for Education, and obviously there is a role for schools to be involved in all this—but parents also have to take responsibility for their children, and for their access to these sites. The media literacy role that we have to play goes right throughout society; it is the responsibility of all of us to make sure that people understand, when they access these sites, what they are able to see and how all that can be moderated. Again, the social media companies have a particular responsibility to play in all that. We expect them to uphold their terms of service to make sure that children cannot access the sites that are inappropriate, and we will work with them to make sure that this happens.