Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of children’s exposure to commercial pornographic material and explicit user generated content on social networks during the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government recognises that the measures required to tackle COVID-19 mean it is likely that more people are spending more time online, including children and young people. Research published by the British Board of Film Classification in May this year found that 47% of children and teens have seen content that they wished they had not seen during lockdown. We will continue to work with technology companies, civil society and academia to understand the risk and the impact to the safety of children online during this period.
Under our world-leading online harms proposals, we expect companies to use age assurance or age verification technologies to prevent children from accessing services which pose the highest risk of harm to children, such as online pornography, including pornography on social media. We would encourage companies to take steps ahead of the legislation to protect children from harmful and age inappropriate content online. We are working closely with stakeholders across industry to establish the right conditions for the market to deliver age assurance and age verification technical solutions ahead of the legislative requirements coming into force.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support and further develop tech and digital industries in coastal areas such as Eastbourne.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The government is committed to ensuring that the UK has a thriving digital economy throughout the country, including coastal towns such as Eastbourne.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of progress on increasing the provision of access services on video on demand content; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The provision of access services on video on demand content has increased in recent years, according to the 2015 Authority for Television on Demand report which can be found here: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/broadcast/on-demand/access-european/AS_survey_report_2015.pdf. The evidence in this report is supported by dialogue with broadcasters, content providers and platform operators, who fed back to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in Autumn 2015.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department plans to take to increase the provision of access services on video on demand content; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The provision of access services on video on demand content has increased in recent years, according to the 2015 Authority for Television on Demand report which can be found here: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/broadcast/on-demand/access-european/AS_survey_report_2015.pdf. The evidence in this report is supported by dialogue with broadcasters, content providers and platform operators, who fed back to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in Autumn 2015.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what training his Department has provided to staff on the family test; what other steps he has taken to raise awareness of the family test among staff of his Department; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Family Test was announced by the Prime Minister in August 2014 and introduced in October 2014. DWP published guidance for Departments and officials on how the test should be applied when formulating policy and my Department follows that guidance -FamilyTestGuidance.
Officials in my Department have liaised with DWP as the lead Department for the Family Test to embed it into the policy process. This could include training officials on applying the Test and disseminating relevant evidence, learning materials and best practice.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department has taken to implement the family test; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Officials in my Department have liaised with DWP as the lead Department for the Family Test to embed it and encourage routine use of the Test. Thiscould includetraining officials on applying the Test, disseminating relevantevidence, learning materials and best practice.