Digital Safety: Children Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Science, Innovation & Technology
Gavin Williamson
Main Page: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)Department Debates - View all Gavin Williamson's debates with the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology
(2 days, 17 hours ago)
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Kanishka Narayan
My hon. Friend has been extremely thoughtful before in relation to these issues, and I agree with what she has said. In my experience with young people and families, parental controls have not been easy to engage with, and nor have they been completely effective in driving down the harm in question. As for the effectiveness of what we have announced today, there is clear evidence that age assurance at device level has already been effective in some instances. The technology also appears to be pretty effective in understanding nudity and therefore blocking it. We are looking at that precisely, because we think it is radically more effective than age assurance just at the level of the application. I will continue to bear my hon. Friend’s lessons in mind.
Sir Gavin Williamson (Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge) (Con)
In my constituency, this issue is of real concern to parents as well as children. Some of the big tech companies seem to resemble the big tobacco companies of the 1960s. We have had a great deal of briefing from the Government, and we have had an announcement that was not made in the House. Will the Minister commit himself to coming to the House when the guidance is ready, to set out exactly and clearly the steps that the Government will continue to take to give real reassurance to the parents in my constituency who are so concerned about this matter?
Kanishka Narayan
The Government are already committed to a conversation as well as a vote in the House on the substantive question of the consultation. I will ensure that there is even fuller scope for engagement in the Chamber on the full set of questions that the right hon. Member has raised.