Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to (a) ensure that young people are only able to access age appropriate internet and social media sites and (b) hold sites to account when they expose children to inappropriate content.
Answered by Matt Warman
In April we published the Online Harms White Paper, which set out our plans for world-leading legislation to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. We intend to establish in law a new duty of care on companies towards their users, overseen by an independent regulator.
Alongside the White Paper, Government published the Social Media Code of Practice. This voluntary guidance sets out actions that the Government believes social media platforms should take to prevent bullying, insulting, intimidating and humiliating behaviours on their sites. The Code is also relevant to other sites hosting user-generated content and comments. We are aware that many social media companies meet the standards set out in the Code of Practice, although Government does not actively monitor this.
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure that (a) Facebook, (b) Snapchat and (c) other internet sites remove inappropriate posts that bully and cause harm to individuals and groups.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Online Harms White Paper sets out our plans for world-leading legislation to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. We intend to establish in law a new duty of care on companies towards their users, overseen by an independent regulator. The duty of care will ensure companies have appropriate systems and processes in place to deal with harmful content on their services to keep their users safe. Compliance with this duty of care will be overseen and enforced by an independent regulator. Companies will be held to account for tackling a comprehensive set of online harms, including cyberbullying.
Alongside the White Paper, we also published the Social Media Code of Practice. This sets out actions that the Government believes social media platforms should take to prevent bullying, insulting, intimidating and humiliating behaviours on their sites.
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what his policy is on the future of Channel 4.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The government wants to ensure a strong and secure future for Channel 4 in what is a fast-changing and challenging broadcasting environment. The government is looking at a broad range of options, including those proposed by Channel 4’s leadership.
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will undertake an evaluation of the effectiveness of the self-exclusion pilot schemes introduced by bookmakers in Medway and Glasgow.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Evaluation into the effectiveness of the self-exclusion pilot schemes introduced by bookmakers in Medway and Glasgow is being carried out by the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB). From April 2016 all bookmakers will have to offer self exclusion schemes as part of a condition of their licence andlessons from these pilot schemes will feed into the final model adopted by the bookmaking sector. The Gambling Commission will be responsible for ensuring compliance with this new licence condition and the Government will take an active interest in the schemes effectiveness.
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will introduce for the rest of the UK equivalent powers as those proposed in the Scotland Bill on fixed odds betting terminals.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The Scotland Bill would give the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Ministers the power to vary the number of sub-category B2 gaming machines (FOBTs) permitted by new betting premises licences. The UK Government would retain the equivalent powers on FOBTs for the rest of the UK, except for Northern Ireland where gambling is a devolved matter.
In line with our commitment in the St David's Day Agreement, the UK Government is giving careful consideration to whethernon-fiscal recommendations from Lord Smith's commission on devolving powers should be implemented for Wales.