Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what research they have conducted on children’s access to pornographic content online; what plans they have to conduct research on such access; and whether they have monitored whether there has been any increased access to such material by children during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to ensuring children are protected from accessing inappropriate content online. The British Board of Film Classification, while designated as the age verification regulator under the Digital Economy Act, commissioned research on children’s access to pornographic content online. The research, published in early 2020, explored young people’s interactions with, and attitudes towards, online pornography and age verification. We will continue to develop our evidence base on online harms ahead of the implementation of the new online harms regulatory framework.
As a result of Covid-19 lockdown measures we expect more people, including children, to be spending more time online. Although it is too early to confidently analyse patterns from this period, there is universal concern about child online safety. We are working closely with technology companies, law enforcement and civil society to monitor trends, and to support users to understand and manage the risks and benefits of being online during this period.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether there is a requirement for the same protections that exist for content in cinemas and on DVDs to be present for online content; and whether they are working with the film industry to seek the voluntary adoption of British Board of Film Classification age ratings for online content.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Government is committed to making the UK the safest place in the world to be online. While adoption of the British Board of Film Classification’s best practice age ratings by online platforms is currently voluntary, we welcome Netflix’s commitment to work towards complete coverage and support the BBFC’s drive to encourage other Video On Demand platforms to follow suit. By doing so, this will provide consumers with well recognised age ratings and consumer advice.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the report on the impact and effectiveness of the regulatory framework provided for in Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 will be published.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As the government announced on 16 October last year, we will not be commencing Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 and its provisions on age verification for online pornography. Instead the online harms regime will include provisions to protect children from inappropriate content, including online pornography. The requirement for a report on the impact and effectiveness of the regulatory framework set out in Section 29 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 will therefore not be brought into force.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to use the £330 million fund drawn from dormant bank and building society accounts, announced on 4 January, to provide emergency funding to well-governed charitable organisations which find themselves in financial difficulty as a result of changes to local authority funding structures.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The release of £330m of dormant accounts announced on 4 January will be used to help the homeless, disadvantaged young people, financial inclusion initiatives and other good causes in the UK over the next four years. The government will work closely with the Big Lottery Fund, as well as a range of social sector and private sector partners to develop these initiatives over the coming months, and further details on how these funds will be distributed will be announced this year. The government remains committed to a thriving and sustainable voluntary, community and social enterprise sector.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government by what specific process charitable organisations should apply for funds to be disbursed from the £330 million fund drawn from dormant bank and building society accounts, which was announced on 4 January.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The release of £330m of dormant accounts announced on 4 January will be used to help the homeless, disadvantaged young people, financial inclusion initiatives and other good causes in the UK over the next four years. The government will work closely with the Big Lottery Fund, as well as a range of social sector and private sector partners to develop these initiatives over the coming months, and further details on how these funds will be distributed will be announced this year. The government remains committed to a thriving and sustainable voluntary, community and social enterprise sector.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to disburse the £330 million of funding made available from dormant bank and building society accounts, which was announced on 4 January.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The release of £330m of dormant accounts announced on 4 January will be used to help the homeless, disadvantaged young people, financial inclusion initiatives and other good causes in the UK over the next four years. The government will work closely with the Big Lottery Fund, as well as a range of social sector and private sector partners to develop these initiatives over the coming months, and further details on how these funds will be distributed will be announced this year. The government remains committed to a thriving and sustainable voluntary, community and social enterprise sector.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether their forthcoming internet safety strategy will address the harms of pornography to adults, including to their interpersonal relationships; whether any measures to mitigate such harms were included in the Internet Safety Strategy green paper published in October 2017; and, if not, why not.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
Evidence has shown that the easy availability and nature of online pornography is changing the way children understand healthy relationships, sex and consent. The Digital Economy Act 2017 will require commercial providers of online pornography to have robust age verification controls in place to prevent children from accessing pornographic material online, as is already the case offline. We do not have plans to restrict adults' access to this content and this issue was not specifically highlighted in the Internet Safety Strategy.
The Strategy does look more widely at how we can build users' digital literacy skills and includes initiatives which will help users access the benefits of the Internet, while managing potential risks.