Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps his Department has taken to tackle the spread of disinformation and fake news online.
Answered by Margot James
Disinformation is one of the harms in scope of the new regulatory framework for online safety, announced in the Online Harms White Paper. Under this framework, companies will be expected to take proactive but proportionate measures to limit the spread of disinformation on their platforms and help their users understand the information they are receiving.
The White Paper also sets out our plans to develop an Online Media Literacy Strategy to empower users to manage their online safety and make informed choices about online content. We are currently consulting on the measures proposed in the White Paper, and will provide more detail on our approach to tackling disinformation in the Government response to that consultation, which we intend to publish by the end of the year.
We are also considering a wide range of other initiatives to tackle the spread of disinformation and build our population’s resilience. This includes further research to understand the scale, scope and impact of disinformation, as well as continuing work with the tech sector to develop technological responses and strengthen the online environment.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle social isolation in older people through the digital sector.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities
Government is committed to helping older people acquire basic digital skills as part of its broader strategy to reduce digital exclusion, as outlined in the Digital Strategy. Through its £400,000 Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund, the Government is supporting three pilot projects aimed at addressing the digital exclusion of older and disabled people. There is evidence that tackling digital exclusion helps mitigate social isolation; The Future Digital Inclusion Programme, funded by DfE and run by Good Things Foundation, shows that 61% are less lonely and 76% feel more connected following involvement in the programme.
Government’s £1million Tech to Connect challenge prize, delivered by Nesta, will fund organisations to tackle social isolation using tech innovation. This will benefit a broad range of groups including older people.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps is he taking to ensure that social media companies tackle the advertising of online sales of knives and other weapons used in violent crime.
Answered by Margot James
Tackling serious violence is a top priority for the government through measures set out in the Serious Violence Strategy and further initiatives to tackle knife crime and serious violence more generally, including the Offensive Weapons Act which received Royal Assent on 16 May.
The Online Harms White Paper, published in April, sets out plans for a regulatory framework to further ensure companies take action to address online harmful behaviour, including the sale of weapons and other illegal goods and services. A new statutory duty of care will require companies to take more responsibility for harm caused by content or activity on their services. Compliance with this duty of care will be overseen and enforced by an independent regulator. The regulator will issue codes of practice on what companies need to do to fulfil their duty of care, working with law enforcement for codes of practice on illegal harms to ensure they adequately keep pace with the threat.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to ensure the safety of children and young people online.
Answered by Margot James
The DCMS and Home Office Online Harms White Paper, due to be published in the coming weeks , will contain a range of legislative and non-legislative measures, setting out definitive plans to tackle a wide range of harms that users, including children and young people face online.
DCMS have worked closely with the Department for Education on the new Relationships and Sex Education curriculum guidance to ensure that relationships in digital environments are represented and children are educated about staying safe online.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will announce a timetable for the Independent Review into the secondary ticketing market.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The Government will be appointing an independent chair for the review, and will make an announcement on this as soon as possible. It will be the responsibility of the chair to set out the timetable for conducting the review, which is due to report back to government by May 2016.