Online Harm: Child Protection
Debate between Victoria Collins and Kanishka Narayan(1 week, 1 day ago)
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Kanishka Narayan
The Government are seeing both urgency and responsibility in the correspondence that we are receiving and the consultation we are engaging with, not the desperate lurch to a specific answer that the Liberal Democrats are exemplifying in this instance. I want to take this opportunity to set out our approach.
Victoria Collins (Harpenden and Berkhamsted) (LD)
I say gently to the Minister that if he were to look at the Liberal Democrat’s track record over the past few years, he will see that we have worked really hard to put forward concrete proposals about putting online safety first.
Victoria Collins
No, but we have tried to push that agenda. It is not as if social media came into existence yesterday—Facebook was launched 22 years ago—and the Government brought forward the consultation after pressure from across the House. So I say gently to the Minister that we are trying to work together and that we want to continue to work together in that vein.
Kanishka Narayan
I take the hon. Member’s point about wanting to work together. The Government are committed to doing exactly that. It is not a question of whether we act, but how we implement specific changes to secure our children’s future. I encourage her and the entire Liberal Democrat party to engage with the consultation.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Victoria Collins and Kanishka Narayan(2 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Victoria Collins (Harpenden and Berkhamsted) (LD)
I join colleagues in wishing you and everyone a merry Christmas, and my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Vikki Slade) a happy birthday.
Alongside online harassment, online fraud is also on the rise. Nobody wants a broken heart for Christmas, and online romance fraud is not only ruining lives but emptying bank accounts. Liberal Democrat analysis has shown that romance fraud has more than tripled in the last decade, but the Government’s fraud strategy has been delayed and Labour’s proposals in opposition, which looked at ensuring that there was joint financial responsibility to victims for social media giants, has now vanished. Does the Minister agree that those online social media giants must do more to tackle the scams and also agree with Liberal Democrat calls that they be financially responsible for the fraud that takes place on their platforms?
Kanishka Narayan
While love might be in the air at this festive moment, we want to make sure that it is financially responsible. In that spirit, therefore, I will continue to engage with both the regulator and platforms to ensure that the existing provisions of the Online Safety Act are robustly enforced when it comes to online fraud and scams, which so many of us experience both directly and indirectly through our constituents.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Victoria Collins and Kanishka Narayan(3 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Victoria Collins (Harpenden and Berkhamsted) (LD)
I would like to join hon. Members in really pushing on questions about AI chatbots. Their human-like, assertive nature is filling a gap and many people, including children, are entrusting chatbots with medical opinions, legal advice and emotional support, with fatal consequences and without clear accountability. I know that this has been touched on, but it is really important. Ofcom explicitly includes only user to user or search, so one to one, which is actually where there are some of the most acute harms, is not covered. Will the Minister commit to working with Ofcom on classification, so we can ensure the responsible use of this technology and protect children from the unregulated harms of the growing dependence on chatbots?
Kanishka Narayan
Let me be very clear: of course we will. We have already both engaged with Ofcom and commissioned further work on this question, and we will report on that at the earliest opportunity.