Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to help tackle online abuse against young people.

The Online Safety Act contains robust provisions to protect young people from online abuse.

Under the Online Safety Act, platforms must protect all users from illegal harassment and content and children from harmful content, including hateful and abusive content. These provisions are already in force, and Ofcom has robust enforcement powers for platforms who fail to fulfil their duties.

The Act will also require the largest categorised services to offer adults user empowerment tools to enable them to reduce engagement with abusive content. Ofcom will be consulting on these user empowerment tools this year.

We continually monitor the Act’s impact and effectiveness to ensure all users are protected online.