Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has received communications from social media companies on the effectiveness of measures aimed at preventing child users from viewing content only appropriate for adults.

DSIT has regular discussions with social media companies about online safety matters, including protecting children from accessing harmful content.

Under the Online Safety Act, in-scope services must implement measures to protect children from illegal and harmful content. Measures include implementing age assurance to prevent children encountering the most harmful content such as pornography. Ofcom is the regulator of the Act and can take robust enforcement action against services failing to comply with their duties. Ofcom’s analysis shows over 6000 services now use age assurance.

We expect Ofcom to publish data this year on children’s online experiences since the child safety duties came into force.