Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure children use AI safely.

The Government takes the safety of children extremely seriously. We recognise the potential risks that AI systems pose, and that is why strong protections apply to them. Under the Online Safety Act, in-scope AI services must assess the risk of harm to users from illegal content on their services and implement measures to manage and mitigate this risk. Where services are likely to be accessed by children, they will be required to take action to protect them from harmful content.

The Government has been clear that it will continue to take further action where required. We have introduced new offences in the Crime and Policing Bill to criminalise AI tools designed to generate child sexual abuse material. Additionally, the Secretary of State has confirmed in Parliament that the Government is exploring how emerging services, such as AI chatbots, interact with the Online Safety Act and what further measures may be required.