Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will include online gaming platforms in the UK Government’s code of practice for social media providers and if she will bake the code legally binding.

On 11 October the Government set out plans to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. The Internet Safety Strategy green paper considers options for working with online platforms, game publishers, game developers and with agencies such as the Video Standards Council Rating Board, to continue to improve online safety in games.

Through the Strategy consultation we have sought views on a number of online safety initiatives, including working with the video games industry to share guidance and best practice to help ensure their consumers can have a safe and enjoyable experience online. The Strategy also highlighted the announcement made by Home Secretary to create an Online Hate Crime Hub that will ensure that victims of online hate crime have their cases effectively and efficiently investigated.

The consultation closed in December and we are now analysing the responses. A government response will be published in due course. Details of Ministerial meetings can be found on Gov.uk.