Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of online safety protections for vulnerable adults, including neurodivergent adults such as those with autism and ADHD; and whether she plans to take steps to improve safeguarding and platform accountability.

The Online Safety Act places legal duties on platforms to make their services safer for all users, including vulnerable adults and those that are neurodivergent.

Services are required to protect users from illegal content and activity online, which may impact vulnerable adults disproportionately. In addition, the largest services will also have additional duties put on them, to offer adults user empowerment tools. These will allow adults to have greater control over their online experience.

Ofcom has robust enforcement powers and we have been clear that Ofcom has the government’s full backing to take enforcement action.

We continue to build on the Act to keep users safe online, such as making content that promotes self-harm priority offences.