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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish (a) the social media companies, (b) other online platforms and (c) experts on online harms that his Department consulted with in the process of formulating the guidance entitled Online Safety Guidance if you own or manage an online platform, published on 29 June 2021.

The voluntary, non-statutory guidance entitled ‘Online Safety Guidance if you own or manage an online platform’ published by the Government is targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and at start-up organisations, specifically those that are likely to be in scope of future Online Safety legislation. The guidance was developed in consultation with relevant SMEs and start-ups to understand their needs and to frame the guidance in the most user-friendly and effective way. This included multiple rounds of user research and feedback on how information should be presented.

We are unable to publicly name individual companies that took part in user testing, due to the approach agreed with these organisations when they took part in the research. DCMS also worked with relevant industry bodies who represent hundreds of SME and start-up organisations to draw up the content for the guidance. This includes Tech Nation, the Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec), the Federation of Small Businesses, the Independent Game Developers' Association (Tiga) and the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE), as well as subject matter experts in government and civil society.